REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO ST. GEMMA’S SCHOOL FRIDAY, 16 FEBRUARY, 2001
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO ST. GEMMA’S SCHOOL FRIDAY, 16 FEBRUARY, 2001
Tá lucháir mhór orm bheith anseo libh inniu, agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl díbh don fáilte a bhí fíor, fairsing agus flaithiúil.
It is good to be home again and especially good to be here in St. Gemma’s. Thank you to your Principal, Cecilia McCloskey for inviting me here, for her words of welcome and to all of you for the fáilte extended to this visitor.
I remember this school being built, the hope it brought, the heart it gave to this community. Times were not good then and there were many things to complain about, many things to get downhearted about but those who built St. Gemma’s were people who rolled up their sleeves instead of wringing their hands, people who believed that when you invest in the education of young people, and especially when you invest in the education of young women you can change things, you can change the future.
The past has been unkind to this part of Belfast and the present though more hopeful generally, is still far from the peace and prosperity that people deeply want. So that new future is still being built, person by person, bit by bit. The Flax Trust, your close neighbour has a motto - building the peace one person at a time - and this school plays a hugely important role in your life - building you up, giving you skills, helping you to grow in confidence, so that you can achieve the most with the potential that lies inside you. That potential is like a seed - if it is well tended and cared for it will grow into a strong plant, surprising everyone with its beauty, its strength, with all the wonders that are locked inside a seed that only time and a good gardening team can reveal. The gardening team that helps the human being to fully blossom involves parents, teachers and you yourselves.
To the parents, the teachers, the Board of Governors and all of you who are dedicated to the education of the young people of Belfast, I want to say a heartfelt thank you. Through your work a young girl comes to see herself differently - she learns a language she did not know before, a subject she didn’t know she would like becomes a great adventure, she discovers a capacity for art, or music or sport, or computers or for listening, for being a
peace-maker, a good friend and through this journey into herself she builds a life to be proud of. Long after she has left this place you will keep an interest in what she is doing and you will take great pride when you hear how well she has done, how her God-given potential is being stretched to its limits and not wasted. You will also be very reassured because you know that a young woman using her gifts well, is a huge asset to her family, her community, her country - her life is building up a healthy place for everyone to live.
The girls of St. Gemmas are a great source of hope for this community. Already living in this community has challenged you very profoundly. Many of your families will have been directly affected by the Troubles and the ongoing sectarian tensions colour your everyday life. You cope with things we all hope will fade from memory and experience in the coming generations. You have to cope with all the other things life throws at us, family problems, unemployment, loneliness, loss of someone you love, care for a chronically ill parent, maybe coping with your own illness - these things have already tested you and trained you to be strong, resilient and to have faith in yourselves and faith in the God who loves you.
The society that you have grown up in is changing at an incredible rate. When you leave St. Gemma’s, opportunities and challenges will be available to you that were simply unthinkable for previous generations. Because of your education, because of the peace process, because of the growing economic health of this island, because of a massive change in attitudes to women, you will have choices others did not get.
If there are to be leaders and visionaries building up family, community, city and country, they could and should come from among you. You can choose to be spectators or players. In other generations that choice did not exist to the extent it exists today. What a remarkable place this could be if a generation of young women from all political and religious backgrounds committed themselves to a partnership which would unlock the fullest potential of people and place.
The Good Friday Agreement affirmed “the right of women to full and equal political participation”. Having a right and using it are two very different things. It’s like going into a garden centre and buying a packet of flower seeds, if you don’t get around to planting them you won’t get any flowers.
St.Gemma’s exists because a lot of people believe in you. The Staff, the Board of Governors, the Parents, the community do their very best not for the bricks and mortar that are St. Gemma’s but for the girls, the young women who are its core, its purpose. They deserve thanks for the work they do to give you the best start in life they can - there is an old Irish saying ‘Tús maith is leath na hoibre - a good start is half the work’ and that is what you get here – a good start. The other half is what you put in yourselves and you deserve thanks for that too, for taking the opportunities given here, seeing them as bridges to your future and giving your best to them.
I wish each of you well and hope that the future will, with your help become the peaceful, tolerant, prosperous place we believe it can be, we pray it will be.