E&OE...............................................................................................
Mr Kim Beazley the Leader of the Opposition, my ministerial and parliamentary colleagues, your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
Only an Irish President could still the guns of political battle in the middle of an Australian election campaign. And bring the leader of the Liberal Party and the leader of the Australian Labor Party together in a spontaneous expression of welcome and affection to the President of a country held in deep and affectionate regard by all Australians.
It is not true to say that Ireland and Irish men and women have influenced Australia. Rather, it is true to say that Ireland and Irish values and Irish habits and Irish people have been part of the Australian story and have played a formative role in shaping the modern Australia from the very beginning of European settlement more than 200 years ago.
I don't intend today to list all of those great Australians of Irish decent who have made a contribution to our country. In a sense that would be doing injustice to the role that Ireland has played and the parts that the Irish influence has [inaudible] in the Australian story. Because every part of Australian life and every part of Australian culture, every part of Australian politics, Australian religion and Australian values have been influenced and fashioned and tempered and led and guided and in some areas dominated by the Irish tradition and by Irish habits.
Irish traditions have brought a sentimentality, they've brought
a passion, they've brought a sense of conflict, they've
also brought a sense of unity and a sense of striving and a sense
of achieving to the Australian story. Indeed, in that great work the
Australian historian, Patrick O'Farrell, on the Irish in Australia
I thought spoke very eloquently of the history of the interaction
between the various groups who originally comprise European Australia.
When he wrote of the contest between Irish oriented minority and English
oriented majority, far from being divisive, became the main unifying
principle of Australian history. What held this country's people
together in a constructive and productive social and political relationship
was a continuing debate always vigorous, often bitter and sometimes
even violent about what kind of country this should be. The tension
and conflict between minority and majority was not in its essence
or effects a fundamentally destructive one but a creative exchange
which compelled Australia's inhabitants of all kinds and all
persuasions to take stock of the nature of their society.
So Madam President, you come to this country as really part of the
family. You come to this country as the President of a nation that
has contributed so much to the history of Australia and to the development
of Australia and is held in continuing affectionate regard. You also
come to this country as a very talented and successful person who
has reached the highest office in Ireland. A person whose distinguished
legal and academic career pays tribute to your innate intelligence,
your sense of justice and your patriotic commitment. You also bring
particular characteristics to the Presidency of the Republic of Ireland.
You are, I understand, the first person born in Northern Ireland to
be elected President of the Republic of Ireland. You told me earlier
during our discussions that you grew up in the Shankhill Road district
of Belfast being a member of the only Catholic family in the street
and you related some of the mixed experiences that were metered out
to your family when you were growing up the good as well as
the bad.
I hope you find on this your first visit to Australia the most influential
representation of the Irish Diaspora anywhere in the world. One of
the pursuits, of course, of many Australians is to reflect increasingly
now because we are getting a lot more interested in our history and
our heritage. We reflect a lot more on our background now than we
used to. I think about a third of Australians claim Irish decent or
a connection with Ireland. And not, of course, to be left out of it
and I might remind you Madam President that my maternal great grandmother,
Theresa Carey, was born in county Westmeath in the Irish Republic.
And before getting too carried away with that let me remind you that
my paternal great grandfather, Christopher Jackson, was born in Portadown
county Armagh, north of the border.
It is true that the people of Irish decent in this country in earlier
days, because they were a minority, did suffer a level of discrimination
and a level of bigotry which is now, thankfully, long behind us. Sectarian
bigotry in Australia was a live thing, I think, until the 1960s when
in a remarkable way in a very short period of time it collapsed very,
very rapidly. I think it was the influence of the second Vatican Council
and of Pope John. I like to believe it was a common belief that it
was no longer Christian to be bigoted against those who also professed
your religion. And I also recognise the very significant role played
in the breaking down of that sectarian divide in Australia by the
ending in the early 1960s of the 100-year prohibition on the provision
of government assistance to independent schools. Because of all the
swords that divided Irish Catholic Australia from the rest of the
Australian population it was the sense of injustice that Catholics
properly felt, Irish Catholics in the main they were then, properly
felt about the denial of State aid. And I am particularly proud as
the Leader of the Liberal Party in 1998 that it was that self-described
humble Presbyterian Robert Gordon Menzies, of good Scottish stock
who played such a major role in providing government assistance to
independent schools in the 1960s. The influence of Irish Australians
on our politics has been immense. It has probably been historically
deeper on the Australian Labor Party and I won't presume as my
colleague, Kim Beazley, is here today to speak at length on that.
