SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT A RECEPTION AT THE INTER-CONTINENTAL HOTEL
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT A RECEPTION AT THE INTER-CONTINENTAL HOTEL ON TUESDAY, 9TH JULY, 2002
Good Evening
Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Fellow Irish Citizens,
Firstly let me say what a great delight it is for Martin and I to be in Greece. It is almost exactly two years Mr. President since you made the first State visit to Ireland by a Greek Head of State. We in Ireland have delightful memories of that visit and I know that you too brought back a store of very pleasant memories. Now I am privileged to be the first Irish Head of State to make a State visit to Greece.
These visits tell us that the Irish and Greek peoples of this generation are interested in each other, curious about each other and anxious to cement sound contemporary relationships with each other. These relationships which we are helping to build and develop, add another important layer to the web of relationships which have linked our two countries through many centuries. One famous migrant to our shores was St. Patrick, often credited with bringing the Christian faith to Ireland. But even before his arrival in 432 a Christian bishop named Palladios visited our shores and he is reputed to have had a Greek connection - perhaps with the city of Pallas Athene.
If you walk the streets of our beautiful capital city Dublin or Dhouvlino in modern Greek, the wonderful heritage of neo-classical buildings evoke aesthetic relationships with Greece which bring grace and elegance to our cityscape: Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral is in Greek Doric style; Trinity College’s old library, opened in 1732 has a wonderful Greek purity of outline and one of the best-loved buildings in Dublin is St. Stephen’s church made up of three famous Athenian buildings: the perfect Ionic portico is a replica of that of the Erechtheion; and the cupola is based on the Tower of the Winds and the Monument of Lysicrates.
The establishment of the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies in Athens in 1996 has given a great boost to mutual understanding, not just in archaeology, but also in the areas of folklore, music and literature. There will be an international conference in Galway in 2003 on Irish Philhellenes, such as Lord Charlemont, founder of the Royal Irish Academy; and Oscar Wilde, who was among other things, a very brilliant Greek scholar. In 1877 at the age of 23 he visited Athens and the Peloponnese. He went on to write: “Hellenism may be described as a one-sided enthusiasm for ideas extending over a multitude of peoples, like the arch of a temple, and giving to the name Hellene a nobler dignity than ever was obtained by the boast Civis Romanus Sum [I am a citizen of Rome].” Another philhellene and one of our great Nobel Laureates in literature was William Butler Yeats. He was fascinated by Byzantine culture, and wrote some of his most famous poems about 'the holy city of Byzantium'. His translations of Sophocles's Oedipus plays are unsurpassed in English and His King Oedipus was produced in our National Theatre, the Abbey Theatre, by Michael Cacoyannis in 1974, from whence it went on to the Edinburgh Festival.
In recent years more than twenty versions of Greek tragedies have been made by Irish authors among them the latest Nobel Laureate in literature, Seamus Heaney who was coincidentally on holiday in Greece when the news of his Nobel Award was published. The subsequent frenzied search for him linked Ireland and Greece in a unique and unexpected way and I know that both our countries shared pride in his achievement. Brendan Behan's The Hostage, originally written in Irish, and adapted for the stage in Greek, is known to Greeks mostly for the hauntingly beautiful song O Ómiros, by Míkis Theodorákis. The other great Theodorakis air we think of Zorba's Dance, is best known for its performance by a man with Mexican-Indian and Irish roots - Anthony Rudolfo Oxaca Quinn, a great philhellene who died in Boston last year. The term Irish diaspora takes on its true Greek meaning when we think of the many links that the Irish and the Greek emigrants have in Boston, Chicago, New York and Melbourne.
In Ireland oral tradition has preserved a very high regard for everything to do with the Greeks. As recently as the 1950s, a folklore collector recorded from an old man in Donegal the story - in the Irish language of course - the capture of Troy, complete with the Trojan horse. There are inevitably some slight variations in the Irish version, the most startling being a reference to the use of gunpowder! But that may have more to do with an Irish preference for direct rather than subtle means of overcoming the oppressor.
Some 25 years have elapsed since Ireland’s Embassy in Athens opened in 1977 at a time when we were adjusting to our fledgling relationship within the European Economic Community. At that time, Greece was actively engaged in negotiating its own accession to the EEC, which came to pass in 1981. Within the European Union, Greece and Ireland formed part of the cohesion group of countries, established to ensure that the economic prosperity resulting from the single market would benefit all and not solely the centrally-located member states of the Union. Apart from Ireland, all other members of the group were Mediterranean countries and it almost seemed as if a small piece of the Mediterranean had been transposed by some accident of geography to the North Atlantic. There is little doubt that we have been very comfortable and at home among our friends in that group.
The funds that were received were put to good use – Irish people living in Greece will have seen the considerable changes in Ireland while on visits home. There has been considerable investment in infrastructure and less visible but of equal importance, in the education and training of our young people. Considerable investment in infrastructure is still necessary and the programmes of successive Irish Governments have made this a priority. I know that important infrastructural works are also being undertaken in Greece at the present time and in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2004 in particular. As there are major developments under way in both our countries so too is there scope for even greater economic co-operation between us and tomorrow I will host a business breakfast which will I hope, lend itself to exploring this potential further and deepening our bilateral economic relations.
Greece like Ireland is no stranger to the bitter reality of emigration and I am told there are many Greek songs decrying the great sadness of emigration. In Ireland too we have our long list of laments and each of our peoples knows what profound psychological wounds result from a culture in which the young especially are always leaving to find opportunity elsewhere. But today we have a different story to tell. The Irish global family is to be found in every corner of the world. They have not forgotten their culture, their identity nor their homeland and still they have integrated happily into their new homes. Like those who live in Ireland they take pride in the fact that the tide of emigration has been reversed in this generation, that Ireland now offers opportunity on a scale never before known and indeed that today not only has the haemorrhage of our young people caused by economic necessity been arrested but now people return with new hope to make new beginnings, to rebuild lives and homes and communities. We are fortunate that many of the huge numbers who emigrated whether to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Britain or Greece, are nowadays through their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren not only important friends of Ireland but a source of bonding between modern Ireland and their adopted homes. I would like to congratulate in particular the Irish-Greek Society, which has been active now for many years building on those very relationships. Through your voluntary endeavour sustained over a long time you have been fine ambassadors for Ireland and have done much to bring a positive image of Ireland to Greece. For many Greek people you are the window that opens Ireland up to them and we are indebted to you for your care for Ireland and for the way in which you show that care.
Martin and I have benefited enormously from the goodwill felt in Greece towards Ireland. We have felt the warmest hospitality from the moment of our arrival and we hope to return the compliment by becoming strong advocates of Greece when we return home. We have looked forward to this trip and it has flooded the cup of our expectations. Under your leadership Mr. President, may the people of Greece and the people of Ireland grow in understanding of one another, in respect for one another, in shared prosperity and in shared citizenship of our common European homeland. Long may they be friends and partners.
Thank You.