VISIT BY THE PRESIDENT AND DR. McALEESE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, SOUTH BEND, INDIANA
VISIT BY THE PRESIDENT AND DR. McALEESE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, SUNDAY, 21 MAY, 2006
Dia dhíbh go léir. Is ócáid an speisialta í seo agus tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo inniu agus í a cheiliúradh libh. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an fáilte a thug sibh dom agus do m’fhear chéile, Máirtín.
Fr. Jenkins, Bishop D’Arcy, Reverend Fathers, Members of the Faculty, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Fellow Graduates,
I am honoured today in many ways. I wish to thank Fr. Jenkins and the Trustees of Notre Dame for conferring on me an Honorary Doctorate of Laws. To receive an academic award from the University of Notre Dame is indeed a signal honour.
I take a particular satisfaction in this honour because, for the past two years, my husband, Martin, has had the distinct advantage in our household. Martin has been a Notre Dame alum since he received an Honorary Degree in Dublin in 2004.
As this is, for both of us, our first visit to South Bend, I feel we have now equal rights to the proud title of “Domer”!
There is a third reason that I feel privileged today. I am proud to be amongst such a distinguished group of honorary graduands on this platform. Their contributions to society, to the arts, to business and science are truly remarkable. I want to congratulate most especially Mr. Dave Brubek on the award to him of the Laetare medal, a fitting recognition of his lifelong and distinguished work as a jazz composer and pianist.
But the greatest honour bestowed on me today is this opportunity to address you, the class of 2006. Your family and friends have been witnesses to the milestones of your life and today they have come to stand with you as you cross a threshold in your education. I could call it the end of the beginning of your education because as you will soon discover I hope, education is a life-long journey and hopefully an adventurous and fulfilling one.
Remember also that this is a watershed in the life of your parents. Theologians have long debated the precise moment when life begins, but parents know that they begin a new life when their kids have graduated and the bills go with them!
The tradition of commencement speakers at Notre Dame is indeed a distinguished line. No fewer than six Presidents of the United States have delivered commencement addresses. Their speeches have been wide-ranging and weighty but always leavened with humour. Twenty-five years ago, President Reagan gave a speech which showed why he was called the “Great Communicator”. Of course, the “Gipper” was sure to receive a tremendous welcome in Notre Dame and President Reagan always had some wonderful throwaway remarks: he told that Class of 1981 that when he was fourteen years old, he thought his father knew nothing. But when he was twenty-one, he was impressed by how much the old man had learned in seven years!
He talked about his father’s roots in Co. Tipperary, roots he shared with his good friend, the actor Pat O’Brien who was in Notre Dame that day and who had starred in “Knute Rockne, All-American”. It was Pat O’Brien who made sure the young Ronald Reagan got the part of George Gipp, which gave the future President a nickname and one of his great political slogans.
Two years later, in 1984, President Reagan visited his ancestral hometown in Co. Tipperary. He wrote movingly about that visit in his autobiography, how it provoked a flood of thoughts about his ancestors, his mother, Nelle and his father Jack Reagan. He wrote that “Never had I wished more that he and Nelle were still alive, so they could have been there with me”.
The spirit of the Irish is closely linked to a sense of place. For the Irish in America, revisiting their ancestral homeland is much like a graduation, a time for reflection about families, our history and our hopes.
Notre Dame has received many distinguished visitors from Ireland but I was surprised to discover that I am the first serving President of Ireland to visit South Bend. One of my predecessors, Eamon De Valera, received a tremendous welcome here in 1919 but at that time he had just escaped from an English jail! It has been suggested that De Valera’s visit here cemented Notre Dame’s nickname of “The Fighting Irish”. It certainly focused international attention on this University and its support for Irish independence. You have long been faithful friends of Ireland.
In the decades that followed, the Irish in America identified themselves with the success of the Notre Dame football team. It didn’t seem to matter that many of the players did not have an Irish heritage: Knute Rockne himself summed it up best when he said: "They're all Irish to me. They have the Irish spirit and that's all that counts." So whether the quarterback is called Brady Quinn or Jimmy Clausen, what counts is the spirit of the team!
I could take Knute Rockne’s words as my theme this afternoon. Whether you have Irish family heritage or not, you were brought to Notre Dame by a unique spirit and now, after four years of study, four long Indiana winters, after many urgent prayers at the Grotto at exam time, you are now indelibly marked by the spirit of this place.
I want to talk about the spirit of the Irish and the values that we cherish, the spirit that inspired the Irish to achieve greatness here in America and the values that are the foundation of this great University.
In 1842, the year this University was founded, potato blight destroyed the potato crop not in Ireland, but here in the Eastern United States. We cannot say how the blight was first brought to Ireland. But, when it arrived on our shores in 1845, it precipitated the greatest calamity in our history. It also triggered the terrible exodus which recast the fate of Ireland, sparking one of the great migrations of human history and creating the diaspora which make the Irish a global family.
