ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, TALLAGHT MONDAY 11TH MAY, 1998
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, TALLAGHT MONDAY 11TH MAY, 1998
Firstly, I’d like to say how delighted I am to be with you on what is undoubtedly a landmark day for the Institute of Technology – a day when the Institute’s first PhD student is receiving her parchment. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Fiona on this magnificent achievement – and to wish her well in her future work and career. It is an achievement of which everybody in the Institute can be proud.
Last night I attended a function in Belfast – to mark the closure of Barrack St. Christian Brothers School. It was a strange event – an event tinged with sadness and nostalgia at the departure of a great ‘institution’ in the city – and yet, at the same time, with a sense of satisfaction that a mission had been accomplished – that a job had been well done – after over 130 years giving an education to generations of boys from the poorer areas of Belfast.
As I sat there – talking to some of the retiring brothers and teachers – listening to stories from the past pupils – it struck me that you could quite easily plot the course of history and civilisation by just looking at the schools and colleges that exist or have existed – and at the changes that have taken place in education through time. Even if you were only to look back at the last twenty to thirty years – you would see what amounts to a revolution having taken place in this country – where greater access to education – especially for those who came from working families – and small farming families – meant that they had a chance to make something of their lives – and to break out of the cycle of impoverishment and limited opportunity – a cycle that had kept the preceding generations confined to a humdrum existence with limited horizons.
At that function last night – I was struck by the number of professionally qualified people sitting in one room – people, who twenty or thirty years ago – would scarcely have had a “backside in their trousers”! And a couple of weeks ago, I had the honour of conferring our most recent Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney, with the honour of Saoi – following his election to that distinguished group by his fellow members of Aosdána. Seamus Heaney is another of those who came from humble origins – who was ‘liberated’ by education - to blossom into the successful poet that he is today. Seamus sums up that great change in society in his poem “From the Canton of Expectation”, where he describes the changes wrought when education became available to those whose destiny had been to be second best, and to make a virtue of stoically, even pathetically, putting up with it.
“... suddenly this change of mood.
Books open in the newly wired kitchens.
Young heads that might have dozed a life away against the flanks of milking cows were busy
paving and pencilling their first causeways
across the prescribed texts. The paving stones
of quadrangles came next and a grammar
of imperatives, the new age of demands.”
They would banish the conditional for ever
this generation born impervious to
the triumph in our cries of de profundis.
Our faith in winning by enduring most,
they made anathema, intelligences
brightened and unmannerly as crowbars.
What looks the strongest has outlived its term.
The future lies with what's affirmed from under."
Seamus Heaney speaks of the generation that gained access to education - that could, at last, “dig” as he did “with the pen” – or with the computer, the “mechanical digger”. That ‘revolution’ that he speaks about - was mirrored here - where a whole new world of opportunity was opened up to a generation - emerging from the economic and cultural turmoil of the 2nd World War - where it was possible at last to break out of the confinement of economic repression - and where people could be participants, rather than onlookers, in the emerging post-war world.
That push for greater access to education represented a significant challenge to Irish educators and administrators. But they rose to the task - and have been a major catalyst in the changes since the War - giving us an Ireland of which we can be proud - a modern liberal democracy - with an educated, adaptable population – and with the skills and strengths capable of attracting high calibre foreign investors. Third level education today is no longer just about going to university – it is far wider than the pure academic – encompassing the many technologies and new disciplines that are now a part of our modern world. It is accessible to all – through full-time and part-time courses – in the Technology Institutes, the Universities - and in the specialist schools and colleges. It has the flexibility to cater for the needs and circumstances of everybody – school-leavers – those who have been in the workforce and who want to return to update their knowledge and skills – those who want to change career – or those many women who want to start on a new career after raising a family.
The real test for all of us must surely be our ability to respond to changing needs and priorities - as the spiral of civilisation continues. As Newman said, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often”. Our move from the ‘hard shoulder’ to the ‘fast lane’ was made possible by our ability to change. Staying in the fast lane means that we must continue to meet change – and to turn challenge into opportunity. In practice it means that education is a life-long process – as we update our knowledge and skills – and take on new skills – perhaps start new careers – as the pace of modern society is reflected in changing technologies and changing demands. For most of us – no job is for life – changing careers is more the rule that the exception. Making that change requires us to be ready to re-learn and re-skill.
As I said, education has been central to the great ‘revolution’ that took place in Irish society - as it moved from a rural-based economy to a modern prosperous State. That transition was monumental - breathtaking in its audacity and its accomplishments. It could only have come about by the willingness and readiness of our educators to see what was required – and to make the necessary arrangements to meet those requirements. That ability is what will see us well into the next millennium.
In the Institute of Technology here in Tallaght – you are at the leading edge of change. Through the management and staff of the Institute - you have the resources to see you through to successful careers – and to keep your skills and abilities honed. In congratulating those whose achievements are been marked today with awards – I want to wish all of you every success with your studies and your work – and in your chosen careers – even as they will change in the years ahead.