ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY MCALEESE AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY MCALEESE AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON D.C. ON TUESDAY, 23RD JUNE, 1998
I am delighted to have the honour of speaking to you here in Georgetown University, on my first visit to the United States since I took up office as President of Ireland. I would like to thank the President of the University, Fr. Leo O'Donovan, the Executive Vice President, Dr. William Cooper, and all our friends who have made me feel so welcome here.
I have actually been to Georgetown University twice before and stayed here on campus. I particularly enjoyed my visits to your Dahlgren Chapel where my favourite spot was under the window of St. Thomas More, a case of lawyers sticking together!
I read recently an eloquent tribute to Georgetown University from an Irish visitor:
"From the date of the foundation of the college to the present hour, this parent house of Catholic learning has steadily pursued a noble career of usefulness and honour, educating thousands of the best youths of the country, preparing many of them for the most eminent positions in every walk of life and every department of the public service..... At no period of its splendid career has this institution held a higher place in public esteem than it does at this moment".
The writer adds, with an obvious implication of cause and effect:
"The President is an Irishman, as distinguished for his learning and piety as for his gifts as a preacher".
This would serve as a very apt description of the current prestige of the University and the character of its distinguished President, Fr. O'Donovan, but I should tell you that the quotation is from John Francis Maguire, an Irish Member of Parliament who visited the United States in 1869, and wrote a fascinating and often moving book on his experiences.
I am all the more grateful for the distinction of the Presidential Medal which has been bestowed on me because the "noble career of usefulness and honour" of Georgetown University has indeed been a constant feature of its history since the College was founded and I am proud to be associated with that long record of consistent excellence. I note in passing that the "eminent positions" for which the University continues to prepare its students now include the Presidency of the United States.
Eavan Boland, one of the most distinguished representatives of the current poetic renaissance in Ireland, reflects in one of her poems "that the science of cartography is limited". The abstractions of the map do not capture the emotions we feel from the real experience of a place, or, as she says "shading of forest cannot show the fragrance".
That line came to my mind yesterday as I travelled from Ireland to the United States. As we exchanged the beauty of the Irish landscape for the shadowy expanse of the Atlantic, and ultimately for the eastern seaboard of America, I could not but reflect on the millions of fellow Irish brothers and sisters who had made that journey before me. The lines on the map give no hint of the fear and suffering, or of the hope and joy they carried with them, or of the enormous store of courage and resolve they all needed to sustain them on their journey.
Or as President John F. Kennedy put it so memorably in his historic address to the Irish Parliament thirty five years ago this week, these Irish immigrants arrived on the shores of the U.S. “in a mixture of hope and agony…..”leaving behind hearts, fields and a nation yearning to be free”. President Kennedy quoted James Joyce’s description of the Atlantic as “a bowl of bitter tears”.
So no Irish person can retrace that journey without an emotional recollection of the significant chapter of the Irish experience, which was written along that route. No one from Ireland can visit the United States without acquiring a fresh and deeper perspective on what it means to be Irish. We see here at first-hand how much the scope of the Irish experience extends beyond our own small island. It is brought home to us clearly that the Irish heritage is no monopoly of those of us who live in Ireland. Rather we share in an inheritance which has been developed and enriched by the varied experience of some seventy or so million people world-wide who can claim Irish descent - more than half of that number here in the United States. I like to think that the office of President, which is shielded by the Irish Constitution from any partisan or executive pressures, is well suited to be a natural focus for the bonds which unite all who partake on that heritage. I will certainly do all in my power to make it so.
It is good to note that among the changes proposed for the Irish Constitution arising from the Multi-party Agreement, there will be, for the first time, an explicit constitutional recognition of this important dimension of our experience, and indeed of our
self-definition as a people. The new clause in the Constitution will state that:
"the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage".
When the provision comes into force, as I expect shortly, it will represent the strongest possible endorsement by the Irish people of the goal of strengthening the bonds of sentiment, pride and solidarity between the different strands of the Irish family. It is a mandate which I as President will do my utmost to honour, as I know will every Irish Government.
I believe we are currently living through a crucial, re-defining moment of Irish history. In putting it like that, I am conscious I may be accused of sharing the Irish obsession with history. This accusation is sometimes put forward with the implication of a people locked in a time-warp, or, in Edmund Burke's famous metaphor, ransacking the past as an arsenal of offensive or defensive weapons. I will not pretend that this latter tendency is wholly unknown in Ireland but I believe it is an aberration in a much more benign process of dialogue with our past which is currently taking place.
