REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO THE CIVIC OFFICES, BALLYMUN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO THE CIVIC OFFICES, BALLYMUN, IN THE COMPANY OF ARCHBISHOP TUTU
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Thank you for that very warm welcome and may I, in turn, offer a traditional céad míle fáilte, one hundred thousand welcomes to our distinguished visitor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I am absolutely delighted that the Archbishop is among us today as we gather to pay tribute to the great and ongoing work of regeneration in Ballymun. My thanks to Ronan King of Ballymun Regeneration for his kind invitation and to the Ireland-South Africa Business Association for organising what is a unique event.
Archbishop Tutu will, I hope, find himself very much at home here, for the people of Ballymun have had many mountains to climb to create a new vision and new future for themselves and their children. They know a thing or two about struggling against difficult odds. They are living proof of what happens when people decide to make change happen, how the good leadership of one can create a mass movement of many, a community of effort working together to create a community of opportunity.
Archbishop Tutu is a legendary example of the Power of One. He was one, often lone, voice refusing to be silent or to be silenced in his homeland where his people were overwhelmed by the racism, poverty, injustice, oppression and violence that were the hallmarks of apartheid. Others rallied to his voice and he has lived to see an end of apartheid, to see his people take over the reins of government and to take control of their own and their country’s destiny. One remarkable thing characterizes this remarkable man and it is that, throughout the worst of times, and he has known times of dreadful evil beyond our imagining, he never lost his capacity for joy in life, exemplified in that infectious laugh, through which we came to understand the difference between the dangers of sullen resentment and the benign energy of actively proclaiming the truth and pursuing reconciliation.
Now this great champion of all that is humanly decent is here to see and celebrate the ambitiousness of the people of Ballymun and the rapid progress they have made since the Ballymun Regeneration Project first started. Then the physical landscape of the place was very different and very depressing. Then the lived lives of the people were different for this place was no stranger to deprivation, to social exclusion, to anti-social behaviour, drug-addiction and under-achievement. There was a manifest disconnect from the prosperity and rising quality of life that was beginning to flourish in Ireland.
Yet its greatest strength was then as it is now, Ballymun’s people, their care for one another, their resilience, their genius and their determination to make things better. Through tough times they kept the pilot light of ambition lit and they nursed it until a new spirit flared into life and gave us the wonderful transformation that we see today, all designed for the people of Ballymun by the people of Ballymun. The grim tower blocks have been replaced by thousands of new homes built to a human scale, with space for families to live and grow and there are more to come.
Equally important has been the change to the civic and public space - with parks, leisure, cultural and recreational facilities. I remember the opening of the Axis Centre, putting the arts right at the heart of the community, on the main street and I know at first hand just how amazing and enriching has been the journey traveled since by Axis Director, Ray Yeates and his team and the local men, women and children. Earlier this morning it was a real joy to officially open the latest in a long line of new facilities - a state-of-the-art music room - where no doubt the next generation’s answer to U2 or Boyzone will make its debut.
We know that our country, and that also means our people are facing a time of huge financial anxiety. The days of annual growth and rising standard of living are over for the moment and no-one can say with any great certainty when they will return. Life teaches us that return they will eventually but in the meanwhile there will be many changes to be made, there will be sacrifices to be endured for as long as it takes to get us to safer and more solid ground and there will be a growing number of casualties, of jobs lost, of opportunities reduced before the graph starts to move back into the light again. So it is a tough time. Tough times are nothing new to Ballymun. It is in the DNA of the people and also is their DNA a mighty strength to be drawn on in times of particular difficulty. These changes have been so looked forward to, so worked for and are now so real that the context has changed, the confidence has changed and this is now a place of serious achievement that copes well and successfully with its problems. Our country still needs the power of one, of active individual citizens. It needs the power of community where those active citizens gather to work with each other, for each other and work through their difficulties to a better future. We have seen how well partnership works here between all the sectors, public, private, community and commercial, voluntary and state. This is a place to be very, very proud of and where once it seemed the rest of Ireland was racing ahead of Ballymun, now this is the place we look to, to see what we are capable of overcoming if only we work well, fluently and generously together.
I know that Archbishop Tutu will later visit Ballymun’s newest sports centre – the BRL Umbro Centre at Trinity Comprehensive School – and that this visit will mark the beginning of a new twinning programme between schoolchildren in South Africa and Ballymun. Those children are growing up with a freedom and a confidence, a context and a chance to prosper that is utterly, utterly different from any past generation. That is down to the voices of hope and ambition that would not stay silent and which planned for the long-term, labouring through crisis and frustration until they found that instead of one step forward and two steps back they were now taking two steps forward and one step back. There is a momentum here in Ballymun as there is in South Africa that is unstoppable.
Anyone looking for a source of renewable energy need look no further than the spirit of Ballymun and the spirit of Archbishop Tutu. God bless the work of all of you and here’s to the next stage of this exciting and life-enhancing journey!
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.