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Speeches

Remarks at the Global Irish Economic Forum Dinner

Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 4th October 2013

Taoiseach

Tánaiste

Ministers

Distinguished Guests

It gives me enormous pride and pleasure to see so many people gathered here this evening. The warmth and energy in the room is palpable and is a dynamic manifestation of Ireland’s global community. I am delighted to be part of it.

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Taoiseach, leis an Tánaiste agus lena gcomhghleacaithe uilig sa Rialtas, agus leis na daoine siúd uilig arbh é a mbuan-tiomantas a dhéanann an tionscnamh domhanda seo go leanúnach níos leithne agus níos doimhne, ar tionscnamh é atá tiomanta ag luachanna na dlúthpháirtíochta, na cruthaitheachta agus na flaithiúlachta.

[I wish to thank the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, their colleagues in Government, and all those whose ongoing commitment has continued to broaden and deepen this global initiative which is driven by the values of solidarity, interdependence, creativity and generosity.]

Let me extend a warm ceád míle fáilte to those of you who have travelled to be here from near, far and even farther. From Atlanta to Brussels, from Abu Dhabi to Buenos Aires, from every continent and 35 countries, each of your individual stories is a thread in a web of migration and return that has brought you together in this Forum as partners in a valuable shared project – the advancement of Irish economic performance in a globalised environment that offers opportunities based on Irish creativity, innovation skill and some charm too.

Some of you here are Irish by descent. Some of you are Irish by birth. Some of you are Irish by association in education or business. As friends of Ireland, all of you are Irish in spirit – a spirit that wishes to be of service to this country and its people that we all cherish.

For some of you this may be your first time at the Forum. For some others, it may be your third time to contribute. In a previous incarnation, I was part of the first Forum in Farmleigh in 2009 and recall with pleasure the very lively discussions in the workshop that concentrated on the contribution that culture and creativity can make to economy and society, and indeed we discussed the rich employment possibilities of the creative industries – a sector of the global economy whose growth rate outstrips others.

The gift of what is for many of you your most valuable asset, your time, is a most generous one, it is deeply appreciated and will be even more valuable as your ideas and responses come to fruition. Your expertise and your ideas bear witness to an ongoing commitment to Ireland, its people and to our collective future as part of an ever more interdependent world.

It may at times appear to be an overused truism, but it is simply true, that Ireland’s greatest resource as a nation is its people – creative, talented, highly educated, caring, generous and sincere in their friendships.

That population of Irish people who will define our Irishness includes those who have left, and will leave, as well as those who will remain.

Our aspiration is to have the benefit of the work and genius of this, the most qualified in terms of third level completions of any of the European Member States, by developing opportunities for them in their native land.

During his 1963 visit to Ireland, US President John F. Kennedy told the Dáil that “this has never been a rich or powerful country, and yet, since earliest times, its influence on the world has been rich and powerful”.

That positive influence was achieved due to the resilience of our people, following a devastating Famine, emigration and language loss, and their constant reinventing and re-crafting themselves to deal with changing circumstances and to face new challenges. What they have achieved is due to people like you who have continually championed Ireland and have drawn attention to the strengths, values and aspirations of the Irish people.

The most significant of Irish contributions, in the cultural area as well as any other, have not been confined to imitation. The contributions that have been of greatest importance have been made by mould-breakers. Whether it be James Joyce with Ulysses or a modern scientist, or technologist making a new product or application.

We all know that recent years have been difficult ones for Ireland. The global economic crisis affected us deeply, as have European and home-grown contractions. Our economy, our people and our collective morale have taken a severe blow. While there has been nothing easy about our road to recovery, the Irish people have faced these new challenges with characteristic resilience and resolve, to which I have referred, as well as a determination not to waste the chastening experience of a recession and to learn the positive lessons for the future.

The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have briefed you all on the various Government initiatives being taken on this journey of recovery and renewal. While the journey may involve several paths being traversed at the same time and our remaining open to new departures, it is very clear that the Irish global family is for us, not only a resource, but a very important travel companion just now. As we say in Irish:

Giorraíonn beirt bóthar – two shorten the road.

Your presence, your participation and your support is certainly helping the Irish people to shorten the road – to the real and sustainable economic future we envisage.

As to the term diaspora itself –

It does not mean the scattering that it once did – a dispersal that was terminal without the prospect of a homecoming, such as Eavan Boland wrote of in 1986 in her poem

The Emigrant Irish:

“Like oil lamps we put them out the back / of our houses, of our minds.”

Using the communications technology that is available to us, it is now much easier to stay in contact. It is not necessary to forget or to consign warm relationships and friendships to memory.

I sincerely hope that the experience of that distant, disconnected emigrant is a relic of the past. We have moved from a time when Irish society was divided into those who stayed behind and those who left forever. Such irrevocable breaking of links now is increasingly immaterial.

