REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO BLARNEY STREET AND SURROUNDING AREAS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO BLARNEY STREET AND SURROUNDING AREAS COMMUNITY CENTRE
Tá áthas an domhain orm bheith anseo libh inniu. Míle bhuíochas libh as an chaoin-chuireadh.
It is my great pleasure to be here with you today in this wonderful Blarney Street and Surrounding Areas Community Centre. I would like to thank the Honorary Secretary of the Association, Lil O’Donnell for inviting me here today.
The increasing prosperity which Ireland has experienced in recent years gives us great pride and growing hope that this country can and will deliver to the next generation real equality of opportunity. There is a distance still to travel for, in some ways, the gap between rich and poor can appear to be increasing – as those who are doing well seem to accelerate further ahead and those whose boats are beached remain static, bogged down in unemployment, poverty, discrimination, disadvantage and exclusion, made all the harder to bear by the growing self-confidence and success all around them.
We can only judge ourselves to be a success as a nation if all members of our society are enabled to participate as of right in every sphere – in employment, in social networks, in the decision-making process which determines their lives. That has to be our goal, the destination of all our energies. This generation is the closest to realising it. It won’t happen by accident. But it can be made to happen by commitment. The phenomenal level of success already achieved this decade gives us real hope that we can radically transform Ireland into a land of peace and prosperity for all and sooner rather than later.
Community Centres such as this demonstrate that this is not just an empty aspiration. Here in Blarney Street, for almost 20 years, this Association has shown that with a little money and a lot of love, dedication and hard work, it is possible to make a very real difference in the lives of people in the community. Through the refurbishments that have been carried out in recent years, this Centre now provides educational, recreational and social facilities for almost 7,000 people – a remarkable achievement by any standards.
In our efforts to create the type of caring, inclusive society that we all aspire to, it is especially important that our young people are given every support, from their earliest years right through to maturity. I greatly welcome the fact that two of your main target groups in the Centre are pre-school children and young people.
There is a saying “Mol an Óige agus tiocfaidh sí” – praise the youth and it will blossom. Sadly, many of our young people do not receive the support and encouragement they need in order to thrive. Too many talents have been left undiscovered, too many lives lived inside the straitjackets of frustrated hopes not of their own making. No country can afford to waste the talent and giftedness of its people. Every model, every scrap of that talent and these gifts, needs to be put at the service of building up firstly the human person, then family, community and country. When we talk of the marginalised it is important to realise that those in the mainstream are impoverished by their absence.
I warmly commend your efforts to redress that situation here in Blarney Street, especially through the Millennium Scholarship Trust Fund which will give many children the opportunity to enhance their educational prospects. I am sure those efforts will bear fruit a hundred fold in the future.
I am delighted to see that older members of the community are equally well catered for. In this, the International Year of the Older Person, it is important that we continue to value the vital contribution that older people make in the life of the community. We as a society will be all the poorer for it, if we fail to give them the opportunities for self-expression and self-development that we all need, the opportunities to release the creativity, energy and enthusiasm, which they so clearly possess.
I would also like to wish you every success with the new Resource Centre which will shortly be completed, enabling you to expand your facilities even further.
I am both astonished and delighted at how much has been achieved already by the Blarney and Surrounding Areas Community Association. Particular thanks and congratulations are due to the Chairman, Tom Coleman, and the 22 members of the Committee, who have made the Centre such a resounding success. As we look forward to the next millennium, I have no doubt that this Centre and Association will continue to go from strength to strength.
Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil libh arís as ucht an cuireadh a thug sibh dom bheith anseo libh inniu. Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh agus guím gach rath air sna blianta atá romhaibh.