REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO THE DAY CARE CENTRE ARRANMORE ISLAND, CO. DONEGAL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO THE DAY CARE CENTRE ARRANMORE ISLAND, CO. DONEGAL SATURDAY, 31ST JULY, 1999
Is mór an pléisiúir dom bheith anseo i bhur measc inniu. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as ucht bhur bhfáilte chaoin.
It is a great pleasure for me to join you here today at this wonderful Day Care Centre, and I am most grateful to Nora Flanagan for her kind invitation. Thank you for the great welcome you have given me.
I know that for island dwellers, the provision of services of this kind poses particular difficulties. But you have one great advantage which cannot be underestimated, and that is the wonderful community spirit that binds you together – that great sense of neighbour helping neighbour, forged in the past when it was essential for survival – and which remains a proud mark of island people. It is that spirit that has comforted the people of Inishbofin as they faced their recent tragedy. And that same spirit is very evident here in Arranmore, in your care for older people. It is a great tribute to all the people of this island – young and old – that you have run this Centre with such dedication and success for the past eleven years.
That sense of intergenerational support – of building bridges between young and old - is what this UN International Year of Older Persons is all about. We are rightly proud of what our young people have achieved in recent years in building an economically successful country, proud of its culture, its traditions and its heritage. But young people are not our only great asset. Indeed, it is important that they do not forget what an incredible resource older people are – what a great reservoir of experience and knowledge their parents and grandparents possess, and are only too happy to pass on. For in the growing ‘busyness’ of life today, of constant schedules and deadlines, older people possess that most valuable of resources – time. Time to take care of each other, time to stop and talk, time to listen. They are the source and the transmitters of so much of our culture, especially here, on islands such as this, where those traditions are still so rich and vibrant, still a living part of daily life.
We must find fresh new ways for the young to listen to the old, to learn from them and learn about them, to understand that older people can still be crucial teachers of the young, long after retirement, long after the children and grandchildren are grown.
After all, that economic and cultural success that I mentioned, has been built on the sacrifice and hard work of past generations. It is important that we acknowledge that and express our thanks to you, and to all older people, for all you have given us.
This Day Care Centre is a wonderful way of doing just that – providing important services to older people which will allow them to remain healthy and happy in their own homes, among their family and friends in the community, while receiving the help and support that they need. More than that, I have no doubt it is a place where older people make new friends, swap stories and news – maybe even the odd bit of gossip - and gain the energy and confidence to find new ways of enjoying life. It guarantees their independence, their involvement, their self-fulfilment and dignity – all of those things which each of us hopes we will continue to experience as we, in turn, grow older.
It is also a wonderful resource for all the carers of older people – family and neighbours - who give so generously of their love and their energy to ensure that the person they care for has the best possible quality of life. This Day Care Centre gives them a much-needed chance to recharge their batteries, and regain the physical and emotional strength to continue doing their important work. We owe them those few hours of respite, for without them, so many lives would be so much poorer.
I would like to warmly congratulate Nora Flanagan, the staff who provide the services and all of the volunteers who give so generously of their time and energy to this Centre. On your behalf, I would like to say a very warm thank you to all of them.
I wish you the very best of luck in the future.
Mo mhíle buíochas libh arís as ucht an chuireadh a thabhairt dom teacht anseo inniu. Treaslaím libh as an méid atá bainte amach agaibh mar phobal. Ba chóir daoibh a bheith an-bhróidúil as an méid sin, agus tá súil agam gur ag dul i neart a bheidh sibh ins na blianta amach romhainn.