REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NATIONAL TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NATIONAL TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, CLONMEL, CO. TIPPERARY
Dia dhíbh a cháirde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh i Cluain Meala inniu. Míle buíochas díbh as an chaoin chuireadh.
I am delighted to have been invited to join in Clonmel’s celebration of the official opening of the National Training and Development Institute centre here at Roseville. In fact I received invitations from fifty people to be here! I get a lot of invitations but rarely fifty invitations to the same event so I was already expecting something very special – a place that provokes great pride and joy in people and that is exactly what you have created here. This place seems very different from that which Aileen Atchenson depicts in her beautiful poem ‘Roseville’ when she refers to it (Roseville) as “empty, shuttered, lonely.” It does however seem very much the place she later describes as “indomitable, proud yet homely.”
There was a time in Ireland and not that long ago when Irish citizens with disabilities might have described their lives in terms of emptiness and loneliness, shut off from opportunity and from the chance to fully reveal and use their abilities, genius and skill. Those times are changing as opportunities and attitudes open up, creating a much more exciting and empowering landscape focussed on ability and transcending disability. Not only does the individual benefit, but we all benefit because our natural talent base is no longer being wasted but is being revealed and harnessed.
Education and training lie at the very heart of access to our own potential as individuals and our collective power as a people. The National Training and Development Institute’s importance to the people who come here to Roseville and to the many other centres it operates as part of Rehab, cannot be over-emphasised and it is now Ireland’s largest non-Governmental training organisation, investing in people, introducing them to their own talents, opening doors to much more fulfilled futures.
Whether it is in the Rehabilitative or Vocational Training the message you provide is the same. Roseville can help you do adapt, to develop new skills, to gain confidence, to assist you in preparing to enter or re-enter the workforce. Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sé – encourage children and they will blossom. We adults are every bit the same and here in this place you help people with disabilities blossom, to live full and satisfying lives and not lives half-lived, or wasted through under-achievement because of lack of opportunity. I’m reminded of the beautiful words of T S Eliot who spoke of missed opportunity when he said:
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
Because of what you do here, and more importantly the way that you do it, opportunities that weren’t readily available before Roseville came to being, now are, and the lives of many people have been touched by you and many more will be in the years ahead.
It is of great importance that Irish society understands that men and women, boys and girls with disabilities have the same needs and fundamental rights as any other group in our society. The right to participate fully in the life of their communities, to develop their own talents, to put their abilities to work for themselves and others, these are essential hallmarks of an inclusive society and in this country we strive to achieve that truly inclusive society - our Constitution sets us the task of achieving “the dignity and freedom of the individual” and “true social order.” Each and every one of us possesses our own special God given talents. What makes a life happy is the discovery of those talents, the experience of watching them grow and blossom. They are our most wonderful natural resource and if they are wasted, the individual is destined to live a lost, tragic life and society generally is destined to be impoverished and diminished by the waste of that talent.
Your work here brings us one step closer to a truly inclusive society, to “true social order” in which difference is approached not in fear, but with a joyful sense of curiosity towards the wonderful gifts that everyone has to offer, if we are only willing to help create effective and equal opportunity. We still have some way to go before that fully inclusive equal opportunity society is real but we are lucky to be living through times of much greater possibilities and much greater wisdom. The work done here is at the centre of our country’s journey, an essential stepping stone for those with disability, a sure guide for all citizens.
I commend each and every one of you who embarked on this journey of building community capacity for growth and development through the strengthening of our brothers and sisters with disability. You have much to be proud of and the rest of us have much to thank you for. May your work and faith be vindicated by the many people whose lives you touch and enhance and change because of what you do here. Ever since Dr. Pat O’Callaghan, the Olympic Medal winner, lived here this place has had the ring of success about it and please God NTDI will enjoy equally great success in its endeavours here in the years ahead through the hard work of the clients and of Teresa Moran, Manager and the strong team that make up Roseville. With the wonderful level of support Roseville receives from the local community, including hugely important support from the business community, it is not so hard after all to see why I received all those invitations and why this is such a day of excitement and achievement.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh agus gúim rath Dé air sa todhchaí. Go raibh maith agaibh.