SPEECH BY MARY MCALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE STATE DINNER HOSTED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL
SPEECH BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE STATE DINNER HOSTED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AND MRS ROMEO LEBLANC IN O
Your Excellency,
It is a great honour for my husband and myself to be your guests at Rideau Hall this evening on the occasion of the first State visit to Canada by a President of Ireland.
The Irish are no strangers to Rideau Hall. The first Governor General after Confederation, Lord Monck, was born at Templemore, Co Tipperary and the next Governor General, Lord Lisgar, represented Co Cavan in the House of Commons for over 20 years. Of the first five Governors General after Confederation, four were Irish. Although they were not all born in Ireland, they were all granted the traditional wish of the Irish – bás in Eirinn – to die in Ireland.
The earliest Irish landings in Canada – which may have been as early as the sixth century – were on the island of Newfoundland which continues to this day to be the most Irish place outside Ireland. The tide of Irish emigration spread from Newfoundland to the Maritime provinces, to Quebec and eventually Ontario. Indeed, at one time New Brunswick was called New Ireland because of the high proportion of Irish-Catholic and Protestant – who lived there. I look forward later this week to visiting your province and the city of St. John which proudly describes itself as the most Irish city in Canada.
In 1871 census also showed that the Irish were the largest ethnic group in the Dominion of Canada after the French. As one historian has remarked, English-speaking Canada in the last century had a significant Irish accent. One might add that French Canadian folk music had a perceptible Celtic lilt, influenced no doubt by the closely related musical traditions of the two Celtic nations, the Irish and the Scots.
Against this background, it is entirely appropriate that the focus of my visit to Canada, after I leave Ontario and Quebec, should be on the Atlantic provinces, and I am profoundly grateful to the Premiers of the four Atlantic Provinces – Dr. John Savage, then Premier of Nova Scotia, Mr. Brian Tobin, the Premier of Newfoundland, Mr. Frank McKenna, the Premier of New Brunswick, and Mrs Catherine Callbeck, the Premier of Prince Edward Island – who in September, 1995 took the initiative to invite the President of Ireland to visit Atlantic Canada, an initiative which you, Excellency, graciously transformed into an invitation to make a State visit to Canada.
John Savage, Brian Tobin, and Frank McKenna all have Irish ancestry, and all have given distinguished service to their provinces and their country. They are typical of the countless Canadians, of Irish birth or descent, who have enriched this country by their lives and work, whether in the public or the private sector.
Nor should we overlook the Irish women who came to Canada in greater numbers than Irish men and whose service, because it was not carried out in the public domain, is often invisible to the eye of history. I am particularly taken with the story of Emily Murphy, a well-known journalist in Edmonton in the early decades of this century, who led a campaign for female magistrates. As a result, although not a lawyer, she was herself made the first female magistrate in Canada. When challenged, she defended the appointment on the very reasonable grounds that rearing children gives one considerable experience in judging cases of ‘false pretences, assault, incitement, breach of peace, cruelty to animals, cheating at play, loitering, false evidence, trespass… and many other offences.”
Canada, like Ireland, has been preoccupied with questions of nationality and identity. We in Ireland both understand your aspiration and sympathise with your difficulties because in Canada we see parallels in our own historical experience. What has been inspiring in Canadian history is that you have never pursued a principle of nationality or identity at the expense of free institutions, free discourse and freely given consent. Irish born Thomas D’Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation, referring to one of the fundamental traits of Canadian public life, said: “The conciliation of class and class…the policy of linking together all people…the policy of linking order to order, of smoothing down the sharp and wounding edges of hostile prejudice - this policy will never grow old, never lose its lustre.”
In Northern Ireland, the agreement reached on Good Friday is the product of a policy of conciliation in an Irish setting. By endorsing the agreement, the people of both parts of Ireland have endorsed these basic principles and have firmly and definitively rejected coercion and the use of force as a means of resolving differences. The contributions of Irish political leaders to Canadian public life as well as our experience during the peace process demonstrate that these qualities are richly available to Irish people of all traditions. We have learned from Canada’s historical and constitutional experience and as the peace process has developed we have benefited from your assistance.
You have reason to be proud of the contribution of General John de Chastelain who, with great wisdom and skill, served as a member of the International Body, was subsequently one of the three International Chairmen of the Talks themselves and is currently Chairman of the International Commission on Decommissioning. I thank the Government and people of Canada for lending him to us. We are also grateful for the help of two other distinguished Canadians, Judge Hoyt and Professor Shearing, who are serving on bodies established by the British Government to deal respectively with the issues of Bloody Sunday and the future policing of Northern Ireland.
The growing complexity of international life and the process of globalisation mean that Canadian/Irish relations can no longer be viewed in purely bilateral terms. Ireland is a member of the European Union and will shortly be a founding member of EMU, the European Monetary Union. Canada is a member of NAFTA and is a strong advocate of a Free Trade Area of the Americas. Membership of each of these arrangements carries its own legal and political obligations which will, on occasion, constrain our freedom of manoeuvre in a bilateral context. We are particularly pleased that Ireland was able, during its Presidency of the European Union in 1995, to bring to a conclusion the Joint Declaration and the Action Plan which define the next stage of relations between Canada and the Union.
Although Ireland has experienced rapid growth and industrialisation, we have been rediscovering our cultural heritage and infusing it with new vitality and energy. There has, at the same time, been a parallel flowering of Celtic music, literature, and dance in the global Irish nation, not least in Atlantic Canada, where there has been a resurgence of pride in the region’s Celtic roots. Groups such as Leahy and the Irish Descendants have achieved enormous popularity.
As I travel across Canada, and Atlantic Canada in particular, I look forward to meeting the people of Canada and bringing to them the message that we in Ireland value the kinship between our two countries and wish to continue and develop the close, co-operative and friendly relations which exist between our two peoples.
Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to raise your glasses and drink with me a toast to the Governor General and the people of Canada.