REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE RECEPTION FOR THE IRISH COMMUNITY, THE WALTERS ART GALLERY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE RECEPTION FOR THE IRISH COMMUNITY, THE WALTERS ART GALLERY, BALTIMORE
Mayor and Mrs. O’Malley, Honoured Guests,
Tá mé iontach sásta go bhfuil an chaoi agam bheith anseo libh inniu sa chathair álainn seo. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as fáilte fíorGhaelach a chur sibh romham.
I am delighted to be here with you all today in the beautiful surroundings of the Walters Art Gallery. Thank you Mr. Mayor and Mrs. O’Malley for arranging this event, and thanks too to Dr. Vikan and Ms. Testa for making these wonderful rooms available.
I know that owing to the natural pressures of time and space it was only possible to accommodate a small cross-section of the community here today but I hope that you will let the others know that, had it been possible, I would have dearly wished to meet with all of them. Through you I send them my warmest greetings and thanks for all they do and you do to promote the name of Ireland, its culture and weave it into the life of Baltimore!
In many ways I feel as if I am coming to another part of Ireland here in Baltimore. The name is the same as that of a much smaller port in County Cork. Baltimore is built on lands that originally belonged to the O’Carrolls from Ireland and indeed we know that several branches of that family have played a part in the history of Maryland. I am told that the first city was laid out in the form of an Irish harp. But our strongest connection lies in the fact that so many Irish emigrants came to the United States through the port of Baltimore.
Only last week in Ireland I launched a newly-built replica of the Jeanie Johnston ship which plied the North Atlantic between 1847 and 1858. On each trip, she brought 200 men, women and children fleeing the horror of the Irish Famine and uniquely, never lost a passenger to disease or to the sea. In the coming months, the replica ship will call again on Baltimore and I know that you will enjoy that visit. Perhaps some of you may even be lured into sailing with her for a while.
Having reached Baltimore, Irish emigrants quickly made their homes here. Their record in this area is of people who committed themselves to building up the rich civic life of this place. They made a very valuable contribution to the growth and prosperity of the city, to the development of agriculture in the surrounding area, to trade, education, politics and to the spiritual and cultural life of this city. These are the things that transform a random collection of individuals into a working, caring, growing community and it is very telling that the very first Mayor of Baltimore – James Calhoun – was of course an Irishman. It is good to see that tradition has been revived in recent times!
The Ireland that these people left behind was very different to the Ireland of today. A poor country, suffering greatly from the tyranny of colonisation, its people sought liberty and opportunity far away from their native shores. Today’s Ireland is a place admired for its capacity to create opportunities for its people and for the way in which it has transformed the fortunes and future of its people.
Seen as the spectacular success story of the European Union, the Irish economy has been expanding steadily in recent years at a rate of around 6% and this growth is forecast to continue well into the future. Once an unemployment blackspot our unemployment rate is now less than 5%. We are now at a stage where we are seeking to attract workers from outside Ireland for the expanding job market in our growing economy.
The movement of emigrants to the United States, for so many in the past a haven for a hopeful future, is now barely a trickle. We now have net inward migration to Ireland for the first time in over a century and a half. Not only are many emigrants returning home, but they are being joined by the children and grandchildren of former emigrants, attracted by the new job opportunities and cultural vibrancy of the land of their forefathers. The challenge for us in Ireland is to cope with this new-found prosperity in a way that sustains the best of our Irish identity and ensures that every member of our society benefits from it.
All of you will have been following throughout the past years the history of conflict in Northern Ireland. I myself grew up in Belfast and know a good deal about it, first hand. I can say that we are now at one of the most hopeful stages in recent times. The guns and bombs are silent. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 was overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of Ireland, North and South. Although it took some time to implement, its provisions were finally inaugurated last December but, regrettably, the Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended some two months later as a result of a dispute over decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
There were some who said at the time that the Agreement was finished, but many, many others knew that much progress had already been made. They knew that the short-lived Northern Ireland Executive comprising people of all political persuasions working in partnership, had worked extremely well for the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland.
As a result of intensive work by the Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern and the British Prime Minister,
Mr. Tony Blair, there is now a plan to restart the Executive and to fully implement all the matters dealt with in the Good Friday Agreement. The IRA have responded very positively to the initiative of the two Governments and in a historic landmark statement have set out their plans to put arms beyond use. The political parties are now in the process of deciding whether to commit themselves to this crucial chance for peace through partnership. I believe there now exists a sufficient critical mass of trust and progress to move coherently into the new era promised by the Good Friday Agreement and overwhelmingly endorsed by the people. I know you will join me in wishing every success to those whose heavy responsibility it is in these coming days to make decisions which will profoundly affect the lives of future generations on the island of Ireland. Those who chose change will be richly rewarded by the rapid emergence of a culture of consensus, comfortable with its neighbour south of the border, comfortable within itself, its huge reservoir of untapped energies harnessed to the common good of all its citizens.
The United States has been an unfailing supporter of this whole process. Your President has given constantly of his time and energy and the patient endeavours of his special envoy Senator George Mitchell were crucial to getting agreement at all. Congress has been strongly involved but so too have countless Irish Americans whose commitment to resolving our old conflict peacefully, justly and permanently has also been an important contributor to the huge public debate which softened hearts, provoked change and created the space for peace to grow.
Mr. Mayor and Mrs. O’Malley, Honoured Guests,
The Irish in America take righteous pride in the cultural and economic confidence of today’s Ireland. They yearn to see the energies of the two parts of Ireland working together in respectful and mutually beneficial partnership and in peace. Many generations have had such an ambition for Ireland but only in this generation has it become realisable. We are a blessed generation and it is my fervent hope we will use the wonderful gifts and opportunities we have been given to do justice to the memory of all those who came to this country from Ireland, Protestant and Catholic, Unionist and Nationalist and who wished only the best for their old homeland. That best is yet to come but it is now close at hand.
Thank you for your warm welcome here today. My husband Martin and I were delighted to be able to be with you. We hope to see you all in Ireland before too long and with the possibility of Aer Lingus establishing direct flights in the near future, we hope that many of your fellow citizens will follow suit.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir – thank you all very much.