REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO ÉAN - EMIGRANT ADVICE NETWORK ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO ÉAN - EMIGRANT ADVICE NETWORK ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, ALL HALLOWS
Dia dhíbh a cháirde is fáilte croíúil abhaile! 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.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for your warm welcome, and thanks especially to Paula O’Sullivan for her kind invitation to me to be with you today.
I am delighted to have this opportunity to participate in this year’s ÉAN Conference, not least as it provides me with a wonderful opportunity to meet again with so many friends. As I look around this room this afternoon I see familiar faces from Camden, Birmingham, Yonkers, Quincy and further afield.
I am also heartened in the knowledge that many friends from distant places are in turn getting to know each other better, with all of the benefits that flows from that. I have had the extraordinary privilege of meeting with many of you in your own backyards, so to speak, and I have been consistently impressed by the strength of your commitment, by your innovation and by your energy. I know that you will have approached this conference with your usual spirit of total engagement and determination to grow in knowledge.
When we harness all your energy and experiences we create an extraordinarily rich source of people power and I am confident that the energy generated here in Drumcondra over the last two days will fuel your work for many months to come.
In my inauguration speech just a year ago now, I spoke with pride of how we are now a nation of newly-opened doors instead of emigrant boats, that we are flying firmly on two wings, propelled by the combined genius of our men and our women. Of course an integral element of our combined genius is our very significant community living abroad.
Emigration resonates deeply with us all, touching as it does every family at some time or another. We understand very well the sadness of parting and the difficulties of adjusting both for those that left as well as those that remained. Indeed, this sadness and sense of loss is reflected in Padraic O Conaire's beautiful but poignant word for exile ‘deoraíocht’ from the Irish word for tears.
However, we also recognise that the experience of emigration represents much more than a litany of loss. It is also a long and proud story of opportunity, of courage and of bridging two worlds.
We are enormously proud of our global family abroad. In every sphere of life in their adopted countries they made, and continue to make, a hugely significant contribution which has garnered friends and respect for Ireland all around the world. No matter how difficult the circumstances they always found space in their lives to help one another, to create a better future for the next generation of young emigrants and to send help back home. We celebrate their achievements and take pride in them.
We know that, for some of our emigrants, life has been very difficult and they feature tragically among the lost, the lonely, the poor and the marginalized. I know that many organisations and individuals work tirelessly to bring hope, comfort, support and fresh opportunity into those lives so at risk of social exclusion. Your work draws them into the network of care that is community and that is sustained by the sheer goodness and concern of one human being for another.
We have a beautiful expression in Irish about co-existence and the importance of community support: is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine – we exist in each other’s shelter. In fact it could be better translated as we only live fully and blossom humanly in a community of mutual care and support.
Community spirit is not some type of abstract aspiration. It does not happen by chance and no government can create it. It springs naturally and spontaneously from hearts that have been taught to care, to be generous, to take responsibility and to champion a world where no one is left out or overlooked. It’s a helping hand, a listening ear, or a word of advice, a fund-raising committee, a self-help group - it’s a million ways of responding to the gaping complexities of life which are easier coped with if we are not alone, if our journey is shared.
I have made it a theme of my presidency to nurture and celebrate commitment to community. I see in the people assembled here today shining examples of the value of community activism. You showcase what we can achieve when we work together. Your work makes a critical difference - it can make the difference between enjoying life and merely enduring life and crucially it carries with it a deep value system, very important in these self-indulgent times, for you don’t look for recognition or thanks and you find fulfilment in serving others. You also carry into a new generation the strong witness to community service that has always been the hallmark of the Irish throughout history and whatever their circumstances. No two of us lived the same lives anywhere in the world but for all the colourful diversity of our individual experiences we are united by that common thread of community care, whether it is expressed as a missionary priest in a Kenyan desert, as a volunteer at Milwaukee Irish fest, an organiser of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Omotesando Street in Tokyo, a ladies gaelic footballer in Sydney or a fundraiser for day care for elderly Irish in London…….. Our Irishness connects us to one another and it connects us to the suffering stranger whom we have been taught from time immemorial to befriend and to help. That is our common hallmark and our proudest boast as a people.
Today’s Ireland has added peace and prosperity to our achievements as a people and we know that in pursuit of those rare phenomena we were willingly helped and encouraged by our family around the world. It was particularly important and welcome to see their vast contribution and importance recognised in the amendments to the Irish Constitution which followed from the Good Friday Agreement…..Article 2, “the Irish Nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.”
It was their ambassadorship which made friends for Ireland in every country on the face of the earth. It was their ambassadorship which brought our music, dance, sport, literature, drama to new audiences. It was their passion for life, their unyielding dignity that brought transcendence and vindication to poverty and to sacrifice. In this generation all the waste that was emigration, all the heartache and the loss has now revealed itself to be a part only of a journey and we are now living the best part of that journey as confident, educated, high-achieving children of Irish emigrants come into their own as Ireland itself comes into her own. Once emigration was a one way and sad journey. Today it is a lifestyle choice. In Paris last week I was reminded how quickly times have changed when I spoke to an Irish businessman there who began his trade with France twenty years ago when there were three flights a week to and from Dublin/Paris - today there are seventeen flights a day. How easy it is for Ireland’s great family to stay closely in touch with one another, to gather as you have gathered here over a winter’s weekend to renew old friendships, to strengthen networks of support and to recharge the batteries which keep alive our connectedness to one another and our unending care.
I wish you and your families every peace and happiness for Christmas and the New Year.
Go raibh maith agaibh, is Beannachtaí na Nollag oraibh go léir.