REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON VISITING FENIT SEAWORLD FENIT, CO. KERRY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON VISITING FENIT SEAWORLD FENIT, CO. KERRY TUESDAY, 7TH SEPTEMBER, 1999
Tá lúchair mhór orm bheith anseo libh inniu. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl daoibh as an chuireadh as ucht bhur bhfáilte chaoin.
I am delighted to have this opportunity to come here today to mark the fifth anniversary of the foundation of Fenit Seaworld. My thanks to David and Betty Slattery, Sheena Confrey and to everyone at Fenit Seaworld for inviting me to join you here.
Facilities of this kind really bring home in a quite unique way the abundance, variety and complexity of the hidden undersea life around our shores. It gives us an appreciation of how fortunate we are to have such a pristine marine heritage. It reminds us, also, of our responsibility to hand on this inheritance to the next generation in the same pure state that we ourselves inherited it. I would like to warmly commend the owners, manager and staff of Fenit Seaworld for providing such a wonderful showcase for that resource, one which combines entertainment and education, science and mystery, beauty and grandeur at the same time.
It comes as no surprise to me to learn that this perfectly recreated series of submarine habitats appeals to the widest possible of audiences. The many thousands of people who have visited Fenit Seaworld over the past five years – young and old, native and tourist alike – cannot have left without having been indelibly impressed by the experience. What we have here is not replication or reconstruction. It is the real thing – our Atlantic coast’s undersea environment recreated in all its living variety. We are privileged to enter that mysterious world as observers and marvel at its complexity, variety and independence from the land-based world we inhabit.
In the context of Ireland’s sometimes overlooked status as a maritime nation and Fenit’s emphasis of that fact here at Seaworld, it is appropriate, in this fifth anniversary year of the project, to recall the antiquity of this area’s association with the sea. I am particularly reminded of the tradition of the sixth century Irish saint, Brendan the Navigator, about whom there is very credible evidence of having discovered America almost a thousand years before Christopher Columbus received the credit. St. Brendan is, of course, the Patron Saint of Kerry and is generally believed to have been born in this very neighbourhood. It is likely that he would have been familiar with many of the marine creatures which we can observe and enjoy in their natural habitat. It is equally certain, however, that in spite of his extensive sea-going experience, he could never have shared any of these sea creatures’ world as intimately as we can do today here at Fenit Seaworld. I have no doubt that he would wholeheartedly approve of this faithful recreation of the abundance of our offshore sea life which gives us such a wonderful experience and understanding of the seas which surround us.
Mo bhuíochas libh arís as bhur chuireadh. Gura fada buan sibh.