REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF FORÓIGE CITIZENSHIP AWARDS ROYAL HOSPITAL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF FORÓIGE CITIZENSHIP AWARDS ROYAL HOSPITAL KILMAINHAM TUESDAY, 21ST NOVEMBER
Is mór an pléisiúir dom bheith i bhur measc inniu ag an ocáid seo agus tá me buíoch díbh as an chuireadh a thug sibh dom teacht anseo.
Hello everybody, and a special hello to our young citizens here today.
It is my privilege to present this year’s Foróige Citizenship Awards and I would like to thank Seán Campbell for his very kind invitation to me to be here.
I wonder how many of you here today have passed the top of O’Connell Street and have seen the monument to Charles Stuart Parnell. I wonder how many of you have read the inscription on the monument because it is a call to our practical patriotism.
It quotes Parnell’s great declaration, ‘No man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation’. For many years too many people thought that we, as a people, were not destined for success, that we were bound for failure and emigration. We now know that to be false and that success is achievable but, most importantly, we know that our advance depends on our own efforts. A belief in human progress does not make it inevitable.
We must make it happen, and the only people who can contribute are those who take part, who participate in efforts to improve the well‑being of our communities, and it means working together.
I am very pleased to have this opportunity to acknowledge the huge amount of good done by local communities. Voluntary participation in community organisations, contributing to the local neighbourhood committees and supporting local causes make neighbourhoods come alive and make everybody feel a part of the community. Participation is for everybody, the very best win-win situation. Where participation flourishes, you will find a vigorous thriving society.
We all know that the rewards of participation, of being involved, are immense. One of the great rewards of becoming an active citizen is the discovery of the truth of the assertion that ‘it is better to give than to receive’ because to engage with others in a supportive and nurturing way is to receive the full force of human warmth and support in return. It is to see your talents and skills widely and fully used. It is to belong in the deepest and most fulfilling of ways.
We naturally form and live in social groups and the selfless acts of solidarity which we make are what bind our societies together, turns us from mere strangers into neighbours, colleagues, friends.
Singly we each matter and we each bring our unique talents and gifts. Put those individuals together and, as the motto of the Task Force on Active Citizenship says, “Together - we’re better”. Active citizenship is about deciding what kind of society you want to live in and then being prepared to get involved in the heavy lifting that it takes to build community and sustain it, day in and day out. An American social observer once said ‘ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has’. The younger you get involved, the greater the difference you can make over a lifetime, both to your own life and the life of your community and indeed to our country itself.
The voluntary roles that you play in your communities are of huge importance to all of us for, as the Foróige theme states, you are ‘a truly creative force’ in society. We are here this evening to honour those creative forces, those young men and women with a passion and zest for life, a curiosity about how to make it better and the determination to get involved as active contributing citizens.
Each award made here today represents a practical achievement in active citizenship. It is a celebration of achievements which took sacrifice, effort, planning and commitment. No-one had to do it but each project, each endeavour was taken on voluntarily so that something good, healthy and life-enhancing would happen within community.
The quality and standard of the projects is matched only by the diversity and innovation. These award-winners have earned our respect the hard way and this afternoon we salute them. They are a credit to Foroige and especially to the youth workers and leaders who have given such leadership and inspiration that our young people have given the very best of themselves. Here are young men and women who are problem-solvers – the kind of people communities are reassured by and strengthened by.
Congratulations to each of you on such remarkable achievements and on proving so comprehensively the value to the individual, and to all of us, of active citizenship – of lives well and fully lived.
And now it is my pleasure to present the certificates, so richly deserved.
Comhghairdeas libh arís ‘s go raibh maith agaibh go léir.