REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY MCALEESE AT A STATE LUNCH HOSTED BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF NZ
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY MCALEESE AT A STATE LUNCH HOSTED BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT HOUSE
Prime Minister, Professor Davis
Madam Speaker
Your Excellency Dr. Marolla, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Government Ministers
Gerry Brownlee MP representing the Leader of the Opposition Members of Parliament
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
What a delight it is to be here at the invitation of the Governor General and the Government. I thank you most sincerely for the opportunity to visit this land of legendary beauty and I thank you Prime Minister and Professor Davis, for hosting this splendid event. I am grateful for the warm words of welcome which you and Gerry Brownlee M.P. have just expressed.
It is easy for the Irish to feel at home in New Zealand, which has long attracted Irish emigrants, my own clan well represented among them. They came like bees to honey, one might observe, standing as we do in Wellington’s “Beehive”! New Zealand’s two colonial-rule administrative units - New Ulster and New Munster - give a good indication of the depth of our shared heritage, and the influence of Irish immigrants in New Zealand seems to have been more immediate and long-lasting than almost anywhere else in the world, not least in politics.
Politics, of course, is one of the great Irish pastimes, and the number of Irish immigrants and New Zealanders of Irish descent who rose to prominence in politics here should, therefore, come as no surprise. Twelve of your thirty-eight Premiers and Prime Ministers have had some link to Ireland, including your very first Governor, William Hobson, and George Grey, the only man to hold both the governorship and the premiership of New Zealand. Indeed Prime Minister, your own grandfather emigrated to New Zealand from Co. Armagh in 1910. That so many arrivals from Ireland and their descendents were able to make careers here, political or otherwise, is a credit to their adopted homeland and its ability to integrate these new arrivals and their descendents into the vibrant heart of this youthful but ancient nation.
Yours is an example we hope to follow now that the tide of emigration has been reversed for the first time in a century and a half. Now like you, we welcome many strangers to our shores, into our communities where their lived lives help anchor our prosperity, enrich our civic life and build strong bridges of human friendship between Ireland and cultures from right around the world. Theirs is a different kind of emigration than that which built up New Zealand for theirs is a different world. Some will stay but most will return home on one of the hundreds of daily flights that make the thousands of miles between us simply an overnight journey away. They will bring home their new skills, experience, international networks and insights. They will stimulate fresh growth, new enterprise and initiative, just as the returning Irish are doing right now in their native home.
Suddenly in a space of a very few years non-Irish citizens account for ten percent of our population and in the midst of change and challenge we look to New Zealand’s fine record of multiculturalism and tolerance as we set ourselves the task of getting this new Ireland right for all.
Like New Zealand, Ireland has of late benefited from a period of sustained economic growth, with a move from an agriculture-based economy to a more developed, open economy, focusing on industrial and technological developments in knowledge-based industries. The EU has been a major factor in our development. I know that your relationship with the EU is an important one and I assure you that we in Ireland will do all in our power to ensure that economic and trade relations between New Zealand and the EU continue to prosper.
Ireland’s prosperity has been mirrored by peace in Northern Ireland where former enemies are serving side-by-side in Government. We are working hard in partnership with that Government to help Northern Ireland re-discover its roots as an entrepreneurial engine and to develop its prosperity as a key part of a globally competitive all-island economy.
These happier times are part of a long and at times cruel journey when we were glad of good, supportive friends, none better than here in New Zealand. You were one of the first countries to support the International Fund for Ireland. The work of the Fund in reconciling bitterly divided communities has been pivotal in changing hearts and minds. During my first visit to New Zealand, shortly after the signature of the Good Friday Agreement, the depth of goodwill that I encountered here towards the peace process was simply overwhelming. I recall your 8 May statement, Prime Minister, welcoming the restoration of devolved Government in Ireland and the Motion moved by Hon. Martin Gallagher MP, co-chairman of Parliament’s Ireland-New Zealand Friendship Group, welcoming that landmark development. Not only do we deeply appreciate your support but more than that, your support has mattered a great deal.
As we stop focussing on the things which divided the two traditions in Ireland suddenly the things which could reconcile us take on a new focus and urgency - among them a story which resonates deeply here and that is the heroic sacrifice made by the fifty thousand brave young Irishmen of all religions and persuasions from all over the island of Ireland who lost their lives in the first world war. Their story was overtaken, indeed long overshadowed by events of 1916 and the heroic struggle for Irish Independence but at last their stories have been taken out of those shoeboxes in the attic and restored to memory creating an invaluable platform of shared memory, shared pride.
Almost a quarter of a million Irish men served in that War. They served alongside their New Zealand comrades too and indeed we both remembered our dead at Messines in Belgium in June of this year.
Today the past shedding of too much blood, too much young blood, keeps both our nations focussed on peace at home, and peace in our world. We are relatively small nations but our values and voices are anything but. We bring to the discourse of the international community a similar outlook across a range of issues, in particular in the area of disarmament, as members of the New Agenda Coalition. Our joint commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is particularly important at a time when the treaty is under the international spotlight. We share a strong commitment to the UN, attested to by the service, side-by-side, of peacekeepers from our Defence Forces, most recently in East Timor. Above all we share a devotion to democracy, to the innate dignity of the human person, to human rights, to the global fight against poverty and disease. We believe humanity thrives where there is respect for diversity, justice, equality and peace. Our countries bear witness to that truth.
Mindful of our two countries’ interwoven histories and with full confidence of our ever-closer friendship, I thank you, once again, Prime Minister, for the warm welcome you have shown us today.
I would like now to propose a toast to her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand.