REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO ST. AIDAN’S SCHOOL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO ST. AIDAN’S SCHOOL, COOTEHILL ON 11 NOVEMBER 1999
Dia daoibh, a chairde. Tá mé an-buíoch díbh as an chuireadh a thug sibh dom teacht anseo inniu.
Firstly, I would like to say thank you for your warm welcome to me here in Cootehill, in beautiful east Cavan and also to thank Ann Marie Lacey and Máirín Ní Dhomhnaill for the kind invitation to come and visit St. Aidan’s.
St. Aidan’s is of course famous as one of Ireland’s first Comprehensive schools and since those early days back in 1966 the students of this school have taken the school’s name to all sorts of heights both inside and outside the classroom. As an old school debater, who met my husband Martin through school debates I have great admiration for the school’s Irish debating team success; congratulations on reaching last year’s All-Ireland debating semi-finals! I have heard about the school’s fondness for drama and of course there has been plenty of another kind of drama on the sports-field. My congratulations to you on winning the Under 16 Football County Championship recently. I know your next match is against the Co. Down champions so I better say as little as possible on that subject in case my impartiality slips.
There is a saying that what is learnt in childhood is engraved on stone. My grandfather’s headstone is made of granite- a hard and beautiful stone but unfortunately there is a mistake in his date of death, just a little mistake but enough to irritate. I asked the sculptor if the mistake could be erased. He said the only way to get it right was to make a new headstone. We do not get that chance with children. We get one go around. The engravers are our parents, our teachers. If they engrave well then just like diamond cutters who can take what looks like a lump of rock and by skilful engraving reveal its diamond brilliance, the child will be introduced with joyful curiosity to the hidden person inside. He or she will be helped to find and understand their strengths, talents, weaknesses to develop and take pride in their skills to know and to face their fears. There is no more formidable and successful combination than a loving parent and a good teacher. If you add to that partnership a young boy or girl thirsty to learn, full of questions about the world, then you get the kind of young men and women to whom an older generation happily hands over care of this our country our world.
These are challenging times in which your school sets about enlightening young minds - to prepare our next generation of legislators, educators and carers for adulthood - to steer and guide and mould them - to help them meet the enormous change in what society expects and wants from our young people. St. Aidan’s strives to provide the sort of courses, skills and values which will equip its young pupils to face the future with deep faith in themselves, in their God-given potential and in their uniqueness. In this room there are young people of enormous courage who may not even themselves realise what strength of character, what inner resources they have already gathered.
Every family is very different and living inside families day in and day out shapes us, tests us, gives us an opportunity to get to know ourselves and others, to practice caring, pity, forgiveness, laughter, sadness, despair and hope. We sometimes forget that not all our children get the kind of childhood we would wish for them. Some of our young people go home to homes where they are the carers for a chronically sick parent, where depression has drained joy from the home, where unemployment has drained hope, where there is physical cruelty, where there is never a word of praise or encouragement, where a parent’s illiteracy is still a taboo subject.
I know too that you have had to face death even the death of your friend and schoolmate Sarah Flynn. Young boys and girls so often suffer in silence, even their friends have no idea of their courage, their endurance, their tiredness or their pain. In this audience they know who they are and I want them to know that we are proud of the way they face and overcome those obstacles every day. For such a child, an experienced teacher who can give the bit of praise and support is often the difference between giving up and growing up strong and confident.
I remember when I was doing A-Levels and my mother produced my youngest brother slap bang in the middle of my mock exams. She was very ill and there were nine children to be taken care of. I was the oldest so a lot of the work came my way including getting up at night to look after the yappiest child in Ireland. I was often tired and dispirited by the time I got to school and there was so little peace at home for studying that I almost gave up. Of course I told no-one, but one elderly teacher in the simplest way became the handrail, the crutch I needed to get over that little bad patch. She appeared at my door each morning in her battered old car and drove me the two bus journey’s to school- and home again each evening. In that quiet unobtrusive way she encouraged me to keep on going, she let me know that she believed in me and I should believe in myself. Of such human gestures are lives made whole, in such ways are lives changed.
I know that in this school good teachers and good parents have paved a good path ahead for these young people. Why do they do it - because they love their young people and they want their lives to shine like polished diamonds.
Young Sarah shone like a diamond, known for her love of life, her love of music in particular Boyzone, of soccer – a great fan of Manchester United – all the things that any fifteen year old would be enraptured about. She was also known for her commitment to making her town a better place to live and it was from her work with the Tidy Towns that she earned the President’s Award – the Bronze Gaisce Award which I presented to her family a few moments ago. The President’s Award Gaisce is the National Challenge Award which recognises personal endeavours, goal setting and the ultimate challenge of competing with oneself. It is designed to encourage young people between the ages of 15 and 25 to develop skills and help their communities and Sarah was a very deserving recipient. I know that as we honour Sarah today and give recognition to some of her many achievements, it may heighten the sense of loss and hurt that her parents Tom and Patricia, her sister Catherine and brother Brendan must feel. My thoughts and prayers are with you and I hope that with the passing of time and the will of God, your pain will pass.
Today’s curriculum is preparing pupils for a world very different from the world of thirty years ago - as that world has changed so has St. Aidan’s. Ann Marie Lacey and her dedicated staff are taking the school forward into a new and exciting millennium in such a way that the life-chances of every boy and girl are helped to blossom to their fullest potential. I hope many more of you will follow Sarah’s example and take up the challenge of the President’s award.
Parents, teachers take you on part of life’s journey. It is by far the most important part for as the old Irish saying goes, “Tús maith is leath na hoibre - a good start is half the work”. That is what St Aidan’s wants for you and works to give you - a good start. The finish is up to you - each one of you has something special, some gift, skill, or quality which used well can make a difference to your life, to your home, your community, your country. One life lived well can make a difference. Be proud of yourselves, proud of your school. You have every reason to be. I wish you well in all that lies ahead of you.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.