That dialogue is so intense, not because our present merges seamlessly with our past, nor because we are obsessively living in that past, but for the very opposite reason. Irish experience has been one of sharp discontinuities, stark contrasts and frequent paradox. We interrogate the past, because we are still shaping our identity in a way which will adequately encompass the full complexity of our experience, the full richness of all our people.
Ireland today is a prosperous country. Yet there are probably still some people alive there who have met and talked with survivors of the Great Famine. My own grandfather told me of his grandmother’s experience of famine times and the bodies stacked nine deep outside the cottage where my father grew up and which is now our holiday home. For my grandfather’s own children the land offered little economic hope; they, like so many others, surrendered to emigration, draining the country of its youth, its energy and its jobs. What a contrast that picture makes with the Ireland of the next generation. Today, Ireland is in short, a prosperous society, but one where the memory of catastrophic mass starvation lies buried not very far from the surface. It helps to keep us humble.
Ireland was seen in many stages of its existence as an intensely conservative society. Yet few societies experience a change of political and economic elites as total as happened in Ireland in the seventeenth century, or as drastic a change of language or drop in population as happened in the nineteenth. The sweeping changes which are currently taking place at every level of Irish society have astonished many observers.
Irish people experienced in full measure the pain of being colonised and the effort of liberation. Yet there were Irish people also among the protagonists and beneficiaries of colonialism, particularly in the former British Empire. Our collective experience gives us some sense of both sides of such power relationships and of the complexity of their interplay.
One could multiply the examples of these contrasts. Irish people have an intense sense of place, and yet became one of the world's nomadic peoples - a situation which made the wrench of emigration all the more painful. And, one might add, the Irish are a people noted for political instinct and creativity, who nevertheless had on their own island a persistent political failure with notoriously tragic consequences.
I believe the cumulative impact of these contrasting experiences has been manifold. They have given Irish people a legacy of resilience and versatility, and a capacity to adapt, which is a particularly useful character-trait in a world now defined by permanent change. They have given us a certain bias towards a human and personal view of the world that is both alive to its ironic complexities and wary of simplistic abstractions. They have also left us with a sense of the Irish identity as something still open-ended and, in a sense, still under construction. There is a strong mood now across the entire spectrum of Irish life of a deliberate and creative re-examination of the past, and a constructive openness to change which underlies much of our recent success and creativity.
There is a mood of vibrancy and excitement in the arts in Ireland at present. We are witnessing the emergence of a galaxy of significant new talents, many still young with the potential of even greater achievement. They are assuming a new freedom in exploring the changes which have taken place in Irish society, but also in rediscovering new ways of seeing our past and recovering some of its forgotten dimensions. Hitherto neglected art-forms, such as film, are now coming into prominence. The recent Oscar nomination of the short film ‘Dance Lexie Dance’ shows the level of excellence attainable even by virtual newcomers with little money but bulging imaginations. The North of Ireland, my own native patch, has supplied the making of a literary renaissance all on its own, giving us writers such as Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Ciaran Carson, Brian Friel and many more. New groups are finding their voice for the first time, for example urban Dublin in the novels of Roddy Doyle or small-town Monaghan in the work of Patrick McCabe. And I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that the Irish revenge for being colonised by the English was our remarkably successful colonisation of the English language. The English-speaking stage is once again almost the fiefdom of Irish dramatists. It is interesting too to note how closely the Irish of the diaspora have shared in this movement. Through the work of Frank McCourt millions of people have added the Limerick of his youth to the landscapes of their minds. The deserved accolades on Broadway for the Beauty Queen of Leenane are a tribute to the capacity of a young Londoner of Irish descent, Martin McDonagh, to imagine a surreal Ireland of his own, and make it an unforgettable vehicle for Irish dramatic talents. Irish dancing owes much of its current vogue to the new energy injected into it by Irish-American dancers in shows such as Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Irish music, whether traditional or popular, speaks directly to millions of people around the world who have made it their own.
The new sense of creativity and opportunity extends beyond the arts.
