REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE SAINT PATRICK’S DAY RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE SAINT PATRICK’S DAY RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN FRIDAY, 17TH MARCH 2000
Beannachtaí na chéad Fhéile Pádraig den triú mílaois oraibh go léir agus céad míle fáilte chuig Áras an Uachtaráin.
It is my great pleasure to extend a very warm welcome to each of you, on behalf of Martin and myself, as we gather here to celebrate this first St. Patrick’s Day of the third Millennium.
We have so many reasons to celebrate. This is a time which finds Ireland at ease with itself in a way that it has not been for centuries, an Ireland that is successful, open, dynamic, self-confident. At the heart of that success is a strong impulse among the Irish people to be generous and inclusive, to value partnership and reconciliation. We have learned that those instincts, which were so much part of the vision of St. Patrick, are among the most powerful guarantors and generators of success in today’s world. We have only to look at our education system to find evidence of how widening and equalising the embrace of opportunity releases fresh energies, uncovers talents that were previously buried, to the benefit of both individuals and society as a whole.
At every level – local, national and international – we have found that this impulse towards inclusiveness, partnership and co-operation has served us well. It underpins Ireland’s reputation among the international community as a valued friend and good neighbour to small and large countries alike. It is manifest too, in our reaching out to the global Irish community, whose place within the wider Irish family is now formally recognised within the Constitution.
This room is full of people whose skills and dedication we rely on to take that spirit of generosity and inclusiveness, and translate it into reality, into tangible benefits for our people. I would like to say a warm and heartfelt thank you to all of you for that commitment and hard work, so often undertaken quietly behind the scenes: to our public servants here at home, who have helped forge today’s successful and self-confident Ireland; to the many people – both here at home and abroad - who have done so much to foster Ireland’s position as a highly respected and warmly regarded member of the international community; and to all of you who have worked to strengthen cross-border co-operation on this island, creating new synergies, new networks of common interest and friendship, new ways of working together, to the benefit of all our people, North and South.
We are all aware that this St. Patrick’s Day finds the political process at a difficult juncture. But we can draw hope from the fact that the peace process goes wider and deeper than its political dimension. It is driven and it is owned by the people on this island. Its strength can be measured in the reality of daily life, in the way that old taboos and old barriers have started to be dismantled, in the new relationships that have sprung up, in the new ways of thinking and of talking and of interacting with each other that have emerged. These are at the heart of the peace process and its bedrock. They are a source of hope and encouragement as the work to create lasting peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland continues.
I would like to thank you all for joining us here this evening. I hope you will enjoy yourself and take this opportunity to renew old friendships and make a few new ones, in true Irish style. I would like to finish by thanking Derek Davis for doing the honours as M.C. for us this evening, and all of our wonderful musicians: Dave Ricard who has been playing for us in the Entrance Hall, and here in this room, the woodwind quintet from the Army No. 1 Band. We have a whole host of other musical treats to come.
Go mbainimis ar fad sult, soirbheas agus aoibhneas as an tráthnóna, agus go mbeirfimid beo ar an am seo arís.