Speech at a Reception to Honour the Achievement of Irish Paralympians
Áras an Uachtaráin, 14th November 2024
A cháirde
Ba mhaith liom féin agus Saidhbhín fáilte a fearadh rómhaibh uilig go hÁras an Uachtaráin inniu ar an ócáid chroíúil seo agus muid ag déanamh ceiliúradh ar na héachtaí iontacha de na Para-Oilimpigh Éireannacha ag na cluichí para-Oilimpeacha i bPáras 2024. Comhghairdeas ó chroí libh go léir.
[Sabina and I would like to welcome all of you here to Áras an Uachtaráin today as we celebrate together the spectacular achievements of all the Irish Paralympians at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Congratulations to you all.]
May I welcome, too, all the coaches, staff and members of Paralympics Ireland here today, including Eimear Breathnach, President of Paralympics Ireland.
The 2024 Paralympic Games held in Paris this summer was a wonderful success for Team Ireland: six medals, one gold, three silver, two bronze. You treated the Irish public, and indeed the global viewers of the Paralympics, toworld-class performances across many disciplines including swimming, cycling and athletics.
The combined medals of Katie-George Dunlevy, Róisín Ní Ríain, and Orla Comerford constitute one of the great weeks in the history of Irish sport. May I acknowledge too the work of pilots Linda Kelly and Eve McCrystal who aided Katie-George Dunlevy to her gold and silver medal wins.
The Paris Games resulted in a number of personal bests and high placings from Team Ireland, right up to the last competitor, powerlifter Britney Arendse, who set a new personal best and finished fourth in her category. Congratulations too to Ellen Keane, a trailblazer for Ireland, who finished fourth in the final of the 100-metre breaststroke at what was her fifth Paralympics.
There has been strong Irish representation at the Paralympic Games since the commencement of the Paralympics in Rome in 1960, with a team representing Ireland having competed at every Summer Paralympic Games since then. Irish Paralympians regularly surpass expectations for a small country, having won 238 medals since the Games’ inception.
The six medals you won at this year’s Paralympic Games are such significant achievements for which you can all be proud. Each of the record-setting medallists has brought enormous joy to all those watching across our island and beyond and has been a source of pride and encouragement. Indeed all those who achieved so much by qualifying and competing to such a high standard have made Irish people everywhere so immensely proud.
The Olympics and Paralympics represent the culmination of four years, indeed a lifetime, of hard work and dedicated training by our athletes, and I extend my admiration and deep appreciation to all those who have competed and given their all across so many sporting disciplines. In every aspect there has been real achievement.
The Paralympic games demonstrate how, with imagination and the necessary resources, real inclusion can be fostered across society through concerted efforts to promote an inclusive participation from all citizens regardless of circumstance.
Watching the games, it was impossible not to be inspired by the spectacle of athletes focusing on what was possible, with great courage and unwavering determination.
Ireland’s four-time Paralympian, Katie-George Dunlevy, on whom I had the honour of bestowing a Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 2022, has spoken about how, as a child with a visual impairment, she felt that she had nobody to look up to as a role model, or to inspire her.
Her extraordinary achievements in the velodrome and on the road were not only cheered by the nation but had a deeper importance, providing a source of inspiration, of hope for the next generation of Paralympians.
Sport plays a crucial role in our communities with profound benefits to the individuals who participate in it and to wider society too. By increasing youth participation in sport at the grassroots level, we engage young people of all backgrounds and circumstances in a disciplined, goal-focused objective.
Promoting the involvement of young people in sport is one of the most important public health strategies, but the importance of sport, especially team sport, goes beyond fitness and activity.
By encouraging team work, sports teach young people the importance of tactics and strategy. Sports foster an appreciation of how skills are developed only through hard work. Supporting our sports is a crucial building block of strong communities.
For all of these reasons, as President of Ireland, I attach great importance to all sports, so while today is a day to enjoy your success, I encourage you to enjoy the achievement you have realised together in the green shirt, and know that your achievement and the events of the various teams are important to all Irish people, at home and abroad.
The road to success in sport is a challenging and difficult one. It is not a journey for the faint-hearted, and those who aspire to the achievement of such great sporting accolades as yours have to put in the hard work. Sacrifices have to be made, especially where training commitments have to be balanced with the demands of career and family life.
The conclusion of every Olympic and Paralympic Games raises important questions such as what we want the future of sport in this country to look like. Crucially, this concerns funding and how it should be allocated.
The Irish success stories at the Paris Games this summer demonstrates why investment in our elite-level athletes, of all abilities, and indeed across all sports must continue to grow.
Such investment needs to continue if Ireland wants to build on the platform set by the country’s inspirational Olympians and Paralympians who delivered unforgettable sporting memories and an exceptional medal haul in Paris this summer.
It is important to acknowledge that many of Ireland’s medals in Paris were forged thanks to coaching regimes abroad in the United States and United Kingdom because the necessary facilities and funding for our athletes at home may not be available.
We recognise today, too, the enormous contribution of the coaches and mentors, the psychologists, medics, nutritionists and the vital contribution of your families and supporters who have supported you to this pinnacle of sporting achievement, many of whom travelled to Paris to cheer you on, and to all those who have helped you on their individual and collective journeys.
I take this opportunity to congratulate all the staff of Paralympics Ireland and Sport Ireland, many of whom are present today.
The Irish people’s love of sport has been moved on to a whole new level by these Games. Let us build on this groundswell of support and enthusiasm.
As we look to the future, the additional funding which has been promised provides hope that these fantastic results can be built upon in the years ahead.
Mar focal scoir, may I, on behalf of the Irish people, congratulate you all once again for your superb achievements and thank you most sincerely for your efforts which made us all so proud.
As Paris 2024 becomes a memory, some of you are perhaps already starting to think about Los Angeles 2028. For the rest of us in Ireland, it is four years away. For you, the preparation starts here and now.
May I take this occasion to wish each of you well and I wish a similar experience to all the up-and-coming sportsmen and sportswomen of all abilities who will emerge in the next four years inspired by you and determined to realise their Paralympic dreams.
Comhghairdeas libh go léir arís. Go raibh míle maith agaibh is beir gach beannacht do’n todchaí.