Remarks by President McAleese at the Unveiling of a Memorial to the late Lt. Gen. Dermot Earley
Gorthaganny, County Roscommon, Saturday, 27th August, 2011
Dia dhíbh a chairde, thank you for that warm welcome. I’d like to thank Seamus Crawley, Chair of the Gorthaganny Development Company, for the kind invitation to join the Earley family and the community of Gorthaganny to share in this memorial to honour the life and achievements of a famous son of Roscommon and one of the finest men ever born on this island. Dermot Earley was a man who reached the highest office in our Defence Forces. His work took him all over the world but no matter whose company he was in, of what country, he brought with him this place, his home place, the place and the peoples that shaped him and formed him into a man who inspired universal love, admiration and respect. How very apt it is that this fine memorial should be situated right next to his home, to the Primary School where his late father Peadar served as Principal and near the village church, for these three pillars were the foundation stones of his lifelong values and philosophy: family, community and God.
Among us today are those who were especially beloved by Dermot and whose love for him was the source of much of his joy in life – his wife Mary; his children David, Conor, Dermot, Paula, Anne Marie and Noelle; his brothers Peter and Paul, sisters Denise and Margaret and his dear mother Kitty. The Earley family were to share Dermot with the Defence Forces and the nation for there was never a more loved Chief of Staff and I hope that the deep affection he provoked so spontaneously in all who met him, the searing loss felt by so many at his passing, will long continue to bring you, his family, comfort and pride.
The initiative for this memorial unsurprisingly came from the people of Gorthaganny and the county of Roscommon to whom he was a hero, a statesman, a man of remarkable character, skill and sheer goodness. They wanted to mark this unique and rare man whose imprint on our world will outlive many a generation to come. The Gorthaganny Development Company is a fine example of Ireland’s meitheal spirit, a phenomenon that sees individuals pool their resources and their strengths to make life better for each other. Dermot loved that spontaneous and special power of meitheal and when he opened the extension to the national school in Sept 2009 he remarked on the great education in life that growing up in Gorthaganny gave him – “whether it was holding the horse for Mike McNulty, bringing hay or going to the bog, when you get values from a culture, you cannot go wrong”.
Dermot’s life was all too brief but what a life – a devoted family man, a renowned sporting hero, an outstanding soldier, an inspiring leader, a man gifted with a unique West of Ireland charm and a tremendous ambassador for Ireland wherever he went in the world. It can’t have been an easy task to capture the essence of this very special and endearing man in a single memorial and I congratulate Seamus Connolly, one of Ireland’s leading bronze sculptors, for his wonderful depiction of Dermot as a sportsman, a Michael Glaveys and Roscommon footballer. For the people of Roscommon, he was a Cúchulainn type figure, an exceptional sportsman who had a rare talent to inspire and motivate. He won numerous awards during his long and illustrious playing career spanning some 20 years in Roscommon and Kildare. Indeed it is difficult to quantify his contribution to the GAA it is so vast. He was central to the numerous successes of Roscommon in the 1970s and 80s but Dermot Earley was a special man who could, to paraphrase Kipling, “meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same”. The motto on the Roscommon county jersey could almost have been written as a tribute to Dermot: ‘Constans Hiberniae Cor’ – steadfast Irish heart.
This memorial also marks his 44 years of distinguished service in the Defence Forces, Óglaigh na hÉireann. The Defence Forces was so much a part of Dermot’s life. He embodied the very best of the Defence Forces with his sense of honour, duty, loyalty and courage. His remarkable impact can be seen not only in the award of the Distinguished Service Medal with Honour but in the unquenchable esteem in which he is held by members of the Defence Forces and their families. As Chief of Staff he put a face on the Defence Forces that people could relate to. His representation of Ireland at the highest levels of the United Nations; his inspirational command of our soldiers in Lebanon; and his leadership in the modernisation of the Defence Forces all brought great honour to Ireland and the Defence Forces both nationally and internationally. He had the capacity to build bridges across all divides by the strength of his character, his sense of fairness and values, forged within this community in Gorthaganny.
Dermot had a rare and wonderful talent as a leader – technical proficiency backed up by great personal charm, warmth, charisma and a genuine interest in others, which made everyone feel important. He was generous, kind, and imbued with a profound sense of humanity and the transcendent. He frequently said that “the greatest feeling you will ever get is the satisfaction of doing your work well and doing it to the best of your ability”. He surely died a satisfied man by his own lights for there was none who worked so well, none whose abilities were used so brilliantly as were Dermot Earley’s. His name is the stuff of legend and we who were privileged to know him know that when you put together the tens of thousands of stories about Dermot, they are all true, all heartachingly reassuring about human nature for they all shed light on a great and good human being.
His legend started here in Gorthaganny. It did not end with the grave. Wherever his name is spoken today, tomorrow and in the generations ahead it will be with the awe reserved for that rare human being through whose life, whose every breath and act, we see the divine at work in our world. He will not be forgotten.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.