REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE CANADIAN IRISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION LUNCHEON
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE CANADIAN IRISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION LUNCHEON, SAINT JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK
It is my great pleasure to join you in what has been described as North America's most Irish City – Saint John - in a province which has a particular association with the office that I hold in that Douglas Hyde – who was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland in 1938, spent a number of years in New Brunswick while he was in his twenties. I am very grateful to Paddy Addison and the Society for arranging this luncheon – and to Fred Hazel for his warm words of welcome. I am delighted to be in the company of so many prominent Irish Canadians who have worked with great dedication and commitment to preserve the links between Ireland and New Brunswick – and to recognise the contribution that many Irish immigrants have made to New Brunswick and to Saint John.
Indeed, Saint John has been welcoming people for centuries – not just from Ireland – but from mainland Europe, from Scotland and from England. Today of course you are continuing that tradition of hospitality in welcoming me, my husband, Martin, Minister Liz O’Donnell and the delegation travelling with us.
New Brunswick itself has a charm all of its own – and in a way reminds me of the landscape described in the old Celtic tales, with great forests and mysterious fogs, even magical tides that cause the river to run backwards! It is a place where competing cultures have learned over time to find a peaceful co-existence.
It is a bi-lingual land, a land of Acadian, of Loyalist, of Scot and, of course, of Irish. We know that there were Irish settlers in what is now New Brunswick almost 100 years before the arrival of the Loyalists and the establishment of the Province. It has much to teach the rest of the world about living in harmony - a place where competing cultures have learned over time to find a peaceful co-existence.
Irish people have been part of the story of Canada, and of New Brunswick, for many centuries. Although known as the Province most associated with the Loyalist influx after the American Revolution – when 14,000 American supporters of the British arrived in Saint John in 1783 - we know that there were Irish settlers here almost 100 years before that. And in the years 1845 to 1854, the years of the great famine, New Brunswick saw the biggest influx of Irish people who came to escape the ravages of hunger and disease. Canada gave succour to those fleeing the Famine, which Irish people all around the world have been commemorating in recent years.
The quarantine stations at Grosse Ille and at Partridge Island are significant places - places of memory and regret – places which cause us to reflect on the men and women who came here in the 1840's and died – and who were helpless before an historical catastrophe of enormous proportions – as so vividly depicted in the series of paintings by artist Ray Butler.
I know that much work was done by Jack Stevens, Danny Britt and Fred Hazel on the 150th Anniversary of Famine Commemoration Committee, and I would like to commend them – and the others like Elsie Wayne who ensured that the terrible events of the 1840’s are not forgotten - and that the significance of Partridge Island - in the story of the Great Famine – in the stories of the other nationalities that passed through the island – and in the accounts of those who went there to help only to succumb themselves to fever – is given due recognition.
Quite a number of you will be descendants of those people who came here in the Famine years – and I am honoured that I will be at the Celtic Cross at St Patrick's Square this afternoon to lay a wreath in memory of all those who died on Partridge Island and in Saint John - and of the many brave people from Saint John who tried to help.
Many of the Irish who came here may have been an impoverished burden on the community. They remained however, and added to the life of the City and of the Province. Certainly there were Irish here before the Famine - but it was the Famine that formed them into a distinct community, the memory of which survives to this day. The contribution of Irish people to building this great nation both in past years and continuing today, is one of which you can be justifiably proud. The noble tradition of reaching out to fellow Irish men from what was perceived as the “other” tradition dates back to the 1830s.
While the intra-Irish relationship in Canada was not always without ranker, the Canadian tradition of respect for freedom and for the individual allowed Orange and Green to reach out and gain a greater understanding of the “other”. In that connection I would like to acknowledge the St. Patrick’s Society which was founded in the last century and has the tradition of alternating the presidency of the Society between Catholic and Protestant.
The Irish in Canada are active, engaged and loyal citizens of their country here, but they retain a keen interest in and awareness of their Irish heritage, and of events in their homeland. Through a myriad of different societies and organizations, the traditions of the Irish language, history and culture, music, dance, drama, and literature, to name but a few, are preserved and passed on to new generations of Irish Canadians.
In doing so you help strengthen the ties between our two countries and keep alive the link that stretches across the ocean and across the years.
All of you - all of us - are united by a sense of fellowship and shared history with Ireland and with Irish people at home and across the world. In your lives here in Canada and as Canadians, you remain committed, however, to also retaining your links with your Irish culture and heritage, and in doing so with a dedication and energy.
I commend you in your work of building bridges and links between cultures and traditions – and in fostering the kind of cultural harmony that we need in the world today if we are to continue to move forward.
ENDS