SPEECH BY PRESIDENT McALEESE, AT THE OPENING OF THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ROTARY INTERNATIONAL
SPEECH BY PRESIDENT McALEESE, AT THE OPENING OF THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ROTARY INTERNATIONAL IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,
I have great pleasure in being here this morning and in warmly welcoming all of you, from near and far, to this Conference. I would like to particularly thank the President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, Neil Hill, whom I had the pleasure of meeting recently, for his warm welcome.
We in Ireland have a proud tradition of voluntary activity. It is a tradition that springs from a past when we had little, a past that despite the current prosperity this country is experiencing, is not so distant. A tradition grounded in the necessity of neighbour helping neighbour, in order for both to survive.
With the advent of prosperity, it is easier to close one’s eyes to the poverty that still persists in this, as in every country. It would have been easy also, for people like Paul Harris to close their eyes to the poverty that existed at the turn of the century in Chicago. He did not take that easy option. He looked around him to the poor, the illiterate, the marginalised and dispossessed that thronged his city and he recognised them as neighbours, as human beings. More importantly, he did something about it. It was for these people, the forgotten, the homeless and those without hope, that in 1905 he came together with colleagues and other, privileged business associates, to set up what has become one of the most successful voluntary organisations in the world. Your organisation, of which you can be hugely, justifiably, proud. The organisation we are celebrating here today: Rotary.
The great secret of your success has been your refusal to accept indifference, your refusal to accept an attitude of helplessness, an attitude of 'there's nothing we can do ... it's the way it has always been.' You have shown great determination in overcoming that attitude of complacency, because you know that ‘how it has always been’ is not how it must always be.
Your determination is tempered with hope, with charity, with a real love for humanity, in its deepest sense.
There are countless thousands, perhaps millions of people, all over the world who have every reason to say thank you to Rotary, not least countless members of the Irish Diaspora who have benefited from your insight and generosity. Through its many programmes for education, for fostering better understanding and social inclusiveness, Rotary has brought hope and light for countless families and individuals. It is, quite simply, an extraordinary organisation. Today, as you are gathered here at this conference, I would like to say thank you on their behalf and on behalf of the people of Ireland - a very deep, heartfelt, thank you.
Visitors to Ireland tell us that they come here looking not for a different sense of place, but for a different sense of Time, that is reflected in the way people act and react towards one another. The poet Pearse Hutchinson writes ... "Labhraim le stráinséirí, creidim gur chóir bheith ag labhairt le stráinséirí". Translated, this reads ‘I speak with strangers, I believe that it's right to be speaking with strangers.’
In Ireland today there is a growing realisation that the stráinséirí, the strangers, are not that 'strange' or 'alien' at all. They are people not to be feared, but to be respected for the difference and the diversity they bring with them. We each are different – that is one of the most miraculously amazing thing about humanity. The second is how much we have in common if only we seek to find it. The third is the awesome power we can gather when we embrace each other widely and warmly.
That idea of inclusiveness, of welcoming and speaking with the stráinséar, is a vital part of who we have been, and continue to be, as a people. It is why we have an international reputation for warmth, for friendliness, for caring. And I am positive, that is it this conviction that it is right to speak with the stráinséar that sees us working in international relief and aid organisations all over the world. Sometimes it is harder to apply that lesson nearer to home, when problems are on our own doorstep. But we are learning, slowly, painfully but with determination to go that extra mile.
And you are here at this conference, in extraordinary times. Times when we, on this island, are endeavouring to embrace a new inclusiveness. Communities are coming together on what climbers would call a fragile edge. Reaching out across that fragile edge, out across the chasm, reaching for hope, reaching for understanding, reaching for peace.
In my inauguration speech as President, I quoted a poem written by the English poet, Christopher Logue. It reads:
Come to the edge
We might fall
Come to the edge
It’s too high
Come to the edge
And they came
And he pushed
And they flew.
Today in Ireland communities will tell you they are intent on taking this flight, if not for their own sake, then for the sake of their children. Reaching out to look beyond the 'otherness' of the other. So that the inclusiveness that has both eluded us, and has been dreamt of for generations, can, at last, be achieved. I believe that is something, Paul Harris, and those like him, would approve of greatly.
It was Yeats who wrote that in dreams come responsibility. Last year President Clinton used the phrase powerfully when he spoke about the quest for peace on this island. I suppose we are dreamers here, but then, so are you. Because it is only by dreaming, and assuming the responsibility inherent in those dreams, that Rotary could achieve what it does, all across the world, whenever there is need.
Each of you here is no stranger to that sense of responsibility, of commitment. Membership of Rotary sees you go that extra mile again and again. Sometimes you may feel that the task you have set yourself is almost impossible, that there is so much to be done and so little time. At times like that, it is important to look to your achievements, which are truly monumental, and take hope from how far you have travelled. You have succeeded, to quote again from Pearse Hutchinson, in making ‘an orchard out of stone’, in continuing to foster the green shoots of hope in even the most unpromising soil. It is a message that we in Ireland acknowledge and value.
I warmly commend you on your ongoing endeavours and I wish you all every success in your future, vital work.