REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE SCHOOLS SPORTS HALL THE KING’S HOSPITAL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE SCHOOLS SPORTS HALL THE KING’S HOSPITAL, PALMERSTOWN
Is breá liom bheith anseo libh inniu agus tá mé buíoch díbh go léir as an chuireadh agus as fáilte caoin agus cneasta a chur sibh romham.
It is a great pleasure for me to have been asked to open this wonderful new Sports Hall and Changing Rooms at King’s Hospital. Thank you for the very warm welcome that you have given Martin and myself. Of course, we are hardly strangers here ourselves, thanks to Justin, but I think it says a great deal about this school that after a relatively short time, we feel so much at home here, so much a part of the family that this school has created and nurtured down through the years.
I would like to warmly commend the Board of Governors, Parent’s Association and all those who have been associated with this remarkable achievement. Raising the one and a half million pounds required to complete these facilities, was a monumental task and its success speaks volumes for the very strong ethos of partnership that exists in this school between management, teachers, parents and pupils. You have taken that lovely old Irish adage: ‘Ní neart go cur le chéile’ - our strength is in working together – to new heights, not just through this project, but in every aspect of this school’s activities. Buried in that story of fundraising are thousands of little and big acts of loyalty and charity to this school, each of them a gift to the young men and women who are educated and will be educated here.
The work was undertaken and done, not for thanks, not for recognition but for the students of King’s Hospital, to give them the best so that the best could be gleaned from these important schooldays. I hope the students who use this place recognise the generosity and the care of those who created it, and maybe they might give them a round of applause to show their thanks.
Sport is a big part of the school’s mission to enable every pupil to reach his or her full potential. Whether students excel or are average at sport is not the issue, though of course we take great pride in the many accomplishments of those King’s Hospital students whose sporting excellence has brought national and international recognition. But sporting endeavour has a reach and a richness for the individual which cannot be measured in the number of medals won or caps earned. Sport takes us on a journey into ourselves. It tests us, stretches us, challenges us, forces us to keep on going when we would like to give up, gives us an insight into our breaking points, allows us to surprise ourselves and others in our determination, our commitment. Through sport we learn about living healthily, about teamwork, working with different personalities, dealing with them under stress, keeping them from breaking down under provocation, building them afresh when they go wrong, accepting defeat with grace, accepting victory with humility. Through sport we get an insight into leadership, belonging, the ups and downs of friendships, we know days of praise and days of criticism, days when both are deserved and undeserved. Through sport we are given a crucial insight into life as a process where through good coaching and good learning, skills we never had and did not know we could develop, grow before our very eyes. The journey school sport takes us is a journey that will last far beyond the individual’s schooldays. It is one of the most crucial investments we make.
There is another saying in the Irish language which sums up this school and sport: ‘Tús maith is leath na hoibre’ - a good start is half the work. Here a student does not just get a good start, but the best start, for this is a very special place, a place of education in the truest and broadest sense of the word.
Creating that atmosphere of achievement, affirmation and encouragement does not happen by chance. It takes a great deal of dedication and enthusiasm on the part of all the teachers here and both students and parents owe them a great debt of gratitude. For teaching at its best is not simply about imparting information or enabling students to pass their exams. It is concerned to a far greater extent with unlocking the potential and imagination of a young student, enabling his or her inherent creativity to blossom. And we should never underestimate the potential that such an experience has in terms of transforming young lives. The classroom is not always a comfortable place to be. It has its tensions, its pretensions, attitudes, poses, its need for discipline, its need to occasionally deal with indiscipline. It can be a struggle to keep energy and enthusiasm levels buoyant all the time - teaching is a profession which takes very special people, people who give and give until they are drained, who are very rarely thanked but who can be energised and affirmed by simply seeing a student making a genuine effort, just as they can be de-energised by a student’s cynicism or rudeness. Most students realise far too late in life the deep humanity of their teachers, their need too to be met half way. For students too, affirmation and praise are an essential tool in motivation: ‘Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí’ says the old adage - praise the young and they will blossom. Not all are privileged to come to school without a care in the world. Some face problems at home, problems with adolescence, with friends, with subtle and not so subtle bullies inside and outside school, with exam pressures and the necessary tyranny of homework. These are the post Santa Claus years when responsibility begins to bear down heavily. Classrooms are complex places with complex people. Life in them can be made so much easier where there is mutual respect, mutual compassion, where the effort is shared with teachers doing their part to the best they can and students giving their best because this is about their lives, their futures. That is what this school strives for, that partnership of endeavour, that atmosphere of respect.
Here young people are taken the journey into themselves which helps them grow in confidence and wisdom, not in smugness and vanity. Here they learn that their words, their acts can hurt another or help. Here they learn that when you reach out a hand to another person you make a friend, one of the most valuable things life can give you. Here they live and work in a community. Our hope, the hope of this school for them, is that out of all these experiences, out of the ups and downs of life lived here, they in time become ambassadors for King’s Hospital, ambassadors for a particular way of looking at the world - respect for God, profound respect for everything he created, respect and joyful curiosity about those who are different, a sense of concern and responsibility for others, a commitment to use their talents to make a positive difference in the world around them. King’s Hospital is privileged to have many past pupils who have gone out into the world and done just that. May this generation and those who enjoy these new facilities continue to carry that torch.
I would like to express my thanks once again to Harold Meyer, to the Chairman of the Board, Maurice Brooks, and to all of the teachers, parents and pupils, past and present, for their kind invitation. It is now my great pleasure to declare this Sports Hall Complex officially open.
Go gcúití Dia bhur saothar daoibh. Go raibh maith agaibh.