REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE FOUNTAIN STREET COMMUNITY CENTRE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE FOUNTAIN STREET COMMUNITY CENTRE STRABANE, CO TYRONE
Cuireann sé áthas ar mo chroí bheith anseo libh inniu agus tá mé buíoch díbh go léir as fáilte fíorchaoin a chur sibh romham.
I am delighted to be with you today to officially open this wonderful new community centre. Thank you for inviting me and for welcoming me so warmly.
This centre is an exceptional achievement by any standards. For an area that has known such hardship and deprivation over the years, it is little short of a miracle. But then Fountain Street Community Development Association is full of miracle-workers, full of people who know the importance of community, the importance of hope. In this room are so many individuals who have worked tirelessly, who have persevered even when it seemed pointless, whose enthusiasm and commitment kept the dream of this day alive. It is a great day and it is great to have this opportunity to share it with you.
We’ve seen quite a few miracles in this part of the world in recent times. These are times which challenge us to seize the potential which the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement offers, for creating a renewed dynamic, bringing a deep-rooted peace, justice, equality and prosperity to all the people who share this island. Now, with the re-establishment of the Executive, we have a fresh chance to forge the type of respectful partnerships which are our surest, our only, guarantee of a lasting peace.
Here in this Community Centre, you are no strangers to the importance of partnership. Indeed, your motto of ‘Ní neart go cur le chéile’ – there is no strength without unity – is one which I have used time and again myself. I have seen how communities, drained of confidence by years of poverty and rejection, have been transformed by local people coming together, refusing to accept past inevitabilities, refusing to accept that their children are less entitled to a decent future than others in society and most important of all refusing to give in to the counsel of despair and cynicism which would paralyse you into doing nothing or giving up. The cynics see the problems around them and lament - what a mess - but you see problems and say what can I do and what can we do together to change things for the better. The cynics achieve little or nothing. The doers sow the seeds from which a better future grows. They show how a few individuals can galvanise and restore hope to an entire community. Here in this community group, you have tapped in to funding from the Department of the Environment, the Social Exclusion Unit of the DHSS, Strabane District Council and the local District Partnership to build this centre. Our thanks are due to all of those organisations, but especially to the local people whose vision and tenacity saw this project through to completion.
The building of this centre is in itself a terrific achievement and you are entitled to take pride in the skills that produced it and the many skills learnt in the building of it. These things are now in themselves important new resources. Through this building you dare to imagine and deliver new opportunities at the heart of this community. This building will come alive – promoting education and training in the area, providing meeting rooms for local groups, organising cultural classes, offering computer training facilities, providing creche and play areas for children. The centre will become a focal point for developing the full potential of this area, a place of advice and support, a place where different groups share expertise and experience and where plans are turned into reality. It will change people’s lives and it will change the future of their community. Every community starts out as a random collection of individuals and houses. To weave them into a caring and sharing community where people care about each other and matter to each other is the work of special people. It is their work we are celebrating here today.
I would like to warmly congratulate everyone involved in the Community Development Committee, and indeed the wider local community, on this achievement. It is my great pleasure to now officially open Fountain Street Community Centre. I wish you every success in all your future work.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh agus guím rath agus séan oraibh go léir san am atá le teacht. Go raibh maith agaibh.