REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ST COLUMBANUS FEAST DAY LUNCH PARK AVENUE HOTEL, BELFAST
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ST COLUMBANUS FEAST DAY LUNCH PARK AVENUE HOTEL, BELFAST TUESDAY, 23RD NOVEMBER 2010
Good afternoon and thank you for the warm welcome. I would like particularly to thank Dr. Ian Adamson and the Ullans Academy for the invitation to join you here today to mark the feast of St Columbanus, celebrated in the Roman Martyrology on this day the 23rd or by tradition throughout Ireland on the 24th of November. In a slowly reconciling contemporary Ireland, where the rawest divisions historically have been between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians, is there anything about this man, born fifteen hundred and seventy years ago, that could help us on our journey to a shared and peaceful future?
There is nothing new about turning to that far off millennium for inspiration. We do it all the time in the name of St. Patrick, by far Ireland’s most influential immigrant, the stranger who came among us and who left such an indelible imprint that he became the patron saint of Ireland. Columbanus could justifiably be said to be Ireland’s most influential emigrant, for he who was born, raised and educated here, left an indelible imprint on Europe, though it is hardly a fair deal that he ends up as the patron saint of motorcyclists.
If we skirt delicately over Columbanus’ fidelity to the Pope, which may rouse passions in some quarters, and skirt delicately too over the free-spiritedness that allowed him to regularly argue with the Pope, which may rouse passions in other quarters, we can, if we are willing, see in Columbanus an Irishman to be proud of, whatever our faith tradition or perspective, an adventurous and courageous man willing to set out on a journey into the unknown for a cause which was the all-consuming passion of his life – introducing humanity to the power of the great commandment to love one another.
The Europe he travelled through was riven with political tensions and rivalries, corrupt and depraved leadership, conflict and any amount of evidence of the mess human beings are capable of making of the world around them. It was a dangerous place as he was to find out more than once on the road that took him from Bangor through England to France and to his final destination at Bobbio in Italy. Today the physical and intellectual legacy of that arduous itinerary is to be seen in the monasteries he founded and the place-names that honour his memory all over continental Europe. In a dark and grim Europe, lacking a unified and life-enhancing vision of the human person, Columbanus was a light, a civilising influence, a man accustomed to scholarship, to the discipline of prayerful silence; a persuasive man with a message intended to break down barriers between human beings. His words are inscribed on the wall of the Columbanus chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome ‘si tollis libertatem tollis dignitatem’ – if you take away human freedom you destroy human dignity. They are to be found too in the first Article of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: “Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected.”
Here we are today, the inheritors of his vision, fellow inhabitants of his homeland, citizens of the European Union, probably itself the greatest, most ambitious peace process the world has ever known, co-partners in another ambitious peace process on this island, one that could yet vindicate Columbanus’ faith in the transcendent power of love. The European Union’s motto ‘in varietate unitas’, unity in diversity, is a powerful and appropriate summary of what those of us who are peace-makers are striving to achieve here on this island, a place of respect for difference, of partnership and good neighbourliness, where differences of faith or politics do not inspire fear or hatred or distrust but are a test of our commitment to the values Columbanus, like Patrick before him espoused, a test of our ability to truly love our neighbour as ourselves.
We are privileged to live in a time when we acknowledge more openly and willingly the mosaic nature of the identity of those who live on this island. Each one, however they describe that identity, is entitled to their innate human dignity, to equality, to freedom to be themselves whether they are Irish, British, Northern Irish, Ulster Scots, Gaelic, European, or among the new Irish whose identities encompass some 120 countries and cultures of the world. They are all entitled to go about their business in safety, free from the threat of sectarianism or racism, secure in the knowledge that their society has no favourites, consigns no-one to the margins of exclusion but actively seeks to embrace and include all. Columbanus had a message for leaders, for those who were the key influencers of his day but he also had a profound personal message for each individual – we each of us are not only entitled to our own dignity as human beings but we are, in all we do and say and teach, the sacred custodians of the dignity of every other human being.
Many times in these intervening centuries the message of Columbanus has come close to obliteration in these islands and on our continent but something about its honesty and integrity has ensured its survival against awesome odds. There is little doubt that the peace-loving people of Northern Ireland, Ireland and the European Union are once again carrying Columbanus’ torch and continuing his journey, not from Bangor to Bobbio, but from dark to light, from hate to love, from despair to hope. It was never a journey for the faint-hearted which is why we remind ourselves on this day of the courage and commitment of Columbanus who planted seeds of hope that he knew might take a thousand years or more to grow. We who have the benefit of fifteen hundred years of humbling hindsight need some of that same courage, commitment, endurance and self-giving to ensure the seeds of peace we have planted come to full flowering in a much shorter time-frame.