SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT, MARY ROBINSON, AT THE STATE BANQUET IN HONOUR OF THE PRESIDENT OF AUSTRIA
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT, MARY ROBINSON, AT THE STATE BANQUET IN HONOUR OF THE FEDERAL PRESIDENT OF AUSTRIA, DR. THOMAS KLESTIL
Your Excellency,
It gives my husband Nick and myself great pleasure to welcome you as the first Austrian President to make a State visit to Ireland. We are honoured by your presence.
You have chosen a good time to come, because for us here in Ireland this year has all the makings of an 'Austrian Year'. Not only do we have the honour of your own visit, but just last month I had the pleasure of meeting a Parliamentary delegation headed by the President of the Nationalrat, Dr. Fischer. Furthermore, we are hopeful that by the end of this year the necessary procedures will have been completed to allow Austria to join Ireland and our partners as a member of the European Union.
It was, of course, an 'Austrian Year' which caused such inconvenience to Count Leinsdorf in Robert Musil's great work, "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften" ("A Man without Qualities"). However, Musil's 'Austrian Year' had an elastic, insubstantial quality. It was, according to Musil, "something that one could imagine as whatever one liked", something that "wasn't going to last forever, after all". Our 'Austrian Year', on the other hand, has tangible substance, marking as it does a qualitative deepening in the relations between our two countries. And, while nothing on this earth lasts forever, it is clear that the events of what you, Your Excellency, have described as a "Year of Decision" will have implications for both our countries which reach far into the future.
I think it is true to say that Ireland and Austria are two countries awakening more fully to each other's existence. It is not that we have been unaware of each other in the past - indeed, quite the contrary, as I will make clear later. But we have, in a sense, been looking at each other from a distance, that is, over the land mass of Western Europe.
It is only right that we should be looking more closely at one another. Beyond obvious similarities such as size, we have shared in recent times a certain view of the world, and in particular a distinctive approach to the conduct of international relations and to the role of small States in such affairs.
It is perhaps appropriately symbolic that we both became members of the United Nations on the same day, 14th December 1955. Since then we have pursued a largely common approach to questions of international peace and security; and both countries can be justifiably proud of their contributions to the peace-keeping operations of the United Nations, where, on certain operations, Irish and Austrian troops served side by side.
We in Ireland welcome the impressive number of Austrians visiting Ireland - in the region of 30,000 last year - which testifies to a considerable interest by your countrymen in our land. For the Irish, Austria has for a long time been a desirable holiday destination. However, the largest number of Irish ever to travel to Austria at one time are likely to arrive in September 1995 when our two countries meet in the European Football Championships. I can assure you, Your Excellency, that our supporters will make themselves known to the Austrian people through their good humour and enthusiasm. They are worthy Ambassadors for Ireland.
Like all Irish people who visit Austria, they will surely be struck by the fact that there is much to admire in the achievements of the Austrian people. Most immediately they will notice the highly developed transport infrastructure and public utilities of which Austrians are so justifiably proud. But not only that, they will see a country whose economic achievements have gone hand in hand with an admirable record of social solidarity and exemplary standards in the protection of the environment.
Our admiration is all the greater when we consider the troubled background against which all this has been accomplished. The Republic of Austria emerged in the aftermath of the First World War; its citizens obliged to adjust their historic sense of national identity to a new reality. It then suffered the pain of an intense civil war. Experiences, it could be said, which bear certain parallels to those of the Irish people during the same period.
That is where the similarity ends, however, for even more traumatic for Austria was the period which you, Your Excellency, have described as "the years of darkness and bitterness", which ended in 1945.
The Austrian people emerged from that period and from the disaster of war to re-establish their democratic institutions and set about re-building their war-torn country. Through patient diplomacy, Austria regained its full sovereignty through the State Treaty of 1955 and preserved it throughout the frequent chills of the Cold War.
During that time when Europe was so painfully divided, Austria - its eastern frontiers sealed off by the Iron Curtain - stood out beyond the barbed wire as an example to the people of eastern Europe of the benefits of democratic government and the social market economy. Austria made an honourable contribution out of all proportion to its size in assisting refugees fleeing from the repression in neighbouring countries. It also established a lasting record of full and active involvement on the wider international stage, both within the UN and other international organisations and through its national efforts to resolve a number of peace-threatening disputes.
Now, with the dismantling of the Iron Curtain, Austria has been restored to its traditional position at the heart of our continent. It is poised to play an essential role as the new democracies of central and eastern Europe move closer politically, economically and culturally in the shaping of a more integrated Europe.
