REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY GOLD MEDALS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY GOLD MEDALS ACADEMY HOUSE, DAWSON STREET, DUBLIN
Dia dhaoibh go léir. Is ocáid speisialta í seo agus tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo chun í a cheiliúradh libh.
Good morning and thank you all for your warm welcome. I would like to say a particular thank you to Professor Nicholas Canny for inviting me to be part of this special occasion where I have the privilege of presenting the 2010 Academy Gold Medals in the Humanities and the Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
The great American jurist Oliver Wendall Holmes once said “a mind, once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions. This Academy has through its promotion of scholarly vocations in the sciences and the arts and humanities has stretched many a mind and changed the trajectory of many a life. The Academy’s Gold Medal awards seek out and acclaim the most outstanding individuals engaged in research and scholarship in Ireland today, men and women who are themselves stretching their own minds and those of their peers and students through their probing, forensic intellectual curiosity.
This year’s Gold goes to exemplary individuals from the humanities and physical sciences, one a leading economic historian whose work has changed the way we view major topics such as the Irish famine and the other a ground-breaking theoretical physicist and a master of string theory – a theory whose misleadingly simple name is probably about all a mere lawyer can be expected to understand of the subject! They are the kind of people who remind us at this torrid economic juncture, with its heartbreaking litany of bad news, that away from the depressing headlines we have exceptional people whose work is putting Ireland on the international map for all the right reasons. Their cutting-edge, truly exciting research is part of the massive reservoir of talent which we have in our universities and institutes of technology. The Academy Committees which selected our two Gold medalists had no shortage of very fine candidates; the tough part was narrowing the options to today’s outstanding recipients. Let that be a source of hope and reassurance as we start the climb up the ladder to prosperity after such a rapid slide down the snake of recession.
The Gold Medals reward the recipients with due public and peer recognition. They reward the nation with pride in their achievements and confidence in our future. They catch the mind of the next generation, inspiring it to aim high, to stay the course no matter how tough or difficult.
I am delighted to offer my heartiest congratulations to Professor Cormac Ó Gráda of University College Dublin and Professor Samson Shatashvili of Trinity College Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy Gold medalists of 2010.
On behalf of all of us I offer warmest congratulations and good wishes for continued success in all you do and thanks for your vocation as scholars and innovators.
I thank also those whose support makes these awards possible, the Higher Education Authority, the Irish Independent and of course the Royal Irish Academy. In a week such as we have faced as a nation it is important to look to the places where people are lighting candles and not simply cursing the darkness.
Go raibh maith agaibh.