STATE VISIT BY THE PRESIDENT, MARY McALEESE TO THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA
STATE VISIT BY THE PRESIDENT, MARY McALEESE TO THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA
Your Excellency President and Mrs Kučan
Ladies and Gentlemen
Zelo sem srečna, da sem v Sloveniji - I am very happy to be in Slovenia
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure, Mr President, of being your guest at the State Dinner in the charming Brdo Castle. This evening, I am delighted to be able to welcome you and our other guests to your splendid National Gallery for a taste of Irish hospitality. My husband, Martin, and I are most grateful for the warmth of the hospitality we have received from you, President, and Mrs. Kučan and we have greatly enjoyed our discussions and the insights you have given us into your country. I am happy to have this opportunity to convey to you our warmest thanks for your courtesy and friendship and through you, to thank all the people of Slovenia for the kindness with which we have been received everywhere throughout our visit.
I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to the members of the small but, I am told, exceptionally able Irish community in Slovenia. I know that you are all making an important contribution to Slovene life in your respective spheres and thereby enriching the relationship between our two countries. Each of you is in a very real way an ambassador for Ireland. Through you, people who have never travelled to Ireland come to know what kind of people we are, what kind of neighbours and colleagues we are likely to make. Ireland owes you a debt of thanks for the many ways in which you bring Ireland in all its vivid complexity to the heart of Slovenia. I look forward to meeting you all individually this evening.
I also welcome the friends of Ireland who have joined us for this occasion and thank you most sincerely for your interest in developing links with Ireland and in promoting contact and exchange between our peoples. Your faith in partnership, your joyful curiosity about other cultures, other places, other peoples, these are very reassuring and hope-laden characteristics which will surely come into their own and blossom when these two small but determined nations, Ireland and Slovenia, sit together at the table of equals which is the European Union.
Although I have been in Slovenia for a short time, I have been fortunate to have experienced many of the attractions of your beautiful country. Its beauty is easily accessible, instantly memorable, and not only has the stunning landscape impressed as my friends who have been here kept telling me it would, but the friendliness of the Slovene people has been heartwarming as indeed previous Irish visitors have long discovered. Slovenia is fortunate to have such a very rich and varied cultural heritage which is very much alive today and we are equally fortunate to have had a chance to savour it.
There is of course an active cultural exchange between our two countries which helps to contribute to the vibrancy of our respective national cultural scenes and gives us great reassurance about the future relationships between the Slovene and Irish peoples. Already both traditional and popular music from Ireland enjoys a wide following in Slovenia. And of course Ljubljana is well known as home to one of the oldest Philharmonias in Europe and we deeply admire the great Slovene tradition of classical music. I am sure you will agree that it is very appropriate that our recital this evening should be by one of Ireland’s finest harpists, Ms Andreja Malir, principal harpist of the Irish National Symphony Orchestra, who is of Slovene origin. Her talents, her music, will undoubtedly provoke as much pride in Slovenia as in Ireland.
We also take great pride in our respective literary traditions. In the land which can boast a national poet as renowned as France Prešeren, I am very pleased that Irish literature, both classical and modern, has found an enthusiastic audience. I wish to acknowledge the presence this evening of Ms Tina Mahkota of Ljubljana University, a long-time friend of Ireland who, with the assistance of the Ireland Literary Exchange, has translated a number of modern Irish literary works. Indeed, I understand that with the help of Ms Mahkota’s translation skills the repertoire of your National Theatre now includes a play by one of our best contemporary playwrights, Conor McPherson’s “The Weir” or “Jez”. Ireland owes a debt of gratitude to people like Ms Mahkota who are so effective in providing a wider access to Irish literature and drama for the people of Slovenia.
It is not just through literature and music, however, but also in the field of the visual arts that there have been growing contacts between us. With the support of the Irish Cultural Relations Committee, Ireland has been represented on several occasions during the past decade at your widely acclaimed International Graphics Biennial in Ljubljana. Irish artists have also exhibited in other Slovene venues, including in Celje. All these contacts help add colour and vibrancy and life to relations between our two countries – at economic, social and cultural levels. This was brought home to me once again this morning when I had breakfast, together with the Irish trade mission who accompanied me on this trip, at the impressive Cankarjev Dom where just a few days ago an Irish film, “Country,” was screened as part of a film festival organised by the Embassies of the European Union member states to commemorate the Tenth Anniversary of Slovene Independence.
President Kučan, this is an exciting period for the development of ties of friendship and respect between Ireland and Slovenia. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to visit your country at such an important time in your history, and indeed in the evolution of the European Union. I would like to thank you once again for your hospitality and look forward to the remainder of my visit in your beautiful country.
Hvala lepa - Thank you very much