Remarks on the occasion of the State Dinner
Zagreb, Croatia Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Mr President,
Dr Josipović,
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me first, together with my wife Sabina, to thank you for the warm welcome and your kind words.
It is an honour and a pleasure to be back in your lovely country, this time as President of Ireland and at this crucial juncture on the eve of Croatia’s historic accession to the European Union. I recall with great pleasure my previous visit and my daughter and my sons speak with great warmth of their time in Croatia. Many of my friends in film and the cultural area are regular visitors to such events as the Pula Film Festival.
Our two countries have long enjoyed genuine bonds of friendship, affinity and like-mindedness – historically, bilaterally, and now in a few weeks as members of the European Union. Historically, we share connections that go back in history including an interesting linkage in the person of Laval Nugent who, in the 19th century, having left his native County Westmeath in Ireland, became a Field Marshall in the Austrian Army and then went on to achieve ‘Croatian patriot’ status in your country.
I am pleased to see that Laval Nugent is still warmly remembered in Croatia both for his achievements and his passionate interest in the old Frankopan dynasty. His heritage and memory still burns brightly here in the form of the Trsat castle and other establishments which he acquired.
Sabina and I are also looking forward to visiting the Archaeological Museum which I know houses many items from the very impressive Nugent collection.
Our warm bilateral relations, I believe have grown in part from our many commonalities. Croatia and Ireland are both countries of outstanding natural beauty, with hospitable and welcoming peoples, and so are renowned as world-class tourist destinations.
Irish people are increasingly aware of the treasures of the wonderful Adriatic coast, of the rich agricultural land and fresh water possibilities, but also of so much else in the cultural and heritage area. Croatian people are increasingly discovering all that we have to offer in Ireland, whether in recreational facilities playing golf in world class facilities, or partaking of the food prepared on our green island, engaging with our mountains, lakes or the sea, or hearing our traditional music, song, dance and theatre. I know that all these activities are known in Croatia, but what may be best of all is just the opportunity to relax among our hospitable, friendly people.
Croatian visitors may well choose Ireland to develop their language skills as other do more and more. Ireland’s reputation for high quality education is built on a long history and a solid foundation of commitment to excellence. Ever more international students are coming to study in Ireland. Irish teachers have also travelled the globe and are instinctively committed to a genuine internationalism. Indeed, one of our most famous sons, the author James Joyce, spent a year teaching English to Austro-Hungarian naval officers stationed at Pula.
While the level of trade and business between our two countries is at present fairly modest, I hope that business people and others in both our countries will redouble efforts at improving this, through searching out mutually-advantageous collaborative opportunities in all sectors.
At a deeper level I believe we share many similar perspectives and outlooks – perhaps not unconnected to our shared history as countries which for so long were under the influence of a bigger neighbour, if, it can be said, at different levels of intensity.
The bilateral relationship was given an enormous boost by the formidable contributions of the late Dr Ante Čičin-Šain, a most prescient and thoughtful man, who made a deep impression on everyone he met in Ireland during his visits there as Croatia’s first non-resident Ambassador to Ireland.
As a mark of the esteem in which we held him, Ireland subsequently appointed him as our first Honorary Consul in Zagreb – a role in which his good friend and leading businessman, Emil Tedeschi, has succeeded him with distinction. Čičin-Šain, was previously Croatia’s first Governor of the Bank of Croatia. The links he forged in that regard with the Central Bank of Ireland continue to be honoured through the annual Čičin-Šain lecture, alternating between Zagreb and Dublin.
I have no doubt that our bilateral relationship will be further deepened through our membership of the European Union. When considering Croatia’s upcoming accession, I am reminded of the lovely poem Cill Aodáin an baile by the famous Irish language poet Antaine Ó Raifteirí in which the poet, with the coming of spring and the lengthening of the days, dreams of unfurling his sail – ‘Ardóigh mé mo sheol’ – and voyaging back to his beloved County Mayo in the West of Ireland.
For Croatia too, with the coming of summer, we all wish you a fair wind and look forward to the completion of your voyage to the heart of the European Union – and your arrival at a place which is the contemporary manifestation of that to which you have always spiritually belonged.
Together with all others who acquitted themselves with distinction, I congratulate you, Mr President, on the vision and leadership you always demonstrated as your country completed the long and, what must have been at times, arduous accession process. The journey may have been indeed lengthy but I am sure you will experience all the benefits of your journey. Your contribution will be appreciated as a refreshing reminder of the original impetus of the founders of the European Union, their vision and their values.
In that regard, Mr President, I can pay you no higher homage than to attribute to you the accolade which my dear friend, the late philosopher and poet John O’Donohue, paid to Hegel, whom he described as “…someone who put his eye to the earth at a most unusual angle and managed to glimpse the circle towards which all things aspire”.
Croatia’s aspiration for EU membership has been steadfast and determined in the face of many challenges. Congratulations to you Mr. President on behalf of the people of Ireland, on that achievement. It is an immensely important time for the future of Europe as it is an immensely challenging time.
The challenges ahead are something that I have addressed the European Parliament and other fora about in recent times. The need for brevity on such an occasion as this prevents me from rehearsing the arguments I have advanced elsewhere and which I believe are crucially important in the discourse on the future of Europe, the future versions of its models of economy, its future as a familial partnership with the responsibilities and not solely the benefits that membership of any family should assume, including above all else, the welfare, wellbeing, and future flourishing of all of its citizens enjoying equally their membership of the European Union.
This evening, as Croatia contemplates its important rite of passage and crosses the threshold into the EU in a matter of days, on 1 July, Ireland, as your good friend, will be there to greet you with our traditional Céad Míle Fáilte – A Hundred Thousand Welcomes.
It only remains for me now to thank you for this evening and for all the arrangements made for Sabina and me during this visit and to propose a toast to you Mr President, Dr Josipović and the entire Croatian nation. To friendship between our two countries and peoples. Sláinte – your very good health!