Media Library

Speeches

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF AGRI AWARE EDUCATION PROJECT

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF AGRI AWARE EDUCATION PROJECT AT St. MICHAEL’S PRIMARY SCHOOL, BALLYFERMOT A

Firstly I would like to thank you all very much for the warm reception which you gave me as I arrived, and I would particularly like to pay tribute to the children who formed the guard of honour on the avenue outside. It’s always a pleasure to meet children and I am really delighted to see so many of you from different schools here today for this launch.

- I have to commend Agri Aware for bringing us this very interesting project, especially now, as we approach the end of the century – a century which has seen great changes in Irish society – when Ireland moved from being a mainly farming society - with most of the people living and working on the land - to the mix of other industries and services that we have today - but still keeping a healthy and modern agriculture industry which proudly take its place as one of the key players in Europe as a producer of fine quality food. Indeed over the last twenty or thirty years, the changes that came about because of easier access to education and, in more recent years, the accelerated pace of economic development, advances in farming and food production methods, coupled with our membership of the European Union, have meant that there are now far fewer people living on farms and many more people living in towns and cities.

- Because of that great change and the way it came about, there has been a tendency for town and city people to become distant from the farming community – especially when family links fade with time. There was a time when many city people had “country cousins” if they were lucky, and could spend holidays and breaks with them on farms and in small rural villages and towns. But now that is becoming less possible as time and generations move on. Agri Aware are bridging that gap that has come about through the loss of contact – they’re remaking the links between town and country – setting up the contacts that will make it possible for people, and especially young people like yourselves, to get to know about each other lives, how your families live and work, and how you all share in the future of this country - a country that will continue to prosper and thrive on the kind of links and community spirit that this ‘coming together’ means.

- There was a time in Ireland when most farmers brought their produce directly to shops, and even homes, to supply people in towns and cities with their daily food requirements. With modern agriculture methods – machinery, transportation, processing and marketing – all of which are necessary if the farming community s to survive and prosper into the next millennium – there has been a spin-off effect of making a distance between the people who supply food and those who use it. Where there is little or no contact between groups, it is surprising how easy for myths to come about – and how people, even with the best will in the world, can simply get the wrong idea about other people and what they do or where they live.

- It’s very easy to see then how myth and misunderstanding creeps in – how people, through no fault of their own – simply lose touch – how the ‘them’ and ‘us’ mentality comes about. People, in that situation, just don’t realise that we’re all part of the same community. There’s a story told about Queen Mary being evacuated from London during the Second World War – about fifty five years ago now – and as she approached Badminton, where she was to stay, she said, “so that’s what hay looks like!” – and she was in her seventies by then!

- This initiative by Agri Aware is a very important step in correcting that trend – in bring the farm to town – in letting us see where farming and the farming community fit in to Ireland today – and how the town and country depend on each other. It shows us how important it is to come together as a whole community. They are building important bridges between people – bridges which will promote greater understanding and mutual respect between the two communities.

- In launching this Agri Aware initiative, I would very much like to wish you well in your studies and in your future careers. What you learn while at school will be with you forever.