ADDRESS by THE president OF IRELAND, MARY MCaleese, on her State Visit to Australia
ADDRESS by THE president OF IRELAND, MARY MCaleese, on her State Visit to Australia AT Luncheon hosted by the Premier of New Sou
Premier Carr and Mrs Carr, Ministers and Members of Parliament, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I know that my husband Martin and all of the Irish party join me in thanking you, Premier and Mrs Carr, for your warm hospitality here in New South Wales and in its great and beautiful capital, The Olympic City of Sydney. I thank you also for your wonderful words of welcome, and your graciousness towards Ireland and its people.
It is often said that Australia is the most Irish country in the world outside of Ireland, with some 40% of the population of this great nation owing at least a part of their ancestry to Irish migrants of bygone days. It can be said with an equal amount of certainty that today New South Wales is, by that same criterion, the most Irish State within Australia. The story of the Irish people and their place in the story of Australia are inextricably entwined through more than two centuries. The story began in Sydney in the very first days of European settlement and it continues to unfold in every aspect of the life of this the foremost State of the Australian Federation.
That story is not a story of numbers, or statistics or dates, it is a story of people, living human beings, with their hopes and dreams, with their strengths and weaknesses, caring for their children, building their futures. It is the story of Michael Dwyer, a man from Wicklow, who decided to speak out against oppression and injustice in his native land, who became a warrior and a leader, eventually forced into exile in a new and strange land, this land. Dwyer was determined that he would make his way in this new land rather than allowing it to break him. He went on, of course, to become a senior policeman in New South Wales, and his descendants today across Australia are said to number 10,000. I grew up on stories of Michael Dwyer as my father owned the premises from which the Dwyers Gaelic Football Club on Belfast’s Falls Road operated. The Dwyers camogie team were as fearsome as the man after whom their club was named. I played against them with little success and bear the scares even today!
It is equally the story of Martha Hawthorne, a Presbyterian girl from Strabane in County Tyrone in the North of Ireland, who left Ireland during the Great Famine period of the late 1840s as one of the Orphan Girls, shipped in groups to provide wives or servants for the mainly male population of the new colonies. She passed through the gates and the crowded dormitories of Hyde Park Barracks in February 1850, and was hired as a servant by a landowner in the town of Yass. She met and married Archibald Hutchinson, a fellow Northern Presbyterian, from Ballymena, in County Antrim, and together they raised 14 children, the family living for a long time here in Sydney before moving to Victoria, where Martha died in 1904.
Down the decades, at around the time Martha Hawthorne passed away, we find the story of Michael French, whose parents brought him, as a small boy, to Sydney from Galway. Little more than a decade later, Michael was fighting for his life, as an ANZAC, at the battle of Gallipoli.
It is the story of the individual grandparents and the great-grand parents of Bob Carr and Paul Whelan, of Peter Collins and Peter Nagle, of John Johnson and Brian Vaughan, of John Ryan, and Tom Kenneally. It is the story of Peter Brennan and Bridget Toute from Belfast, of Frank O’Connell and Steve Carey from Cork, and of Billy Cantwell from Meath, who have come to Australia in the second half of the Twentieth Century and who will be here in Sydney making their contribution to this City, this State and this Nation as we move into the Third Millennium. They demonstrate the important reality - should it need to be demonstrated - that the individual does make a difference, and that so many of Irish birth and heritage have made, and continue to make, a difference in this remarkable country, as part of the great mosaic which is New South Wales, as part of the great tapestry which is Australia. I was raised to believe that one life lived well can make a difference – this country’s experience shows how true that is.
With that tapestry as a backdrop, if I may continue the metaphor, it could be so easy for us to take for granted the very special character of the kinship and friendship which exists between the people of Ireland and Australia. It is vital that this should never fade and I know that the Premier and Government of New South Wales, as well as the Commonwealth Government of Australia share the strong commitment of the Irish Government - which my State Visit symbolises - to keeping that relationship fresh and vibrant, and to exploring ways in which we can enhance our co-operation to the benefit of our people - who are at the very heart of our friendship.
