Mr. Speaker, Lord Speaker,Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister,Leader of the Opposition and distinguished guests:
I am delighted to be with you today.
A Chairde:
Tá fíor-chaoin áthas orm bheith anseo libh ar ócáid an chéad cuairt stáit seo.
On the first day of this State Visit, I have been graciously and warmly welcomed by Her MajestyQueen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, and I have come to this place from a poignant anduplifting visit to Westminster Abbey. I am greatly honoured to be the first President of Irelandto address you in this distinguished Palace of Westminster.
As a former parliamentarian, honoured to have spent twenty-five years as a member of DáilÉireann, and a further decade serving in our Upper House, Seanad Éireann, it constitutes avery special privilege to be speaking today in a place that history has made synonymous withthe principle of democratic governance and with respect for a political discourse that is bothinclusive and pluralist.
At the very foundation of British democracy is, of course, the Magna Carta which includes thepowerful statement:
“To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.”
Those beautiful and striking words have echoed down the centuries and remain the beatingheart of the democratic tradition. Their resonance was felt almost immediately in Irelandthrough the Magna Carta Hiberniae – a version of the original charter reissued by theguardians of the young Henry III in November 1216.
They are also words which echo with a particular significance when we have indeed so recentlyseen the adverse consequences of a discourse that regards politics, society and the economyas somehow separate, each from the other; this is a divisive perspective which underminesthe essential relationship between the citizen and the State. Today, as both our countries workto build sustainable economies and humane and flourishing societies, we would do well to recallthe words of the Magna Carta and its challenge to embrace a concept of citizenship rooted inthe principles of active participation, justice and freedom.
Such a vision of citizenship is shared by our two peoples. It is here, in this historic building that,over the centuries, the will of the British people gradually found its full democratic voice. It isinspiring to stand in a place where, for more than a century, many hundreds of dedicatedparliamentarians, in their different ways, represented the interests and aspirations of the Irishpeople.
Next month marks the centenary of the passing of the Home Rule Act by the House ofCommons – a landmark in our shared history. It was also here that the votes of Irishnationalist Members of Parliament in 1911 were instrumental in the passage of the ParliamentAct, a critical step in the development of your parliamentary system.
History was also made here in 1918 when the Irish electorate chose the first woman to beelected to this parliament – Constance Markiewicz – who, of course, chose not to take herWestminster seat but, rather, to represent her constituents in our independent parliament,the first Dáil Éireann. Constance’s sister, Eva Gore-Booth, who is buried in Hampstead, hadbeen making, and would continue to make, her own distinctive contribution to history – notonly in the Irish nationalist struggle, but as part of the suffragette and labour movements inBritain.
Nearly 90 years earlier, the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 was secured bythe leadership of our great Irish parliamentarian, Daniel O’Connell. O’Connell’s nationalism setno border to his concern for human rights; his advocacy extended to causes and movementsfor justice around the world, including the struggle to end slavery. He was totally dedicated toseeking freedom, as he put it:
“attained not by the effusion of human blood but by the constitutional combination of goodand wise men.”