REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE IRISH GEORGIAN SOCIETY LUNCHEON, CHICAGO
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE IRISH GEORGIAN SOCIETY LUNCHEON, CHICAGO TUESDAY, 6TH MAY, 2003
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá mé an-buíoch díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am very happy to have this opportunity to visit your delightful city of Chicago, and to address the Irish Georgian Society. My thanks to you all for your generous and very warm welcome. This is an easy city to feel at home in even if you are just off the plane from Dublin. Once the Irish made up a quarter of the population here and their lived lives stitched Ireland into the fabric of Chicago, so strongly that in it no Irish man or woman feels like a stranger.
I have really enjoyed the chance these few days have given me to see and relish some of Chicago’s wonderful sights. The city is a marvellous showcase of modern architecture. With apologies here to those of you in the audience who are Bears or Bulls fans, Chicago’s outstanding architecture, its recognition as the birthplace of the skyscraper, constitute its most identifiable claim to fame. Surrounded as you are by such a heritage it is easy to see where a passion for preservation and conservation might come from. But it is a particular delight to find that passion so generously directed at the preservation of Ireland’s architectural heritage through the work of this vibrant Georgian Society.
Cultural heritage expresses itself in a kaleidoscopic mix of many diverse elements including the built environment. Ireland is fortunate to be richly endowed across all those elements among them the legacy of that great building era of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century we call “the Georgian Era”. It was during that time that the prosperity of a growing Dublin city was lavishly displayed in its broad new streets and elegant squares, its fine bridges, its palatial homes, one of which I am privileged to be a temporary tenant of!
It was regarded with envy as “the second city of the Empire” but of course behind the grand facades there was another Dublin, another Ireland, struggling with endemic poverty and widespread inequality, an Ireland it has taken many generations to put to rights. There were times when the righteous anger of the dispossessed was vented on the buildings which symbolised the great divide between the overlooked and the overfed. But in a modern, successful Ireland which is widening the embrace of opportunity, there is today a mature respect for this still beautiful legacy of the past and a deep understanding of its intrinsic value. Your work has been an essential part of the journey we have come as a nation. Your care for buildings such as Taylor’s Hall and the houses of Henrietta Street have helped keep the uniqueness and particularity of Dublin’s cityscape. Throughout Ireland, your society has held the links of history’s chain together whether at Castletown, Damer House in Co. Tipperary, Doneraile Court in Co. Cork, Roundwood in Laois and many more. Each of these you have restored as a window on who we are and where we have come from, an invaluable gift to a new generation. The Society’s Chicago Chapter has been active for thirty years and while I know the work was never undertaken for thanks, this is too important an opportunity to let pass without saying a heartfelt thank you for you care for Ireland, her heritage and her future. I hope that you will continue to find both fun and fulfilment in this important work and that you will take many an opportunity to see the results of your labour first hand. Ireland is looking good, thanks to you!
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh agus guím gach rath air san am atá le teacht. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.