Irish Community Reception, Brisbane

Irish Community Reception

Speech by Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland

Stamford Hotel Plaza, Brisbane

Monday, 23rd October, 2017

Tá áthas orm féin agus ar Saidhbhín an deis seo a bheith againn bualadh libh inniu. Is é seo ár gcéad cuairt ar Brisbane, bhíomar ag súil go mór leis an turas seo le fada an lá.

I am delighted to be here with you in Brisbane and thank you for such a warm welcome! Most of you present here this evening are members of the Irish community in Brisbane. You are a very important part of our small nation and the lives you have built for yourselves here in Brisbane and around the world extend our reach to a global Irish family of up to 70 million. But you are not only members of the Irish diaspora – you are also a vital part of society here in Australia. I know you are all incredibly proud of your Irish heritage and I am sure you are, quite rightly, equally proud of the contribution you have made here in Brisbane.

As President of Ireland I am delighted to receive so many opportunities to meet and engage with Irish communities all over the world. In most cases, such interactions form part of my visits abroad for official engagements – and, as always, Irish community events are a key part of these visits. I commend the commitments outlined in the “Global Irish: - Ireland’s Diaspora Policy”, which led to the holding of the first Global Irish Civic Forum, attended by representatives of the many organisations directly working with and supporting our Irish emigrants abroad. It is a pleasure to bear witness to the great work and support to our Irish community here in Brisbane.

I am particularly grateful to all the representatives of groups working with Irish emigrants and I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank you all for the often unseen work which you do on a daily basis to support our sons and daughters as they make new lives in their adoptive countries. Many of the organisations here this evening have served a vital purpose over the decades in providing sanctuaries of Irishness around the globe. In halls the length and breadth of Australia; here in Brisbane, and also Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, to name just a few, Irish people gather.

They have satisfied the need in our emigrants to reconnect with their culture and ethnicity, and the deeper need to form communities in new and often alien environments. While the context may have changed, the groups you represent continue to fulfil those functions today.

I know there is a great diversity of organisations ranging from welfare bureaus who support our most vulnerable and marginalised emigrants such as those who seek to support Irish prisoners incarcerated abroad or supporting LGBT Irish in Brisbane, to bodies aimed at promoting our rich cultural heritage and contemporary culture, to networks who seek to leverage Irish connections to develop mutually beneficial business relationships.

The common thread running through all these bodies is a sense of pride and solidarity in our Irish identity. Without the tireless work done by Irish community organisations throughout the world, current efforts to build new links with the global Irish would not be possible. Through your sustained engagement, generations

President Higgins addressing the Irish community in Brisbane

In joining with you today, it is my hope that a web of interlinking and overlapping connections will be made which will enhance the work that you do. It is also an important opportunity for reflection on some of the wider issues associated with migration from this island; the importance of Irish culture as a unifying factor, the continued maintenance of the links that bind our global Irish family to Ireland and the impact of the evolving patterns of emigration on our Irish communities abroad.

Mar a deirtear go minic, is gné shainiúil lárnach de mhuintir na hÉireann í an eisimirce. Cé go ndéanatar díol suntais de líon na ndaoine a dfhág an tír seo le linn an Drochshaol agus sna mblianta ina dhiaidh, agus is cinnte gur tharla imirce mhór d’ár muintir dá bharr, caithfear a rá go raibh claonadh againn, mar náisiún, leis an imirce riamh.

As is often stated, emigration has been a defining characteristic of the Irish people. While some often focus on the large numbers who left Ireland during and following the dark days of the Famine, and it is true that it represented a mass exodus of our people from their shores, over the generations it has been our propensity to be a migratory people.

Whether by choice or through necessity generations of Irish people have left this island to start new lives in distant lands. Figures vary with many estimating up to approximately 70 million people throughout the world claiming some Irish heritage. The history of the different waves of migration from our island is one that is incredibly varied and rich. This legacy provides a unique opportunity for global engagement through the links that bind Ireland to her diaspora and to the countries to which our people have moved.

There were very many thousands of young Irishmen and women from villages and parishes throughout Ireland, who left home for distant shores in search of a better life for themselves and their children and they were not able to simply pick up their mobile phone to call home. In my youth I recall the letters and parcels from emigrants in the US arriving to neighbours. This oft-read correspondence was often the only link across the Atlantic to family members who had departed.

Advances in modern technology mean that cities such as Brisbane, Perth, Sydney or indeed San Francisco, Dubai and Dubrovnik, are no more than a click away. While this has untold advantages - allowing grandparents to see and interact with their grandchildren, facilitating instantaneous conversations across many thousands of miles - it nonetheless remains the case that emigration can often be a painful experience.

Telecommunications has altered this experience but it has not negated the importance of emigrant groups represented here being able to provide that human solidarity of a ‘home from home’. Indeed, modern communication tools can sometimes increase the sense of loneliness and isolation as the lives of loved ones are watched from afar.

Emigration is at its root an experience that is intensely personal. While the successive departures of Irish emigrants to such distant locations left indelible gaps in families and communities throughout Ireland and deprived our island of their talents, in a testament to the enduring spirit of the Irish, many of these emigrants thrived in their new country of residence. For many, the experience is an immensely enriching one filled with exposure to new cultures and peoples with innovative opportunities to develop their talents. Often grappling with new cultures, new languages and unimagined challenges they succeeded in developing new lives for themselves and their families.

For others the experience is more challenging. The distance from friends and family and from familiar social supports can be difficult for many of our emigrants. For those Irish in particular, we have a special responsibility to reach out and embrace them as part of our community and of our shared Irish identity. It is your organisations who do that invaluable and essential work on behalf of us all, and I am delighted to be here with you all and to have this opportunity, as President of Ireland, to thank you for that.

It is important, too, that we as a State continue to recognise the considerable debt that we owe to previous generations of Irish emigrants themselves. The sacrifices made by past emigrants to ensure that families left in Ireland were afforded increased opportunities and prospects have not been forgotten. In many cases remittances from emigrants provided for educational opportunities for younger siblings and underpinned economic advancement in the Irish economy. I am keenly conscious of the important role played by the Irish diaspora in supporting our fledgling State in its early days.

Mar fhocal scoir, is mian liom arís mo bhuíochas ó chroí a ghabháil libh as ucht na hoibre go léir a bhíonn ar siúl agaibh, lá i ndiaidh lae, chun tacaíocht, comhairle agus lámh chúnta a thabhairt d’ár ndeoraithe thar lear.

In conclusion I would like to once again thank you for the valuable work which you undertake on a daily basis to support, advise and promote the cause of our emigrants abroad.

The global Irish family is a unique and extraordinary body of people which I deeply value. I hope that the discussions you are having over these two days are informative and enriching and one of the fruits of these deliberations will be increased links with other organisations working with Irish communities throughout the world.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.

Áras an Uachtaráin, D08 E1W3 www.president.ie @PresidentIRL