REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE RE-LAUNCH OF THE IRISH STATE COACH “351”
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE RE-LAUNCH OF THE IRISH STATE COACH “351” WEDNESDAY, 18TH OCTOBER 2000
Is cúis mhór áthais dom bheith anseo libh inniu ag an ócáid speisialta seo. Tá mé buíoch díbh as an chuireadh agus as fáilte fíorchaoin a chur sibh romham.
It is a great pleasure to join you today to celebrate the restoration of the “Irish State Coach”. I would like to thank David Humphries for the kind invitation to perform the re-launch of this important national treasure.
The story of this coach spans almost a hundred years of our history. It has borne silent but close witness to a century of change, from sedate travel by train and jaunting car to motorways and traffic jams, from colony to independence and partition, from a quiet rural economy to a sophisticated urban nation. The coach travelled along tracks much straighter and more predictable than the fortunes of the people and places it passed on the way. The list of distinguished persons who availed of its luxurious facilities reads like a Who’s Who of Irish and British history. King Edward V11 and other members of royalty as well as the Papal Nuncio Cardinal Agagianian, and two former Presidents Eamon de Valera and Erskine Childers climbed aboard – not unfortunately all at the same time, as I imagine that conversation would have been worth overhearing! I congratulate you on your sense of timing by restoring the coach to its former glory so that it can continue to enthral visitors in a new century.
Cherishing our past, recognising it as a treasure and a resource, is not in any way incompatible with our being a modern forward-looking people. On the contrary, it is a measure of our maturity that we are now coming to terms with our rich and complex history, that we are able to acknowledge the shaping power of the past, to respect that it may indeed have and did shape us differently, that the pursuit of uniformity of perspective or a single-track identity can blind us to the huge potential of diversity, that it is possible to look differently at the past but yet share a common ambition for a future based on partnership and friendship. In that realisation is the best possible guarantee of facing the future with confidence and with a complete and rounded sense of who we are as a people. Under the roof of this carriage are captured stores of memories for all of us, north, south, east, west. In some way it belongs to all. I hope people of all perspectives will enjoy its restoration and see in it both a tribute to the past and a sign of hope for tomorrow.
Great thanks is due to that hardy band of determined and devoted enthusiasts of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland who initially identified the need to preserve this national treasure. Their trojan efforts of raising the finance necessary to bring this project to a successful conclusion was ably assisted by securing funding from the AIB Better Ireland Award and Ford European Conservation Award, Irish Rail and the Heritage Council.
The wonderful achievement of lovingly restoring the coach to its former glory is thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Railway Preservation Society and FAS. The work involved was both intricate and delicate and the many intriguing problems it presented were surmounted by an excellent team headed by George Dempsey the project co ordinator ably assisted by Colm Hyland, Noel McCarthy and Tommy Taylor.
These fine craftsmen constituted the backbone of the project and along with a highly skilled group of tradesmen and enthusiastic trainees they achieved a visibly outstanding result. I’ve no doubt that this project has provided the craftspeople and FÁS workers with many new skills and valuable experience which will serve them well in their future careers. I am not in the least surprised to hear that every trainee, on completion of the project found full time employment. Congratulations to each and everyone of you and thank you for your tremendous efforts.
I would also like to thank Iarnrod Eireann for providing the premises and for the goodwill they demonstrated in facilitating the restoration work.
In today’s world, where mass transportation is taken so much for granted and where the gentle pace of travel in 1903 has been replaced by a more frenetic picture, it is a privilege to be able to experience the elegance of life on the State Coach and to step back into history for a moment. Thank you to all those who took the trouble to believe in and cherish our railway heritage, who restored and preserved it so lovingly.
I am delighted to perform the re-launch of the Irish tate Coach 351. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.