SPEECH BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER RECEIPT OF AN HONORARY FELLOWSHIP OF THE FACULTY
SPEECH BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER RECEIPT OF AN HONORARY FELLOWSHIP OF THE FACULTY OF DENTISTRY
Is mór an onór dom a bheith anseo i bhúr measc anocht, agus ba mhaith liom mo fhíorbhuíochas a chur in iúl daoibh as an chuireadh speisialta dom féin agus m’fhear chéile.
I am delighted to have been nominated to receive an Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. I have, as you know, a relationship to this profession that enhances the significance of this accolade though my husband and brother both of whom are dentists may have some reservations about catapulting me straight into the sphere of postgraduate dentistry, bypassing the hard slog they had to endure as dental undergraduates. I am particularly privileged though to have this further link to the Royal College of Surgeons, an educational Institution which more than any other has taken the name of Ireland to the four corners of the globe and which has brought students from across the world to study here in Dublin. Long before we spoke of Ireland as a multi-cultural country, this College was a highly successful multicultural world and one of the joys of travelling around the world as President is to meet the countless graduates of Surgeons who proudly tell me that they count Ireland as their second home.
I have no quarrel with barbers, and Martin’s relationship with them is diminishing rapidly but since the College’s separation from the company of barbers in 1784 you have never looked back. The centuries of dedication to “the healing art” have been adorned with remarkable stories that speak of the College’s utter dedication to excellence in medical education and research and among those stories is the significant role played by the Faculty of Dentistry. In the forty years since it was established it has been a major contributor to postgraduate clinical training in dentistry and can now claim six hundred Fellows throughout the world. I am proud to be counted among them as an Honorary Fellow.
I know that this Faculty cherishes its independence in the promotion of dentistry, but that is in the context of a body deeply integrated into the national dental agenda and of a profession which has led the way in terms of joint training and mutual recognition of qualifications between Ireland and Britain and throughout the European Union. The long-established easy mobility between dentists on these neighbouring islands has quietly done much to build bridges of mutual respect and friendship so absent in other spheres and at such cost as the bullet marks on the walls of this College still testify. The value of those flourishing medical and dental networks is impossible to quantify and should never be underestimated. They exist because farseeing people made them exist and sustain them from generation to generation, always ensuring first and foremost that high quality patient care and public service is at their core. I know the work you do here on joint provision for higher training for dentists in Ireland and Britain is bringing benefits to both at many levels.
The Royal College of Surgeons recently announced a ten-year development plan which is good news for both medicine and dentistry in Ireland for the €60 million budget will greatly improve the facilities of the College, creating new opportunities for pushing out the frontiers of healthcare education and research. Staff and students will benefit, Ireland will benefit and many countries around the world which are the homelands of your graduates, they too will benefit. I see that the newly appointed Minister of Health in the Government of Jordan, Dr Hakim al-Qadi, received his PhD in medicine from the RCSI and that is simply one contemporary sign of the great impact your work has made internationally. I was fortunate to visit the wonderful medical school which Surgeons’ run jointly with UCD in Penang and it of course is only one of your international initiatives that carry the flag of first class Irish education around the world. With recent agreement on the opening of a medical science school in Bahrain and research links in the field of heart disease with Canadian software firms, the RCSI is striding into a new century with considerable dynamism and confidence. I was moved to read the tribute paid to you by Nelson Mandela when he remarked
"During the dark days of apartheid your College provided places for many South Africans who were excluded by racists laws from medical schools of their own country.....Through these doctors you are making an inestimable contribution to the healthcare needs of our people."
To bracket me with such worthy recipients of Fellowships as Nelson Mandela and Blessed Mother Teresa and Seamus Heaney is more than slightly overwhelming even for a lawyer. But then this place has always had the temerity to intrigue. How many other medical colleges provide premises for poets. I am sure Oliver St. John Gogarty would be proud of your association with Poetry Ireland and I have no doubt that in this bicentenary of Robert Emmet whose statue is across the street and whose father was a prominent doctor, he would be reassured and heartened by the way in which this College has taken the name of Ireland to a place of respect and honour among the nations of the world.
The motto of the College of "Consilio Manuque", meaning Scholarship and Dexterity, seems particularly appropriate to the practice of Dentistry. Ireland has a good news story to tell about the huge improvements in oral health and dental care in recent years. But each improvement, each breakthrough brings greater public ambition, greater pressure for more and for better still across the whole field of health care. Those pressures translate here into the pursuit of excellence day in and day out. It is a vocation, a sacred trust which you hold and honour for the benefit of all of us. I am glad that you do and grateful. May you continue to give inspired leadership in the field of medical and dental education and may you long continue to be exceptional ambassadors for Irish education.
I would like to express my appreciation once again to your Dean Dr Peter Cowan and the Royal College of Surgeons for awarding me with this Fellowship.I have no doubt that your two-day annual faculty meeting, which this ceremony helps to conclude, was very constructive and enjoyable. I wish the Faculty of Dentistry, and the College of Surgeons, every success in all future endeavours.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.