REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE TALLINN TOWN HALL STATE VISIT TO ESTONIA
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE TALLINN TOWN HALL STATE VISIT TO ESTONIA THURSDAY, 24TH MAY, 2001
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you, Mr Mayor, for your kind words and the warmth of your welcome.
It is a great pleasure to be here today at the beginning of my visit to your country, the first State visit by an Irish President to Estonia. I look forward to getting to see and experience as much as I can of this beautiful gem of a city of Tallinn over the next two days and, of course, to paving the way for the Irish soccer team whose forthcoming match against Estonia will be of such interest in both our countries.
The Town Hall, where we are now gathered, is an impressive and unique building - an important expression of late Gothic architecture which is the pride of Tallinn and a part of Northern Europe’s distinguished architectural patrimony. It is also a powerful reminder of a time 750 years ago when this city flourished as a great mercantile centre, with links to all the leading cities of Northern Europe. And Tallinn’s walls, fortifications and numerous fine buildings from the Hansa period remind us too of the city’s legendary past as an international centre. Today, after a long period of foreign domination, Tallinn is the capital of a new and vibrant Estonia and importantly, an Estonia which is reasserting its European identity and making of itself a contemporary centre of European gravity.
From its height, Vana Toomas, or Old Thomas, the Town Hall’s weathervane, watches over Tallinn. Some might say it personifies the city in the manner referred to by your President in 1972 when he spoke of Tallinn as a “friendly old man”. Today, Vana Toomas shares the confident and forward-looking air of the city and its people. I know that this has not always been the case, and that your city, like Old Thomas, has seen its share of strife and oppression. However, as the carving on the magistrates’ bench unwittingly foretold, your David has triumphed over Goliath. Today we can celebrate the re-assertion of Estonia’s independence. And we can also be sure that tomorrow brings the promise of a better life for your citizens, as full and free participants in a Europe, which is at last fulfilling its destiny in peace and in partnership.
I am delighted to be here with you, and I wish you, Mr Mayor, and the City Council every success in the demanding but rewarding work of preserving and developing the heritage of this enchanting city and serving the people of Tallinn in the future. I hope that like me, many strangers will come to this place, will fall in love with it as we have already done and will leave as friends.