SPEECH BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION TO CELEBRATE THE ARTS, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
SPEECH BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION TO CELEBRATE THE ARTS, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN WEDNESDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER, 2001
A very special Céad Míle Fáilte to the Áras to each and every one of you. I know there are people here from far and near and that, while some of you will long since be friends or acquaintances, many of you don’t know each other at all. It is always good to meet up with old friends and I hope you do that today, but I also hope that you will take the opportunity, the more difficult opportunity, to shake the hand of a stranger and make of that person a new friend. Everyone here has a common interest in the Arts. How you each express that interest is as infinitely varied as the Arts are themselves but you know that everyone here has a unique and fascinating story to tell about a subject you love yourself - so finding things to talk about won’t be a problem.
This reception is to say thank you for all those ways in which you have brought alive to the rest of us, the fascinating kaleidoscope that is the Arts. Through you we have been able to access and appreciate the enormous talent we have in Ireland and the talent that comes from all around the world. You help us to look down through the centuries, to times and traditions very remote from our contemporary world and you help us to understand the world of today in a richer, more profound way than would be ever possible without the creative imaginations which drive and supply the Arts through the generations. Widened access to the Arts whether as a contributor or as a spectator has hugely enlivened and enhanced life in every community and sphere in Ireland. That access, which has extended the embrace of the Arts enormously, has brought a newfound confidence and self-belief to our country - quite simply it has empowered people to an extent never before possible.
We hear a lot about Ireland’s outstanding economic success and there is considerable interest across the world in our changed fortunes and how they were accomplished. I always take care to point out that one of the most remarkable and dynamic aspects of modern Irish life is to be found in the cultural life of our people and it is a matter of some real pride that increasingly I am asked to open or to visit a new community based arts facility of the highest quality all over the country. The location and quality of many of these new initiatives shows a fresh, new and evolving relationship between the arts and the people, decent rehearsal and exhibition spaces speak of a more insightful respect for the performing and visual arts and for audiences. The now extensive and increasing links between the arts and business speak of a lowering of the barriers between those two worlds and a cross-flow of endeavour from which both are benefiting. The burgeoning of local partnerships of statutory, voluntary and business sectors show a new understanding of how to best promote our talent base and appreciation of that talent.
For many who work in the arts it has been and can be a lonely furrow that you plough and there have, I am sure, been times when a bit of thanks would have gone a long way. We are I hope getting better at gratitude. We are already well versed in begrudgery, sad to say, but that too is changing as we grow more sophisticated in our understanding of the simplest of human dynamics - that a word of praise can bring out the best in us, while a word of contempt can shut us down. When we bring out the best in one human being, family, community and country, all are winners. Through your encouragement of the arts you help each of us to travel a journey of self-discovery. Without you many of us would never go that journey and our lives would be so much the poorer.
I would like to warmly thank and encourage you who have been so involved in introducing us to the wealth of artistic talent which this country has on offer, and which we can proudly boast is totally disproportionate to the size of our population. I would also like to thank you for providing us with an understanding and appreciation of the global world of the arts and of putting Ireland’s contribution so markedly on the map in so many disciplines.
And our own Seamus Heaney in an article in The Economist some time ago described in his own eloquent and inimitable way the importance of Art when he said:-
“The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don’t have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.”
To you who have provided some of this “timeless delight” in a world that so often knows great sadness – I thank you. Some days we deal with small sadnesses and other days the weight of sadness is so hard to bear we take a strangers hand with a new found spontaneity, as if to admit that we can only bear this thing together. That heavy unbearable sadness has seldom been more widely felt than over the past eight days as we try to come to terms with the awesome waste of life in the United States of America and the implications for our world of the unfolding downstream consequences. In such a time it is even more important than ever that we gather around things that are good, things that build us up humanly, things that make us proud of humanity. And we are very, very proud of each of you.
Both Martin and I hope that you will enjoy this afternoon. We have some wonderful musicians here today to entertain us: Catherine Tarrent who played the harp so beautifully in the Front Hall as you arrived; and here in this room we have the talented group “Teadaí”.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.