Speech at a Dinner in honour of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall
Áras an Uachtaráin, 10 May 2017
A Mhórgachtaí Ríoga,
A Dhaoine Uaisle,
Your Royal Highnesses,
Dear Guests,
Tá áthas orm fíorchaoin fáilte a fhearadh romhaibh ar ais go hÉireann agus go hÁras an Uachtaráin, agus ba mhór agam féin agus ag Saidhbhín bhur gcómhluadar níos luaithe tráthnóna.
[ It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you both back to Ireland, and to Áras an Uachtaráin where Sabina and I also had the pleasure of your company earlier today. ]
We are delighted that this is your third visit to Ireland over a two-year period, and are hopeful that you will continue to be regular visitors to these shores in the years ahead. Good neighbours should visit each other regularly. I so wish you well for the remainder of your visit which will bring you to Kilkenny and Kildare tomorrow, and indeed for your engagements in Dublin on Friday.
Our two countries are steeped in a shared history and this House, on which British monarchs and Irish Presidents have left an indelible mark, is emblematic of our countries’ intertwined stories, sometimes of difficult and contested periods of a painful history but also, and we in our generation so welcome it, of the deepening bonds of interdependency, of trust, of respect and of friendship that now prevails between our peoples.
The contribution made by your own family, by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, to the fostering of a warm, mature, positive relationship within and between these islands is deeply and widely appreciated. Your own visit just two years ago to the west of Ireland and to your godfather, Lord Mountbatton’s beloved Mullaghmore was a particularly significant moment in generous reconciliation.
On that trip to Sligo, while reflecting on the personal loss which you suffered, you spoke memorably and so movingly of all of us leaving our grandchildren “a legacy of lasting peace, forgiveness and friendship”.
Your visit here this week is a further testament to your personal commitment to consolidating that legacy, ever strengthening the ties of friendship and respect we have worked so hard to forge.
Sabina and I have on every occasion felt the warmth of the hospitality shown to us on our visits to Britain, perhaps most memorably during our historic State visit in 2014.
The welcome and the courtesy shown to me on my visit as Uachtarán na hÉireann, President of Ireland, and the opportunity afforded to me to visit and engage as Head of State with our nearest neighbour, so soon after Queen Elizabeth’s visit in 2011, was in so many ways the fulfilment of the hopes of many generations on both sides of the Irish Sea, and they have been fulsome in expressing that sentiment to me.
In Coventry, as I came to the end of the visit, I spoke of the continuous interweaving of our peoples through migration over the centuries.
These bonds of kinship, of culture, of values, of shared experience, through circular migration in contemporary times, have drawn us closer and will continue to do so. Today, in these rapidly changing times, where issues of division, distrust and fear often hold sway over deliberative and constructive public discourse, we must continue to focus on what binds us together, to ensure that our relationship as close friends and neighbours is not only protected and nurtured, but allowed to flourish.
You also spoke in Sligo of imagination being “the mother of possibility”. More than ever, perhaps, we must now work together to create new possibilities by using our imaginations to find new and better ways of working together, to protect and to develop further the positive relationships that have been achieved between our two nations over recent times at every level.
Yesterday you visited the burial place in Bellaghy of our Nobel laureate and my dear friend, Séamus Heaney. The epitaph on his grave reads – “walk on air against your better judgment”. In pursuing better possibilities for the future, we are sometimes required to suspend our reliance on the mere rational and to take that leap into the air.
The meetings we have attended abroad have also been so valuable, as we shared concern for global issues, poverty, the impact of war and, as in Paris, the urgency of responding to climate change. Then too, I so share your concern for the future of the rainforests and admiration for the work of those such as anthropologist Dr. Martin Von Hildebrand.
You met earlier today with some of the many inspirational young people who have an abundance of imagination and for whom I so often tell them that the possibilities are endless. Tá a bhfeidireachtaí gan teórainn.
The engagements you will both undertake tomorrow will, I am sure, demonstrate further the rich variety and interplay of the traditional and the modern that constitutes Ireland’s past and our shared future.
There are also so many diverse sources of imagination and creativity represented in this room this evening and I hope that you enjoy the company of those gathered here.
We are fortunate to be joined by some of the foremost and most creative minds - poets, historians, artists and engineers, those that share your Highnesses’ passions for sustainable food, for botany, for matters equine, academics, broadcasters and those who are driven by a conviction that an inclusive, cohesive, fairer world for all, in symmetry with nature, is worth a life’s purpose and effort.
May I ask you all to now stand as I propose a toast:
To the health and wellbeing of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II;
To Your Highnesses continued health and happiness;
To the well- being and prosperity of the people of Britain;
And to the continued friendship and kinship between the peoples of Ireland and Britain.