Speech to GMIT Letterfrack Campus
Galway, 17th October 2014
Tá an-áthas orm an deis a bheith agam cuairt a thabhairt oraibh anseo inniu agus cuid den sárobair atá á déanamh ag na mic léinn anseo i Leitir Fraic a fheiceáil. Is cúis mhór spreagtha dom forbairt shuntasach leanúnach an champais seo de chuid an choláiste a fheiceáil.
[I am delighted to have the opportunity to visit you here today and view some of the really excellent work that is being produced by the students here in Letterfrack. It has been greatly inspiring to witness the continued impressive development of this campus of the college.]
Today has also been a great reminder of how our art and heritage track, so beautifully, the complex pathways which have led us to where we stand today.
The late Seamus Heaney has written of how, to an imaginative person, an inherited possession is never simply an object but becomes ‘a point of entry into a common emotional ground of memory and belonging.’ He used, as his example, a garden seat but of course could just as easily have written of a table or an armchair or a sideboard or indeed any piece of craftsmanship, designed and created at a specific point in time and reflecting back at us some of the lives lived during a specific chapter of our history.
All of you here are imaginative people, people who love to design and craft and fashion and shape, and so I am quite sure that you immediately relate to those words of Seamus, and have sometimes entered yourselves into that portal to shared memory and heritage which he so evocatively describes.
There can be no doubt that craftsmanship connects us, in a profound way, to our past and to all that was best about that past. Like all art forms it is driven by circumstance and context and mirrors, sometimes overtly and often very subtly, the needs and preoccupations of its time. The best art is that which survives, living on, occupying new spaces and enabling re-interpretation whilst retaining profound ties to the heritage which formed and shaped us.
The work you create here is, I am sure, influenced to some extent by the furniture of your own childhood years; some of it perhaps passed on from grandparents and great grandparents. But it is also work that powerfully reflects your own artistic vision, your imagination, and the world you inhabit today.
The high quality of design and the imaginative engagement with materials and function dissolves any distinction between art and craft. I have seen many examples of such excellent work today and am deeply impressed by what is being achieved here at Letterfrack.
The reputation of this college owes much to the many talented students who have graduated and brought, to the wider world, the skills and creativity which were developed and honed here on this campus. They have become much sought after designers and craftsmen in countries across the globe, enhancing our reputation as a people of creative talent and artistic empathy.
The impressive list of awards achieved by students of the college is a great reminder of the importance of creative spaces, where artists as craftsmen and craftswomen can work and learn as members of a dynamic community, one in which vision and originality is endorsed and nurtured and generously encouraged.
Indeed, that instinct to gather together in a place of creativity is one that all creative people will recognise. It is an instinct that has, at its heart, a recognition of all that can be achieved when creativity and inventiveness are not viewed as solitary procedures, but as processes which deliver at their very best when allowed to emerge in a shared environment where they can be tested by the response of others.
Táim cinnte go mbaineann na mic léinn go léir anseo tairbhe as comhroinnt na samhlaíochta agus as braistint an chomhair, rud a shainíonn pobail atá ag feidhmiú i gceart, i ndáiríre. Tá a fhios agam, freisin, go bhfuil sibh ag baint tairbhe as cuimse ón teagasc spreagthach agus as an treoir a fhaigheann sibh anseo i Leitir Fraic ó mhúinteoirí a bhfuil a dtiomantas agus a ngnaíúlacht i gceartlár rath an choláiste seo.
[I am sure all of the students here benefit from that pooling of imagination and sense of collaboration which defines all truly functioning communities. I know you also benefit immeasurably from the inspired teaching and guidance you receive here in Letterfrack from teachers whose commitment and generosity lies at the very heart of this college’s success.]
I would like to conclude by thanking you for welcoming me here today with such warmth and enthusiasm. I would also like to wish you every success as you continue to imagine and shape and craft beautiful objects which I have no doubt will inhabit further chapters of our national story – speaking quietly to future generations and opening that gateway into what has gone before.
Thank you very much.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.