I am glad that we are doing this in many ways - too many to detail this afternoon. But I would like to mention a few specific examples. Earlier this year, our National Governments concluded and signed a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement which means that the 150,000 or so people who travel regularly between our two countries can now benefit from free medical treatment; we administer a bilateral Working Holiday Scheme which provides an opportunity for almost 10,000 of our young people each year to spend twelve months experiencing the culture and lifestyle of the other’s country - and I know that in the case of the Irish who come to Australia, Sydney continues to be their favoured destination. I thank the authorities and the people here for the welcome and the support which they afford to them. We facilitate and arrange exchanges between our political leaders and Parliamentarians and learn much from each other’s experiences of dealing with political, social and economic challenges of our time. Co-operation extends to officials from all sectors of the Public Service, from the Irish Nursing Commission who visited Sydney to learn about nursing education, to the New South Wales Police team who flew to Dublin and Cork to study organisational and operational arrangements for the Tour de France. Yet another example of co-operation will be in evidence tomorrow, in Sydney’s Town Hall, when the Irish Industry and Export Development Agency, Enterprise Ireland, co-sponsors with the Australian Information Industries Association a showcase event designed to promote partnerships between companies in both countries involved in the high technology, multi-media and software development sectors.
In similar and other ways we also encourage, support and facilitate close co-operation between our private sectors, not only our private business sector, but in our education and cultural sectors. I am particularly conscious of the strong academic links between Ireland and New South Wales - University College Dublin maintains a Chair of Australian History, and the University of New South Wales has been for so long the heart of research and celebration of Irish-Australian history, particularly through the dedication and genius of Professor Patrick O’Farrell. I pay tribute to Professor O’Farrell for his enormous and treasured contribution, and I applaud the efforts of Mary Lee and others to ensure that his work is continued, even though Professor O’Farrell himself will soon be enjoying his retirement from formal academic life. At the University of Sydney, Professor Andrew Carmin has long promoted the Irish Language throughout the Celtic Studies Programme - and Professor Peter Kuch brings all the richness of contemporary Irish literature to his courses at the University of New South Wales.
Premier Carr, I know that you are a great friend of Ireland, and I appreciate the fact that you and your Government continue in so many ways to recognise the Irish element in New South Wales history and contemporary society. Very recently you announced a significant financial contribution towards the fundraising appeal for the Great Irish Famine Memorial, which will stand at Hyde Park Barracks, as a reminder of Martha Hawthorne and all of those other individuals who are part of the great story of Australia. I want you to know that this gesture is greatly appreciated across the Irish community and by the Great Famine Commemoration Committee led by Tom Power.
Cultural and sporting links continue to thrive and expand - Sydney’s great Arts Festival, takes on an increasingly Irish flavour each year, with more and more demand for performances by Irish theatre groups and exhibitions by our young artists. Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, the Corrs, the Cranberries and many others are household names here. In a few weeks time, we will see a resumption of the combined-rules challenge games involving Gaelic football and Aussie Rules - Sydney Swans and Dublin footballers on the same park! But of course the two codes are first cousins anyway! Not that this kinship guarantees friendliness on the pitch!
Premier Carr, ladies and gentlemen, we cherish our unique relationship with New South Wales and Sydney. We take pride in the endeavours of the Irish Associations and Institutions here, the sporting and cultural organisations, groups such as the Lansdowne Club, the Irish Communications Council, the Irish National Association - of the countless committed and courageous Irish people who keep Ireland alive in this beautiful place and bring to it so much that is positive in the Irish character. In schools, universities, libraries and hospitals, in concert halls and football stadia, from the building-sites to the Boardrooms, we know that we join together as part of one great family - a family of great individuals, of character and personality, of humour and friendship and of special hospitality.
Premier Carr, it gives me immense pride to represent the new Ireland, a dynamic, modern country which is culturally vibrant, economically successful, outward-looking and confident. It is an ancient culture but a young country, one which is now addressing, in an imaginative, balanced and comprehensive fashion, a conflict which not so long ago seemed intractable. I refer, of course, to the Good Friday Agreement and I would like to thank successive Australian Governments and the Australian people for the steadfast support they have given to our efforts to address the problem of Northern Ireland over the years. Your support has not just been moral but, in typically Australian fashion, intensely practical also. Let me say how much we appreciate the efforts of Sir Ninian Stephen in the cause of peace earlier in the decade and the ongoing support of your Government to the International Fund for Ireland. We have had dark bleak days, the worst after the Good Friday Agreement when the torment of Omagh showed us graphically the danger of the death throes of the culture of violence. We are moving inexorably from a culture of conflict to a culture of consensus, from contempt to respect. We welcome your friendship during our dark days and your determination to support us as we craft a new future.
Let me conclude therefore by expressing the conviction that the relations between Australia and, especially, New South Wales with the new, post-Agreement Ireland will deepen and strengthen in the years ahead.
Thank You.