The most historic and far-reaching expression of that greater openness to change that I am trying to convey to you was the Multiparty Agreement reached in Belfast on 10th April of this year. I would like to pay heartfelt tribute to all those whose courage and imagination helped bring about this ‘Kairos’ moment in our history. Having seen at first hand in Northern Ireland, and indeed in the experience of my own family, the tragedy, waste and sheer human heartbreak caused by our collective political failures, I can measure in an equally personal and direct way the full scope of what has been achieved. Cardinal Newman it was who said “To be human is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often”. Each person who committed to the Agreement set out on that journey of perfection through change and the profoundest change of all is to the human heart.
The Agreement represents an unprecedented and collective act of will by key political leaders to learn and apply the lesson of Irish history. Even a few years ago, few of us would have dared to hope for an inclusive agreement encompassing so much of the political spectrum on the island.
The central lesson of our history is that any attempt by one tradition in Ireland to dominate the other will always end in failure. Victories in any such enterprise will always be pyrrhic, defeats merely preludes. Since it is both wrong and unsustainable for one tradition to impose its will on the other, it follows inexorably that any stable relationship between them must be one of mutual respect, equality and consent.
The Agreement crystallises that hard-won insight and enshrines these values as the organising principle of the new arrangements. It proposes to express them in a series of new institutions across all the key relationships.
Every voter living in Ireland was given the opportunity to pronounce on the Agreement on 22 May of this year. It has now received the seal of overwhelming democratic approval from the electorate in both parts of Ireland and, consequently, of course, from the inhabitants of the island collectively. It is therefore the new and mandatory frame of reference for everyone, anywhere on the island, who claims to respect democratic legitimacy and the clearly expressed will of the people.
The Agreement makes clear also that new arrangements must respect the unionism of unionists and the nationalism of nationalists. Neither tradition nor community has been asked to compromise its principles, but only to agree fair and honorable ground rules to govern their present and future relationships with the other.
These ground rules specify that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, as between the United Kingdom or a United Ireland, will be determined by the wish of a majority of its citizens, and that both Governments will uphold that wish, whichever way it may fall.
However, while recognising that the constitutional issue is a matter of great emotional significance to both sides, the Agreement seeks to lay to rest forever the hope or fear that the constitutional issue can ever again mean that the flag decides the outcome of a contest in which the winner takes all. It guarantees that people living in Northern Ireland will always enjoy special arrangements to protect their human rights and to prevent oppression of the minority by the majority, irrespective of the flag, or who the majority or the minority might be.
Underlying, and indeed enabling all of these changes is a new and more open sense of the Irish identity, a definition based on affirmatives rather than negatives and on diversity as a precious resource rather than a threat. The Agreement is a truly historic achievement which I believe will close one era and open another.
It would of course be foolish to imagine that all the deep differences which underlay the conflict will evaporate as if by magic overnight. Inevitably there will be many and major difficulties on the road ahead. The fundamental change however is that the road has now been mapped out, and has been given rules, and these rules have received overwhelming democratic endorsement. That profoundly transforms the situation. In spite of all the likely difficulties, I believe future generations will salute the courage and vision of the political leaders, and the electorates, who effected the transformation, and that the Agreement will indeed realise the negotiators’ stated goal of 'a new beginning' in all the relationships.
On the same day that our electorate endorsed the Agreement, it approved the Amsterdam Treaty, the latest significant milestone on the road towards an ever-closer European Union. Ireland has been a committed partner in that project since we joined in 1973. We have undergone the disciplines and met the criteria for membership of the single currency zone, an unprecedented and exciting project which will become a reality for us, and ten other
Member-States, in January of the year 1999.
Membership of the European Union has been a transforming influence on Ireland. It has helped to offset the danger of isolation, arising from our geographical position, once summarised as "an island, off an island, off the mouth of the Rhine". It has enhanced our sense of confidence as a people, in that we are a partner and not an adjunct in building the future of the European Union. Its direct and indirect influence on our economic development has been very significant.
The sense of change is also the keynote of our economic life.
I am so familiar with the many success stories in Ireland that I find myself constantly surprised that others are not equally familiar.
Let me perhaps surprise you.
Ireland is now the fastest growing economy in Europe. Ireland is the second largest exporter of software in the world after, of course, the United States.
Ireland's growth rates in the past few years have consistently been among the highest in the OECD. GNP has grown on average at more than 5% per annum in the past ten years, and at more than 7% per annum in the last three. The statistic is all the more surprising when you consider that the European average has been less than 2.5% in the same period. Unemployment has fallen below the European average for the first time since we joined the then European Community in 1973. The numbers of those returning to Ireland is now greater that the numbers of those who are emigrating. The goal of prosperity for our citizens is no longer a pipe dream, but a project which is now being realised and consolidated.