Unknown to the French founders of Notre Dame, the spores of the potato blight were the seeds of their University’s future. Perhaps Father Sorin had an intimation of that future in the four Irish brothers who accompanied him on his original journey to South Bend. In any event the Irish in America quickly became leaders in education and in the Church. They had notable advantages in terms of numbers and traditions. They had, if only out of necessity, a command of the English language. And in the years after the Great Famine, the newly created system of national elementary schools in Ireland ensured that the overwhelming majority of Irish men and women who arrived in America were literate.
But I do not believe these factors are the true explanation for the Irish role in American education. I believe the Irish have always valued education. The spirit which made the Irish monasteries the repositories of learning during Europe’s Dark Ages persisted even in Ireland’s darkest days.
Most of the Irish who came to this part of the United States were raised on small farms on Ireland’s western seaboard. Their families could give them little in material terms but they were equipped with at least an elementary education and a strong faith. They needed grit and courage to make that long voyage to the new world. I think that is the spirit Knute Rockne had in mind and that is the spirit which lives on in Notre Dame.
One of our finest scholars dealing with the history of Irish emigration has observed that “growing up in Ireland meant preparing oneself to leave it”. I would add that historically, the destination of choice was the United States of America. We in Ireland have always been proud of the achievements of our cousins in the United States and, yes, we all have cousins in the United States.
My delegation today includes two Irish-Americans who have given distinguished service to Ireland over the years. Joe McGlynn is Ireland’s Honorary Consul in St. Louis. A former President of the Notre Dame Alumni Association, Joe, like his father before him, has always been a proud Domer. Our Honorary Consul for Texas, Mr. John Kane is also with us today for a very special reason. His son, Patrick, will be a freshman here at Notre Dame in the Fall. Patrick may be wondering if he could get one of these honorary degrees but you have to put in four years’ work for the first one, Patrick!
The Irish continue to arrive in America. Unlike earlier generations, they come by choice not necessity but, like the earlier generations, they are ready to work hard and to make a contribution. For some, their immigration status is undocumented. We in Ireland hope that a path may be found to enable these people to legalise their status so that they may follow in the footsteps of earlier generations.
Although this is my first visit to South Bend, I could say that I visited the University of Notre Dame two years ago when I had the privilege of officially opening Notre Dame’s new home in Dublin. I recall that day as a highpoint in a process begun almost 15 years earlier, a process which has strengthened immeasurably this University’s links with Ireland. Central to that process was the creation of the Keough Institute of Irish Studies. Many people have worked to build that relationship and I will have an opportunity later today to thank Notre Dame’s Ireland Council for their work and their generosity. I want particularly to express my appreciation for the invaluable guidance and leadership of this process which was provided over 18 years by your President Emeritus, Father Malloy. His achievements as President of Notre Dame are too many to enumerate. We in Ireland will always remember his work in building Notre Dame’s relationship with contemporary Ireland.
Incidentally, some of you may be thinking that the highpoint of Notre Dame’s links with Ireland was when you beat Navy 53 to 24 in Dublin. Navy will have to wait another six more years to attempt to level that score but Dublin will welcome fans of the gridiron back with open arms. And I think it is sporting of Navy to give Notre Dame home advantage for that game!
It is deeply resonant that the Notre Dame program in Ireland should be housed in the former home of Daniel O’Connell. The abolition of the discriminatory penal laws, which made life for Ireland’s Catholic majority so intolerable, owed much to the leadership provided by Daniel O’Connell. He had seen at first hand the terrors both of British Imperialism and of the French Revolution and so he charted a course towards liberty and democracy that would challenge the grip of powerful, oppressive elites without descending into the hell of mob rule.
The tradition of democratic organization, which O’Connell created in Ireland and which was the first of its kind anywhere in the world, was an invaluable asset to the Irish in America. It took its moral and political strength from the people, from advocacy and from peaceful protest. Nor was his heart moved only by Irish woes - he was also a leader in the anti-slavery movement, even when that cost him support in parts of America. His friend, the great anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass, wrote that “No transatlantic statesman bore a testimony more marked and telling against the crime and curse of slavery, than did Daniel O’Connell”.
I hope Harper Lee would agree with me that Daniel O’Connell had much in common with Atticus Finch. Not only were they both lawyers who defended the powerless, but O’Connell would surely have endorsed the reply which Atticus Finch gives his daughter: “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience”.