The very existence of this Forum is proof of a more positive engagement with the world, where the dynamic involves leaving and returning but always staying connected. Our contemporary world, with its many contradictions, is one of immense change. The future of all the subjects we have studied is one of change. The moral choice is to be part of the defining of that change or to be its dependent variable.

I have had the pleasure over many years of visiting Irish communities abroad. From as near as Haringey in London and as far as the Hurling Club in Buenos Aires, I regularly meet Irish emigrants who remain attached and devoted to their homeland.

I am filled with admiration when I meet talented, dynamic young Irish people with original and creative ideas, as well as the drive to realise them. I encounter Irish missionaries, development workers and peacekeepers who selflessly give of themselves to assist the weak and the vulnerable. There is nothing fictive about such people.

They operate out of an integration of heart and head, of instinct and knowledge. I am overwhelmed by the appreciation our music, song and poetry generates all over the world.

It is one of the enduring features of Ireland that a capacity and respect for art and culture is deeply embedded in the collective Irish psyche. Artistic expression, creativity and sensibility are major components of our Irish national narrative and identity.

They help define how we see the world and how the world, in turn, sees us. Irish people have had to be flexible because their migrations again and again required them to be modernisers, adapting to different circumstances.

Irish culture has been a huge reputational asset which, despite the difficulties of recent years, has enabled us to continue to hold a place of respect and affection among the nations of the world. Our arts and culture not only enrich the quality of the society in which we live and burnish our national reputation, they also make a tangible contribution to the economy in terms of the employment they create and sustain.

Earlier today, you heard reflections from recent and long-standing emigrants, Irish writers and entrepreneurs. Their contributions were emblematic of the extraordinary diversity that there is in the Irish emigrant experience across the spectrum of business, the arts, academia, the caring professions and the community and sporting sectors.

Ba mhaith liom moladh faoi leith a thabhairt dóibh siúd agaibh a thugann cúnamh do shaoránaigh a d’fhéadfadh, trí chúinsí pearsanta, a bheith i mbaol ar chaoi éigin agus a bhfuil tacaíocht ag teastáil uathu. Tá go leor leor agaibhse páirteach in eagraíochtaí cultúrtha, in eagraíochtaí sibhialta nó in eagraíochtaí pobail – ó Chumann Lúthchleas Gael ar an láimh amháin go Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann agus grúpaí tacaíochta d’imircigh ar an láimh eile. Is iad traidisiúin na haisíochta agus na dlúthphairtíochta pobail seo, is siocar le Diaspóra na hÉireann a bheith ar ceann de na Diaspóraí is inmholta, is fuinniúla agus is flaithiúla ar domhan.

[I wish to pay a particular tribute to those of you who assist citizens who, through individual circumstances, may be vulnerable and are in need of support. Many of you are involved in cultural, civic and community organisations - from the GAA to Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann to emigrant support groups. This tradition of giving back and of community solidarity is what makes Ireland’s diaspora one of the most admirable, dynamic and generous in the world.]

A few short weeks ago we sadly lost one of Ireland’s great voices in the passing of Séamus Heaney. His words were greatly cherished for the eloquence and empathy with which he captured the human experience. His poetry reflected the fundamental moral choices in Greek myth, an interrogation of Angle-Saxon literature and the constant echo of ancient Gaelic culture. For the first Forum in 2009, Séamus chose some lines of poetry, from his poem Keeping Going, to welcome the global Irish community home.

“You keep /old roads open by driving on the new ones”

In his message to the Forum, he wrote that “the people attending, like the person addressed in the poem ‘have good stamina’; give wholeheartedly of their best to the community, persevere in helping, and display an admirable fidelity and dependability.”

So we Irish, and those who are our friends, are not scattered or disconnected individuals but a strongly connected web of people who wish, not only to keep faith with our homeland, but to work together to create a new version of ourselves – competent, caring but ethical too. And that will be a contribution to our global community.

We are all so fortunate to be part of a global Irish community. It is a well from which we can all draw, but is also a resource to which we in Ireland must contribute. Harnessing the diaspora to support the needs of the homeland involves reciprocal obligations as well as benefits. As Ireland continues to adapt to an ever changing world, there has never been a more important time to be an active and creative part of this global family and to make a contribution to the welfare of the Irish people, both at home and abroad.

The last time I had the honour of hosting Séamus Heaney in Áras an Uachtaráin, he recited a poem from his collection “Seeing Things”. In that poem, the imagery he invoked was one of the monks of Clonmacnoise seeking to free a visitor from the spirit world who was in danger of drowning on earth with which his anchor from the spirit of the skies had become entangled. The poem concludes:

“They did, the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back

Out of the marvellous as he had known it”.

By your presence, you have answered a call to help remake the Irish economy, to help us all together, as lámha a chéile, to renew Irish society, but also to make, again together, a clear vision of the “marvellous”, a vision that we are determined to build together.

Your participation and commitment will help us make that a marvellous reality not just for now but also for future generations.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.