Amidst all this change, there are also of course many constants. One is the importance of our relationship with the United States, which remains a factor and an influence of enormous significance.
Both traditions in Ireland share a deep sense of pride in the contribution their kinsfolk made to the construction of this great country
The epic flow of human contacts between one small island on the western rim of Europe and this vast continent-wide nation, has profoundly affected the history of both.
The tragedies and defeats, the suffering and deprivation which form so many dark chapters in Irish history made America a contrasting beacon of hope for countless Irish people. The Atlantic, for so many, marked the difference between oppression and liberty, between poverty and opportunity, at times even between starvation and physical survival.
America was not just an escape for the individuals who made it to these shores. It was also an inspiration and a symbol of success, as well as a source of practical support for those who struggled to survive and to change things for the better at home.
This year we commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the United Irish Rebellion of 1798. That was a conscious attempt by many of the best and brightest Irish people of the day consciously to apply the values and to emulate in Ireland the achievement of the American Revolution. The affinities between the two movements were not surprising, since the ties between some of the key protagonists were significant and both movements were steeped in a common philosophy which Irish people of the Presbyterian heritage had done much to shape.
The goal of the United Irish leaders was "a cordial union among all the people of Ireland" which would transcend all sectarian difference. In their vision, abilities and dedication, the best of their leaders can stand comparison with the American Founding Fathers. But while the Founding Fathers created a new nation, the United Irish Rebellion was utterly crushed. Their legacy was, and still is, a powerful influence on Irish political thought and, properly understood, can be a resource for mutual understanding between the two traditions in Ireland. Indeed this is already happening in the dialogue taking place around some of the commemorative events.
Several of the surviving United Irish leaders escaped to America to set the tone for the passionate commitment to the United States which has been so characteristic of successive waves of Irish emigrants. The tone is well caught in a letter from Thomas Addis Emmet, the brother of Robert Emmet, writing to a friend in Ireland early in the 19th century:
"America is not what you saw nor what even your sanguine mind could anticipate; it has shot up in strength and prospects beyond the most visionary calculation. It has great destinies and I have no doubt will ameliorate the condition of mankind throughout the world".
That America did indeed have great destinies was due in no small measure to the input of successive waves of Irish immigrants. The Irish literally built large tracts of America, its railroads, canals and great cities. They also helped build its politics. The great contribution of the Irish in the achievement of American Independence was in large part from Irish people of Protestant, and particularly Presbyterian, heritage. In the nineteenth century the waves of Catholic emigrants after the Famine left their specific imprint on American politics. We have now sufficient perspective to see that much of what at the time was criticised as patronage and clientism nevertheless served a deeper function. It created the patterns and structures which enabled successive waves of emigrants to mesh almost effortlessly into the American political system. The diligent pupils of Daniel O'Connell, that great original genius of mass politics, passed on the lessons they had learned to other "huddled masses" whether from Palermo, Minsk or elsewhere, and the vocation of America as a land of inclusive democracy and respect for diversity was thereby confirmed.
If the Irish gave of their best to America, they have also received much in return. The Irish-American historian, Denis Clarke wrote "the history of the Irish in the United States is a subject without which modern Irish history itself simply cannot be made intelligible".
That remains as true today as at any time in the past. The two great challenges we face as a people are the consolidation of peace and the creation of a decent prosperity for all our citizens.
It is noteworthy that in relation to both of these major goals, the contribution of the United States has been as crucial as it is welcome.
Many American Presidents in the past have been friends of Ireland - Presidents Kennedy, Carter and Reagan come immediately to mind. However President Clinton's sustained involvement in the peace process deserves a special tribute. His willingness to take risks for peace, his capacity to inspire others to do so, the open door he maintained impartially at the White House for political leaders of all traditions ensured that he was indeed, as he had pledged, a friend of Ireland not just on St. Patrick's Day, but every day. His efforts were ably supported by many good friends of Ireland on both sides of the aisle in Congress, and by countless dedicated individuals in the Irish-American community. That American involvement helped give those involved in this great project the courage to believe that a break-through was possible. It helped bridge the chasm of distrust, since any breach of good faith would clearly be punished by forfeiting the goodwill of the most powerful nation on earth. The practical assistance given to the peace-process at so many levels is well personified in the almost limitless reserves of dedication and skill which Senator George Mitchell brought to the task of forging agreement.
