REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION OF IRELAND AWARD
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION OF IRELAND AWARD OF EXCELLENCE RHA GALLERY, DUBLIN
Is cúis mhór áthais dom bheith anseo libh tráthnóna chun an gradam seo a bhronnadh. Míle bhuíochas libh as an chaoin-chuireadh.
I am delighted to be with you on this special evening to present the annual Award of Excellence on behalf of the Arthritis Foundation of Ireland.
First though let me pay tribute to the exceptional work of the Foundation. It is estimated that about one in seven Irish people suffer from one form or another of Arthritis. There can hardly be a family in the country, including my own, that is not affected by this painful condition for which there is still no cure. The old received, but not very accurate, wisdom tended to dismiss arthritis as an inevitable result of ageing, something that people just had to learn to live with. The truth is that it can strike at any age, indeed there are over 5,000 children affected by it in this country. And while there may be no cure, treatment can greatly improve the quality of life for many people, especially if the condition is detected at an early stage.
The Arthritis Foundation has been a lifeline for thousands of sufferers. Through its support, information and advice services, it plays a vital role in raising awareness and helping people to understand more about the condition and the treatments that are available. Its funding of research offers hope that ever-better treatment, and ultimately a cure, will be found. That invaluable work would not be possible if it were not for the tireless band of volunteers who give so generously of themselves and their time on behalf of the Foundation. They show that there are still people who are willing to get involved, to help others without any reward other than the knowledge that they are making a positive difference in the lives of so many people. I would like to extend my warm thanks to all of those individuals. They reassure us about the innate goodness of the human person. They quietly confirm that this kind of unselfish voluntary public service confounds the voices of cynicism which insist that human nature is irredeemably and crudely self-serving. Not so. The evidence is in and it is gathered in the lives of the people in this room and of course in one in particular.
Tonight, it is my great pleasure to participate in honouring a man whose life has also been spent in the service of the Irish people. When I was sworn in as President, it was our Chief Justice, Liam Hamilton, who presented me with my seal of office. So I suppose it is appropriate that I should have this opportunity to return the compliment through presenting him with this Award of Excellence this evening on behalf of the Foundation.
Last week, as we gathered to honour another great Corkman, Jack Lynch, accolades poured in from every side, praising his courage, his integrity, his decency and leadership. Those qualities apply equally to Liam Hamilton. All too often it is only on retirement, or on a more final exit, that long-deserved tributes are paid. So it is a special joy to have this opportunity to honour Liam Hamilton while he remains very much among us, though he is in the departure lounge on the issue of retirement! In his long and distinguished career, he has served as President of the High Court, President of the Special Criminal Court, and of course, as Chief Justice. Throughout those years, he has invariably acted with great honour and wisdom, with a sense of fairness and justice in presiding over many of the most notable cases to come before the courts. He has been a driving force in modernising the administration of Justice in Ireland and, at a time when so many of our institutions have fallen in public esteem, he has provided outstanding leadership in maintaining the integrity of that judicial system. And in achieving all of that, he has sacrificed none of the wit, kindness and good humour that has made him so popular among peers and public alike. In fact I can personally testify that the older he gets the more of a sparkle there is in the twinkle in his eye.
Of course, it is in his capacity as a member of the Presidential Commission and of the Council of State that I have had the pleasure of encountering him since coming to office, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my personal thanks to him, not just for the great insight and courtesy with which he has fulfilled those roles but for the humanity, the easy friendship with which he helped a new President settle into her role. I have also appreciated his very helpful comments to the referee during the many football matches we have attended together and like him, I have been at a loss to understand why the advice was so rarely taken. The outcome of several games would undoubtedly have been different if the Chief Justice’s short, sharp and concise dicta had been listened to. I have no doubt that they were heard!
It is appropriate and timely, as Liam nears the end of his term in office, to acknowledge and honour his remarkable contribution to public life in Ireland. Retirement in January will, we hope, open for Liam the opportunity to enjoy some of the things which a busy working life squeezed out. There is a price to be paid for high office, a price not always fully understood by the hurlers on the pitch. It can be a lonely place, hugely pressurised because of the importance of the judgements to be made and stood over - psychologically pressurised too in today’s world of instant analysis and accountability. There is today a shrillness which is not always easy to cope with humanly. It is of course an inversion of the old world of undue and silently accepting deference. All institutions whether church, state, judicial or others have felt the whip of those cold winds of challenge and doubt. That is part of the story of a changing and modernising world, the story of a republic of equals testing and stretching the fabric of equality, texturing and shaping it. What is important is that we find equilibrium, seek to acknowledge the balance and remember to be grateful to those who have with manifest unselfish commitment rendered the kind of public service which makes us proud, makes us thankful. For we do have in Ireland an exceptional civic society, not a perfect one but an exceptional one built on many good lives lived well, lived decently, lived for others. We honour one such life lived well. I am delighted, on behalf of the Arthritis Foundation of Ireland and indeed on behalf of the wider community, to present the 1999 Award of Excellence to the Honourable Liam Hamilton, Chief Justice.
Beannacht Dé ort.