The relationship between Ireland and Britain has, of course, been truly transformed since the time of Daniel O’Connell. The United States has played an important role in that transformation. Even in the past dozen years there has been a sea-change. As recently as 1994, when our then Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds gave the commencement address here in Notre Dame, the peace process was still at an early stage. He spoke to the class of 1994 about the principles and realities on which the peace process was being built. He said “It will take real courage to begin a new and different journey, by accepting that only through dialogue and peaceful negotiations can we build a new Ireland.” Although the political parties in Northern Ireland were not yet ready to sit down together in 1994, the Taoiseach’s remarks were prescient. “There is no alternative to learning to live in partnership and equality”.
Tomorrow, the twenty second of May, is the eight anniversary of an historic day in Irish history, the day when the Irish people, in a unique act of all-island self-determination, endorsed the Good Friday Agreement. The peace process in Northern Ireland has advanced dramatically since that historic mandate.
The IRA announced a formal end to its armed campaign last July, while in September, it was confirmed that all of its weapons had been decommissioned. Finally, O’Connell’s dream had been realized - of a reconciliation between the armed tradition and the peaceful persuasion tradition in Irish politics. Today there is only one tradition, armed only with advocacy. These unprecedented developments have encouraged the two Governments to work towards making this year, 2006, a defining year for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
That will create more positive and constructive relationships between the two communities in Northern Ireland and between both parts of Ireland, North and South. The essence of the Good Friday Agreement is respect and equality for all points of view, underpinned by a firm commitment to peace, democracy and equality. In Northern Ireland especially, there are many in both communities who look to a future which offers them full social inclusion and real opportunity.
I would like to acknowledge the support of successive US Administrations and of Ireland’s many friends in Congress. That support and interest has always been mirrored by the immense and unflagging goodwill of the Irish-American community. At every step along the road to peace, our friends in the United States have played a crucial role and I know we can continue to rely on your support in helping to bring the fruits of the Good Friday Agreement to all the people of Ireland.
Progress in the peace process has been paralleled by economic development in Ireland. Again, the United States has played a leading role. Ireland has been a major beneficiary of foreign direct investment from the United States and this has been a crucial element in the development of our economy, and of our prosperity. We have vindicated your faith in us, vindicated all those millions of lives surrendered to poverty and to emigration by creating the most vibrant and successful economy in the European Union. Today the tide of emigration has been reversed for the first time in one hundred and fifty years and many countries around the world now look to Ireland as a model for their economic development. They seek lessons from Ireland which they could apply at home. There is probably no simple answer to their queries but it is important to separate myth and reality. One myth about the Irish is something that we hear frequently when Notre Dame is winning in sports. “The luck of the Irish” is invoked by the headliner writers for every occasion, even when the luck is all going the way of the USC!
But Ireland’s economic success has nothing to do with luck. As my granny used to say, “You make your luck!” Ireland’s success has however a great deal to do with a central theme of my visit here today: the Irish thirst for education. Our historic achievements of ending mass unemployment and mass emigration could not have been realised without the dramatic increase in participation at second and third levels that began almost forty years ago. We started off with one of Europe’s lowest rates of completion of secondary education. Today, by contrast, we have one of the highest rates of third-level qualifications in the European Union. Ireland is now utterly transformed by widespread access to excellent education facilities, which has unlocked the true potential of our people, harvesting our biggest and best natural resource, the sheer brainpower of Ireland’s children.
In the space of a generation, participation by young Irish people in higher education has gone from 20% in 1980 to nearly three times that figure in 2004. Irish young people and other learners now have access to a range of educational and training opportunities that hitherto were not available in Ireland.
I hope that you, the class of 2006, will take away from this ceremony a sense of the Irish spirit which you have come to share, and a better understanding of the history and the future prospects of that small island to which so many people look for inspiration from its past and in its future.
Perhaps the most important message that any Commencement speaker can convey to a graduating class it simply this: the future is in your hands. I don’t mean simply that time is on your side or that, in time, responsibility will be thrust upon you. I mean that the future is already in your hands, that the choices you are making today will not only affect your personal future but the choices of your generation will mould the world in the decades to come. The baton of stewardship for our world passes very quickly and indeed almost imperceptibly from one generation to the next. It may pass to committees, or governments, or groups or boards but ultimately each of these is a place where individuals gather and ultimately it is the voices and the values articulated persuasively by those individuals which nudges a family, a street, a community, an institution, a country down a road a successful future.
You will be there and you will possibly wonder about the power of one voice, one human person in the scale of things. Don’t ever doubt it. Remember O’Connell. Closer to home remember Father Hesburgh, who lead this University for 35 years, including some turbulent years for America. He devoted his life to the cause of peace and justice here in the United States and his achievements in Cambodia, in Kosovo, in Latin America changed many lives for the better. The students of Notre Dame have been blessed to have such exemplary spirit to teach them that vital lesson: the future, your future is in your hands, guided by your hearts, inspired by your souls, shaped, formed and informed by this great University, by the spirit of Notre Dame. Enjoy it.
I congratulate you and your families and I wish you every success as you begin your careers and your new lives.