It is also reflected in US financial support for the International Fund for Ireland, which so effectively promotes both economic regeneration and reconciliation in the 12 northern counties of Ireland. Through the magnificent support of the United States, the EU and other international donors, the Fund, for over a decade, has helped to create a new mood of partnership and co-operation, which ultimately was one of the key enabling factors for the recent political breakthrough.
If Ireland gave much to America, America has helped to light the path towards peace. For that we will always be profoundly grateful.
Any audience which contains the children of emigrants and no doubt the memory of their suffering, needs no argument to justify the importance of achieving prosperity. The American contribution to that goal through inward investment in Ireland, can be illustrated in a few eloquent statistics:
- The United States is Ireland's largest source of inward investment - nearly 500 US firms now employ more than 65,000 people in Ireland.
- US inward investment accounts for 27% of total manufacturing employment, and 70% of total manufacturing Irish exports.
- Since 1980, nearly 40% of all mobile investment in European electronics by the US has come to Ireland.
This is a partnership which benefits both countries. Ireland has long been the most profitable location for US investment, with return on investment being almost four times the world average over the past ten years. US Companies have access to a young and dynamic workforce which are our greatest resource. Highly-educated, creative, innovative, talking a world language, they are at the cutting edge of modern technology.
With their help, Ireland has positioned itself to take full advantage of modern communications and the abbreviation of distance. In Ireland, as elsewhere, air transport, telecommunications and the internet have eliminated horizons, enabling business to be carried out anywhere in the world. These advantages are lessening Ireland's former geographic disadvantage. Electronic commerce is reducing the dominance of traditional supply lines and providing Irish exporters with the ability to work directly into niche markets. How many American customers who dial 1-800 numbers realise that they are in fact speaking to operators in towns and cities in Ireland, as is now often the case for more and more customers in many other cultures round the world?
These developments are providing Ireland with a whole range of new opportunities. As a small open economy we had no choice but to take to heart the dictum of Benjamin Franklin that "no nation is ever ruined by trade”.
That maxim is now being applied with a will in the new Ireland.
The label which has attempted to capture what is happening in Ireland is the Celtic Tiger. I don’t believe that we would have chosen that particular label ourselves because, of course, the tiger is a predator. And the real truth of Ireland and the Irish, which perhaps is not known to those who are looking exclusively from an economic perspective, is the culture of community partnership which prevails. A culture which is working to ensure that the benefits we are now experiencing are distributed widely. A culture which involves so many voluntary groups and individuals, working with those whose boats don’t always rise with the tide unless someone gives them a push. They are the unsung heroes who are the carers, who work with disabled, elderly, mentally handicapped, homeless and so many other groups who have special needs and yet are weaker than those the Tiger favours. They keep us humble and remind us that the Tigress fiercely protects her vulnerable offspring, ensuring each is nurtured and supported until able to stand alone, confident and independent.
Crucial to the voluntary efforts have been the International Fund for Ireland and the American Ireland Funds. The assistance which they provide, in addition to that of national and local government, is working to transform the landscape of voluntary effort. And that is because Irish people always had and continue to have a value system of neighbourly concern which in the past transcended abject poverty and today transcends our new-found wealth.
The relationship between Ireland and the United States today is a partnership based on a deep sense of kinship and affinity. For both our peoples the values of liberty, democracy, human rights and equality are fundamental to our view of human society.
Whenever these values have been threatened, we have always seen a spontaneous solidarity across the Atlantic between our peoples. The American respect for diversity, so well reflected in your motto "E Pluribus Unum", and which Irish people did so much to affirm in this country, has now been reflected back across the Atlantic and helped guide political leaders to the milestone of the Multi-party Agreement, based explicitly on the same values.
These shared values have sustained, encouraged and inspired us on our way to this historic milestone. I have every confidence that they will continue to do so as we embark on our new journeys into the next century, and that the vitality of the relationship between Ireland and the United States will be further developed and enriched.
We will I hope continue to find joy and friendship in each other’s company; we will continue to inspire each other and feed each other’s imagination. As the people of Ireland confidently carve out their Irish identity for the new millennium, the shape of who we are, what we are and where we are going will have the firm imprint of our many friends and relations in the United States of America.
Thank You