REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT A STATE DINNER HOSTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF LATVIA
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT A STATE DINNER HOSTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF LATVIA H.E. VIKE-FREIBERGA RIGA
Good evening, I am delighted to be here with you this evening.
What a privilege it is to be the first President of Ireland to pay a State Visit to this beautiful country whose courageous citizens have so recently transcended a cruel past and returned their nation to its true home as a proud and free democracy within the European Union. Like many Irish people, I have long admired and empathised with Latvia’s determined stand against totalitarianism but for too long both geography and history, but especially history, kept us remote from one another. It is a joy to be part of the generation which is building a fresh new friendship and partnership between Ireland and Latvia and a special joy to be the recipient of your warm hospitality Madame President and Mr Prime Minister, the cheerful welcome of your countrymen and women and to have the chance to appreciate the stunning architecture of your capital city, especially the great gem that is the magnificent Blackheads House.
Today we are linked by a chain of human contacts of friends and colleagues who have brought the name and culture of Latvia to Ireland. I hope we have made them feel wanted and welcome for we are truly grateful to have the benefit of their genius and talents. For the first time in a century and a half, because of Ireland’s new era of prosperity, Irish men and women have stopped emigrating around the world. Now our emigrants return home and many of our neighbours from Europe join them, building an Ireland that is comfortably multi-cultural, living the vision of shared community, shared prosperity, that the founders of the European Union intended.
The Latvian community in Ireland is very highly respected and admired. They are great ambassadors for Latvia in Ireland and when they return home as many intend to do, I hope they will be good ambassadors for Ireland in Latvia. These contemporary links between us are strong and they are deep but they are not the whole story of Irish links to Latvia.
I was amazed and so proud, this morning to see portraits of two 18th century Irishmen Madame President, hanging near your office. Peter Lacy and George Brown both exiles from County Limerick, served for decades as Governors General of Livonia and indeed it was Brown who arranged for the construction of the beautiful church adjacent to Riga Castle.
Much later, the Irish essayist, Hubert Butler came to Riga and entitled his first essay “On Riga Strand” following his visit here on honeymoon in 1930. His fanciful speculation that Dubulti beach was Dublin is probably forgivable but I am not sure that his complete failure to mention his bride is as easily excused. The women of twenty-first century Latvia and Ireland certainly would not put up with being so overlooked.
Madame President, Mr Prime Minister, I am privileged to represent an Ireland today which is enjoying a unique confluence of peace, prosperity and partnership. We have arrived at a remarkable turning point in our history and we recognise the debt of gratitude we owe to you and our friends throughout Europe and the world whose support and encouragement meant so much and helped so effectively in building a just peace.
Today Ireland and Latvia are focussed on the future. We are both determined that our countries will reveal their truest potential. But ours is more than a focus on separate futures, it is a focus on an entwined, a shared future. We are neighbours who are curious about each other’s rich heritage and culture. We are colleagues working together to find answers to Europe and the world’s complex problems. We are partners anxious to do business with one another as the strong trade delegation that is accompanying me indicates.
We are friends who will between us never again allow dehumanising doctrines to allow us to become strangers to one another. We work to build the friendship, build the partnership, build the prosperity of Latvia and Ireland’s men, women and children. We work to build a just world.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I ask you to raise your glasses and join me in a toast to our reconnected countries.
To the well-being of President Vike-Freiberga, her family and the people of Latvia.