Your Excellency,
It is well known that Austrian achievements have not been confined to economic developments. We in Ireland are deeply aware of the enormous contributions which your country and its people have made to European culture over centuries. This is particularly so in the field of music. No two cities in Europe are more closely identified with musical excellence that Vienna and Salzburg.
Austria has also been home to many of the great thinkers of our century, as is demonstrated by the remarkable number of Austrians who have won the Nobel Prize. We in Ireland have been greatly enriched by a number of these distinguished Austrian guests arriving on our shores.
The great Austrian physicist, Dr. Erwin Schroedinger, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933, is still remembered here with affection and esteem. Having found a welcoming refuge here in 1940, he stayed with us for seventeen years and greatly contributed to learning in this country. The Dublin Institute of Advances Studies owes much to him. His intimate relationship with Ireland crystallised in his becoming an Irish citizen in 1948.
I should also mention in this context the eminent classicist Dr. Ludwig Bieler, who came to Ireland about the same time as Dr. Schroedinger. We are indebted to him for his work on early Irish Christian writings and his research on the life of Saint Patrick.
Many here will also recall that the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein spent lengthy periods in Ireland on a number of occasions during the 1940's. Last summer I was pleased to unveil a plaque commemorating his stay at Rosroe, in the West of Ireland, which is also recalled by the poet Richard Murphy in his poem "The Philosopher and The Birds".
And as we are engaged in a process of mutual discovery, we should not overlook the contribution of the Irish to Austria. I refer in particular to two major encounters in history.
The first of these encounters was part of the great Irish monastic movement of the last millennium. A notable representative was Saint Fergal, whom you know as Virgil, the 8th Century bishop of Salzburg whose memory is to this day venerated in that city. Another medieval Irish churchman remembered in Austria, particularly at the great monastery of Melk, is Saint Colman, who met a violent death outside Vienna in 1012.
A further testimony of this Austrian-Irish connection is Vienna's Schottenstift, sometimes mis-translated as the Scottish monastery. As a matter of national pride, we remind our Viennese friends that the name of this important institution refers in fact to its medieval Irish founders: Irish Benedictine monks who became very much part of the life of Vienna of their day.
Our second major historical encounter occurred in the wake of the defeats suffered by the Irish in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, following which members of the leading families and their supporters offered their services to the monarchs of Europe. Following the major tumults at home, successive waves of Irish soldiery - whom we refer to as the Wild Geese - arrived in Austria where they found a welcome.
These were of course turbulent times for Austria also. We take pride in finding Irish names appearing prominently in the annals of Imperial Austria in the Thirty Years War, in the defence of besieged Vienna and in the Seven Years War. We see in these annals names such as Taaffe, Cavanagh, O'Hussey, O'Dwyer, and Browne.
Many of these Irish military figures, most notably Franz De Lacy, stayed on to play a central role in the court of Empress Maria Theresa and in the Imperial administration.
It is interesting that for a long period, these families maintained their Irish connections. We know that visitors from Ireland to the imperial court in the eighteenth century were surprised to hear themselves addressed in the Irish language by the military officers in attendance on the Emperor.
Your Excellency,
We are now on the threshold of our next rendez-vous in history. This coming encounter will, I believe, prove to be the most enduring. I refer of course to the anticipated accession of Austria to the European Union.
I welcome today's decision of the European Parliament to give its assent to Austria's application for membership of the Union. I recognise, of course, that the Austrian people have yet to express their view on membership of the Union.
Let me say, however, that it is my hope - a hope which I am confident is shared by the Irish people - that on 1st January 1995, Austria will become a member of the European Union.
Your Excellency,
We who are already citizens of the Union have sometimes been guilty of referring to the Union - or the Community, as it was until recently - as 'Europe'. Yet it is impossible to avoid the feeling that there is something incongruous about a 'Europe' that does not include Austria; a country of central Europe, so long at the centre of its political and cultural development. By the end of this year - this 'Austrian Year' - may Austria once again be entirely central to Europe, ready to take its place alongside Ireland as a full member of the European Union.
I now invite our guests to join with me in wishing Your Excellency and your distinguished delegation a very happy stay in Ireland and I propose the toast:
Wir erheben unser glas und drinken auf den Bundesprasidenten und den Leuten von Osterreich
Let us raise our glasses and drink a toast to the Federal President and the people of Austria.