Tánaiste’s remarks Into Europe
Launch of RIA Into Europe Exhibition launch
Dia dhaoibh agus fáilte romhaibh go léir go Teach Uíbh Eachach tráthnóna inniu.
Good evening everyone and a very warm welcome to Iveagh House for what is a very special occasion.
Let me begin by extending a particularly warm welcome to our guests of honour this evening - Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan, Executive Director of the Royal Irish Academy and Orlaith McBride, Director of the National Archives.
I would also like to welcome Ambassadors and other representatives from our fellow EU Member States, the Cathaoirleach Senator Jerry Buttimer, MEP Ciaran Cuffe and Oireachtas colleagues, Malcolm Byrne, Marian Harkin and Seán Haughey.
We are also joined by some very special people here tonight – whose journey matches the life of this exhibition. Over 140 babies were born on the 1st of January 1973 and we are fortunate to be joined by three of them this evening – Claudine Forrest, Belinda Quirke, Patrick Devlin. We will seek to have some appropriate event to which all of our Eurobabies can be invited later and I look forward to meeting them all at that time.
This Department is very fortunate to have such a long standing and excellent partnership with the Royal Irish Academy.
The wonderful Documents in the Irish Foreign Policy research series, which aims to make the history of our foreign policy more accessible to the public, is an important and valuable project. We are grateful to the Academy for this work.
We are, of course, in the middle of our EU50 programme – the Government programme to mark 50 years of our accession to the European Union – which began last year.
One of the great personal pleasures I have had during this programme has been the opportunity to visit both the EU archives in Brussels and our own wonderful National Archives here in Dublin to view documents from the period 1972 and 1973.
When I visited the National Archives as Taoiseach last year, Director Orlaith McBride and her team put on a fascinating display of those key documents that brought us into Europe.
It was remarkable to see the signature of my predecessor Jack Lynch on the Treaty of Accession. And that gave rise to the other great personal pleasure I’ve had during EU50 – the opportunity to reflect on the many contributions Cork people have made to Irish history!
I know that this particular exhibition being launched this evening has been many months in the making. It is the product of painstaking research, detailed design and expert editorial oversight.
And, like the Royal Irish Academy and the National Archive’s other projects, its aim is to bring those key moments in our European Union history to life for the public in a vibrant and engaging way.
I would like to take this opportunity to particularly acknowledge and thank to Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey, the Academy’s historian-in-residence, Dr. Michael Kennedy, also Executive Editor of the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series at the Academy and the exhibition’s designer, Ger Garland, for their work on developing this exhibition.
I know from officials here that they have exhibited almost acrobatic flexibility with last minute suggestions and additions, and we are very grateful to them for their patience and dedicated work!
I think you’ll agree with me that their work has paid off magnificently.
We have to acknowledge that the EU can sometimes be seen as something that only exists in Brussels; or something that it is removed from the everyday lives of our citizens.
But as the exhibition itself tells us “much of the European footprint in Ireland is now so much a part of everyday life that is it almost entirely taken for granted”.
What this exhibition achieves so well is that it doesn’t just focus on the facts of Ireland’s relationship with the EU.
It also illustrates our emotional and cultural connection, and it makes the strong case for the EU anchoring for our place in the world and our sense of who we are today.
Across the 12 panels you can see this clearly – from a woman holding freshly printed euro notes, to John Hume speaking with Gay Byrne on the Late Late Show, to images from agriculture and fishing. The exhibition gives us a real flavour of how the EU has integrated into our day to day lives and livelihoods.
This makes it a living exhibition, one that captures both the complexity and the diversity of Ireland’s membership of the European Union.
I am delighted that this exhibition will now go on display in venues across Ireland including libraries, public buildings and educational institutions. I hope that it will engage audiences, in particular our young people, about what membership means to Ireland and how Ireland contributes to the EU.
I think they will appreciate the innovative QR code feature, linking to relevant sections of the RTÉ archive footage. This adds a digital dimension to this exhibition that I think is particularly impressive.
We would be happy to facilitate the widest possible dissemination of the exhibition over the course of this year. If any groups or organisations present this evening would like to display the exhibition in your own premises or through your networks please get in touch with my Department.
I am delighted also that the exhibition will also have an even wider audience: Ireland’s membership has not only brought us closer to our European partners, but also to the rest of the world.
So it is fitting that this exhibition will be displayed across our mission network: from San Francisco to Paris to Riyadh and Beijing; this exhibition will share our European story with our partners and friends across 31 countries worldwide, and likely a greater number before the year is out.
It is remarkable to think – as the exhibition reminds us – that three and a half million Irish citizens have only ever known Ireland within the EU.
The transformation we have all witnessed in our lifetimes is the story of this exhibition, and it is a story well told. (Of course, as a Cork woman, there was nobody more qualified to tell it than Miriam!)
So I’d like to conclude by thanking you all for coming. I should congratulate and thank once again our friends in the Royal Irish Academy for their work and I’d like to now invite Miriam to the podium.
Enjoy the exhibition.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.