REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE REUNION OF PAST PUPILS OF LEITRIM NATIONAL SCHOOL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE REUNION OF PAST PUPILS OF LEITRIM NATIONAL SCHOOL SATURDAY,7TH AUGUST 1999
- Tá gliondar orm bheith anseo i Liatroim inniu chun an ócáid speisialta seo a chéiliúradh libh. Ní minic go mbíonn deis ag iarscoiláirí ó scoil náisiúnta teacht le chéile chun dul siar ar ‘bhóithrín na smaointe’ le chairde a chaith laethanta a n-óige leo ar scoil. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch díbh as an chuireadh a tugadh dom chun tús oifigiúil a chur leis an gcéiliúradh.
- It is a great pleasure for me to join you here this afternoon to celebrate this homecoming of past pupils of Leitrim National School. I would like to thank my good friend, Pat Farrell, for inviting me to share this celebration with you. For it is not often that people are given an opportunity to meet once again those people with whom they shared their childhood days – to renew friendships, to recall past times and to discover the very different pathways that each of you has travelled through life.
- It is especially appropriate that this reunion should take place in the grounds of this school. The Jesuits had a saying ‘give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man’. It is unclear what they thought might happen to girls! But it is certainly true that our early experiences are woven into the fabric of each and every one of us. They are important and enduring threads which shape so much of our subsequent life – both personally and professionally. As we look back today on the generations of children that have passed through this schoolhouse, I would like, on behalf of all of you, to pay tribute to the many excellent teachers whose commitment and dedication – often unsung – opened up new horizons and new opportunities for so many of you. A few minutes ago, I unveiled a plaque donated by the family of one such teacher, Eileen Cryan. I am sure that the Cryan family would be happy to link Eileen’s name with those of the many teachers who have served this school faithfully and loyally over many years.
- This school has undergone many changes over the years, from the first school, which was established in 1835, to the present building which dates from 1971. In its history we can trace many of the major changes in primary education which have occurred in Ireland over that period. Those of you who attended the old school will recall a time when most people went through life armed only with the education they received at primary level – at schools such as this up and down the country. It is a tribute to the innate talents and energy of so many of those people, that they nevertheless managed to achieve so much in life, professionally and personally. But we think too, of those who, denied the benefit of further education, possessed great talents that were never fully developed. That was not only a great personal loss, but a loss to our society as a whole.
- But their Today, we are fortunate that their children and grandchildren