REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE ON HER VISIT TO THE SACRED HEART SCHOOL, TRALEE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE ON HER VISIT TO THE SACRED HEART SCHOOL, TRALEE FRIDAY, 10TH DECEMBER 1999
Tá mé thar a bheith sásta bheith anseo libh inniu i Scoil an Chroí Naofa. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as an chuireadh a thug sibh dom agus as fáilte a bhí caoin, cneasta agus croiúil.
It is a great pleasure for me to join you here today in the Sacred Heart School and I very much appreciate your invitation and the very warm welcome you have given me.
There is a saying in the Irish language which sums up so much of what this school has achieved: ‘Tús maith is leath na hoibre’ - a good start is half the work. Here the children do not just get a good start, but the best possible start, for this is a very special place, a place that is full of learning, full of love, most of all it is a place which gives children the greatest gift they can receive – knowing that each of them is valued, each is unique and special, each has wonderful gifts and talents to share with each other. That celebration of diversity which is so evident in this school, is very much needed in our world, in our society, today. So often, difference – whether it relates to disability, nationality, culture or background – gives rise to fear and contempt, suspicion and prejudice. It leads to people being labelled and pigeon-holed, to their being perceived only in terms of what they are not – instead of being valued for the special individuals that they are. When that process starts early in life, it drains children of their confidence and self-esteem. There is a saying that ‘what is learned in childhood is engraved on stone.’ A cruel word, a hurtful name, a thoughtless exclusion from the games of other children in those first crucial years, can do untold damage. If we engrave badly, teaching our children to fear or despise difference, those lessons will be learned all too well and will come back to haunt us in the years ahead, in the type of society we build.
But the reverse is also true. When children are given praise and encouragement, when they are made to feel that they count, they blossom under that care. They grow in confidence, in self-respect and in respect for others. They learn to be joyfully curious about each other’s differences, to see them as a source of enrichment, and those seeds of tolerance that we plant take root and produce well rounded adults of the future, the builders of a tolerant and humanly decent society.
A wonderful example of how well this school has succeeded is to be seen in the Hearing Impaired Unit, where I had the pleasure of meeting the children, their parents and teachers just a few minutes ago. One of my own brothers – John – is profoundly deaf, and I know just how easy it is for children with hearing impairments to grow up feeling different, feeling excluded. I know how heartbreaking it can be for their families, to know how much energy and talent is locked up in those individuals, struggling to be released and to blossom, and not always succeeding in the face of an often indifferent and dismissive world. A great many lives have been blighted by that lack of care in the past, an enormous amount of talent has been needlessly wasted.
It is in these early childhood years that we must start if we want the next generation to escape that cycle of despair, that prison of under-education and
under-achievement. This school has made a wonderful contribution to doing just that, giving children the ‘good start’ that they need, making them feel cherished, valued and involved, giving them the skills and education to succeed in life. Enabling them to make friends with other children, to be a normal part of the landscape of life.
That approach has been equally valuable in the way you have welcomed children from so many different cultures into this school – from the Travelling Community, Kosovo, and from many different countries in Africa and Asia. I warmly commend all of you, the Board of Management, parents, teachers and pupils, for showing that this spirit of openness, tolerance, and inclusiveness cannot only work, but works wonderfully well. There are lessons to be learned from your experience – lessons which can guide Irish education as a whole as our society embarks on a new, multicultural chapter in its history.
I know that what you have achieved here hasn’t happened by accident. It has taken a great deal of hard work, caring and commitment by a very dedicated team of staff. I would like to pay special tribute to your Principal, Eamonn Travers, to all of the teachers, and especially to the two teachers in the Hearing Impaired Unit, Kathleen Murray – whom I have had the pleasure of meeting before – and Margaret Daly. Teaching is a profession which takes very special people, people who give and give until they are drained, who are very rarely thanked but who can gain so much new energy by the simple act of seeing a child blossom under their care, knowing that they have made a difference. Today, I would like to invite all of you to join me in thanking them, for that heroic but often unsung commitment. You are doing a wonderful job.
I would also like to express my warm thanks to Fr Gerard O’Leary, and all of the members of the Board of Management for the vision they have provided in guiding and supporting the school. Thank you all once again for inviting me here. Long may your work continue.
Guím rath Dé oraibh agus ar bhur gcuid oibre sna blianta atá romhainn. Go raibh maith agaibh.