I recollected a moment ago to some friends that I joined the Liberal
Party in 1958 and the Liberal Party that I joined in 1958 was a profoundly
Protestant party, yet the Liberal Party I led into Government in 1996
represented in the most complete sense all sections of the Australian
community. And the thing that I rejoice in is that those old divides
are gone and that we learnt as Australians because of the experience
of living in this vast continent of the need to work with each other
and to find common ground with each other perhaps earlier than some
other countries have been able to do.
Madam President, you carry with you to this visit of course a reminder
of the tremendous strides that have been made towards achieving a
lasting peace in Northern Ireland. I want to take the opportunity
of congratulating the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, Bertie
Ahern, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, for the
way in which they have worked together tirelessly over the last couple
of years to bring about a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
What has occurred in that troubled province over the last 30 years
of course has been appalling. It comes on top of long years of injustice
and unfairness, and we've long passed the time when we seek to
apportion blame on one side or the other. There are evil men and women
on both sides of that argument. Those who perpetrated the terrible
deaths of those three young children, and those who perpetrated the
bomb outrage at Omagh, stand equally condemned in the eyes of the
civilised world. No amount of tribal history or division and no amount
of past injustice can justify such current abominations and atrocities
and out of those terrible deeds one is comforted, if you can be comforted,
by the hope that perhaps there is at last a realisation that the only
path forward is down the road of peace. And the evident goodwill that
is being displayed by both the British and Irish governments, the
determination of religious leaders, both Catholic and Protestant within
the whole of Ireland to emphasise the brotherhood of man, rather than
old sectarian divisions. The warm good wishes you have from your friends
all around the world, and I acknowledge the contribution of my predecessor,
Mr Keating, when he was Prime Minister in pledging some $7 million
to the fund to help build better community relations in Northern Ireland,
a pledge that I was very pleased as then Opposition Leader to support.
There are many Australians who want lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
We want it because we see it as a piece of sort of unfinished, I suppose,
family business. We also want it because it will be a source of hope
and inspiration to the rest of the world, that long tribal discord
can finally be put behind even in the most acrimonious of circumstances.
Now, I want to take this opportunity of very strongly reaffirming
on behalf of the Australian Government our commitment to the peace
process. But I also want to say that on a personal level, that I do
hope, Madam President, that you and your husband greatly enjoy your
visit to Australia. You will find warmth, you will find affection,
you will find a spontaneity of welcome that I don't think would
be extended to any other Head of State of another country.
You also of course, come in the lead up to a great Australian festival
not the federal election on the 3rd of October
but rather a festival that takes place a week before that, and the
last weekend in September in Australia is a great football festival,
in which we play out the Australian Rules Grand Final, and of course,
Australian Rules has much of its antecedents, not all of it, in Gaelic
football, and of course we also play out the Grand Final of Rugby
League. And both of those codes, both in terms of the derivatives,
the origins of Australian Rules, and I think in relation to Rugby
League historically the participation levels, both of those codes
have very very strong Irish connections and very very strong Irish
antecedents.
Madam, you are very welcome. We send through you our affectionate
good wishes to the people of Ireland, and it is a special relationship.
It cannot properly be categorised in terms of influence or tabulations
of Australians with Irish names. It is part of what we are. It is
part of our essence and our being and for that reason we are particularly
happy to have you amongst us, and invite Kim Beazley the Leader of
the Opposition, to support my remarks.
Thank you.
[ends]