REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO DVBLINIA CHRISTCHURCH, DUBLIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO DVBLINIA CHRISTCHURCH, DUBLIN THURSDAY, 5TH AUGUST 1999
Tá gliondar orm bheith i bhur measc inniu anseo agus tá mé thar a bheith buíoch díbh as fáilte fíorchaoin a chur romham.
It is a great pleasure to join you here today at Dvblinia. I would like to thank Craig McKinney; your acting Chairperson, Eileen O’Meara Walsh and all of the Trustees for their very welcome invitation.
If you wander through the streets of Dublin these days, it is impossible not to be struck by the number of tourists from all over the world who have descended on our shores. In a way, it is a repetition, although this time a very welcome one, of previous inflows of people to our country. Our Scandinavian neighbours – the Vikings – and later the Normans and the British paid this island significant visits and each in their own quite separate and culturally diverse way, are part of the story of Ireland and the making of the Irish people - who we are today.
That legacy is especially evident here in Dublin. Wander down from here through Dame Street, Suffolk Street, past Trinity and through College Green, and you are treading a path which stretches back to Medieval Times. A few feet beneath you, lies the secrets of that Medieval Dublin and the remnants of its amazingly complex, vibrant life.
Thanks to all of you here at Dvblinia, that life, which might otherwise have been lost to present and future generations, is preserved in a way that is fascinating and accessible to every one of the 111,000 people who visited you last year alone. It took great vision back in the early nineties for a group of dedicated people, medieval scholars, tourist and business interests, to come together to form the Medieval Trust. Their aim – to make the medieval history and culture of Dublin better known to the wider public – both Irish and visitors – has been magnificently realised through the creation of Dvblinia. Your clear commitment to clarity and accessibility, while maintaining the highest standards of historical research and curatorship, is to be praised. And I do, indeed, praise you loudly and sincerely for your dedication and your achievements in creating and constantly developing this truly exceptional project.
History is so often presented as a series of major political and military events, when what in fact is the most compelling is often the individual experience. For the average person – then as now – those major events were often just a backdrop – important for understanding the context in which they lived but nevertheless only impacting periodically on their personal lives. Dvblinia’s outstanding achievement is to enable us to understand these events while never losing sight of the human experience of medieval Dublin in all its beauty and brutality.
That experience is brought to mind very vividly by one of your displays in particular - the skeleton of a woman, aged between 40 and 60 years old which is one of several discovered during the great campaign of excavations in Wood Quay by Dr. Pat Wallace, now Director of the National Museum, back in the 1970’s. We may never know her background or circumstances, but she brings home to us the fact that our history is more than a series of facts and dates – it is written on the lives and deaths of real human beings. They were people with more similarities to ourselves than we might have imagined. The artefacts on display here give us a compelling insight into the lives of those early Dubliners: their skill and artistry as demonstrated by the beauty of their everyday objects; their concern for appearance and beauty, which is echoed at the make-up counters of modern day stores. Through these displays, and through your recently installed Medieval Fayre, which allows adults and children alike to participate at first hand in medieval life - the gulf of hundreds of years falls away, giving us an understanding and empathy for our ancestors which is essential to our sense of ourselves. It breaks down the barriers of time, the fear of crossing into the academic territory of history. Our history’s is simply that – the lived lives of – his story and her story.
It is a tribute to the Medieval Trust, and especially its Chairman, Craig McKinney, that over half a million visitors from Ireland and overseas, have taken the opportunity to experience that history in such an enjoyable way through Dvblinia. The Trust is a prime example of how the public and private sectors can co-operate successfully in helping to regenerate the historical heart of this city and to bring our heritage and history to a wider audience. I would like to particularly recognise the role that people like Dr Howard Clarke, Michael McCarthy, Kevin Duffy, John Bradley and Dr Anger SIMMs have played in this project. I would also like to warmly commend Suzanne Castle, the Director of Dvblinia, Dr Ruth Johnson, the Curator and all of the staff for their outstanding work.
I wish you every success in your future work.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh. Go maire sibh.