Ministers, Gallery Chairman, Director,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure to be here in the Shaw Room of Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann – an institution much loved by the people of Ireland for whom it has been an artistic and cultural inspiration for more than 150 years.
From 1977 until 2011 when the restoration of these buildings commenced, this room was dominated, and will be again, by Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare – better known as Strongbow – and Aoife MacMurrough, whose marriage in Waterford in 1170 led to the Normans seizing a sizable portion of Ireland – an important reminder of how art intersects with politics, history and heritage.
A large number of people have worked very hard so that we could be here in the Shaw Room today as part of this magnificent restoration – the National Gallery itself, Michael, Sean and no doubt many others – but also Minister Humphreys and her team, the Office of Public Works, John Paul Construction - and Heneghan Peng Architects who have brought the very best of Irish architectural creativity to the world stage.
This campus of the National Gallery, National Museum, National Library and our Oireachtas is a place where culture, identity and citizenship come together - the three things we have all been talking about during the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. It’s a place that makes a statement about who we are, what we believe, and what we value. The care and protection of all our institutions and historic buildings here works best when we all work together.
We wanted to be here in our National Gallery to launch this programme - Creative Ireland - Clár Éire Ildánach - because of the symbolism of a new beginning, a blank canvas as it were, a link between the past and the future.
Minister Humphreys will speak in greater detail about the Creative Ireland programme. I want to say a few words about its purpose and meaning in our lives - and something about the broader political dimension.
But first I want to acknowledge the achievement of everyone involved, from across the political spectrum, and all over the country, in making the Ireland 2016 Centenary a year for everyone.
The experience of this year has reminded us all of the transformative power of our unique culture - something, as was said in the foreword of today’s booklet, that was understood by the revolutionary generation but was sometimes overlooked in the struggle to build a functioning state and economy.
We can all recall the big moments of 2016 - the solemnity of the parade on Easter Sunday, the Centenary TV show from the Bord Gais Theatre, the Casement commemoration on Banna Strand, and so on. But the real stories of 2016 are the thousands of community events all around the country.
The true significance of the Centenary Programme is that the people of Ireland took it on and created it for themselves. Think about that, think about what that means in terms of engagement with heritage and history, with language and landscape, with the arts – and most importantly with each other.
I believe that there is a huge creative force in our society, an ambition to make our communities stronger, to leave a legacy for our children, to instil values and meaning in our lives. Creative Ireland is about facilitating that ambition – providing a framework for all of us to make it a reality.
That is why Creative Ireland is an all-of-government initiative to mainstream culture and creativity in the life of the nation - so that individually and collectively we can realise our full creative potential - and then use that creative potential to foster collective wellbeing and social cohesion.
It gives effect to the vision set out in the Government’s draft Framework Policy on Culture (which will be better known as Culture 2025) to:
· Enrich the lives of everyone through engagement in the cultural life of the nation;
· Create opportunities for increased citizen participation, particularly for those currently excluded, and to;
· Encourage ambition, risk innovation and excellence in the creative and cultural sectors.
It’s worth recalling that the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil made very specific commitments to the idea of wellbeing, and specifically – and foremost – to children. The Programme said that:
It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children
and
… it shall be the duty of the Republic to take such measures as will safeguard the health of the people and ensure the physical as well as the moral well-being of the Nation.
I want to be very clear about how important this is for the government, and for me personally. Our children are the first priority of Creative Ireland. The twin objectives of wellbeing and social cohesion underpin the entire concept, and the entire programme.
We have to express our own belief about the value of creativity. For me it comes down to four propositions:
First, arts and culture function as a robust social infrastructure and as a key underpinning of individual wellbeing;
Second, our cultural heritage plays a key role in creating community cohesion, collective wellbeing, and a deep sense of belonging;
Third, the arts are of intrinsic value to individuals and to society: The artist brings essential qualities of awareness, emotion, truth and creativity to everyday life;
Fourth, participation in arts and culture is instrumental in developing individual and collective creativity – with enormous implications for our society and our economy.
The ambition of Creative Ireland is 100% dependent on collaboration to a degree that we have never seen before - collaboration between ministers and government departments, between central and local government, between universities, between state agencies, between creative artists and industry.
The task before us is to co-create an entire ecosystem of creativity, networks of individuals and organisations that can achieve great things if we all work together.
Creative Ireland is about placing culture at the centre of our lives, for the betterment of our people and for the strengthening of our society. But there is another dimension to the Programme that I want to address briefly.
In the broadest sense, it’s the question of how culture and democracy support each other: how the arts and citizenship, hand in hand, can support a cross-over of culture, participative democracy, and social justice – for everyone.
This year we often quoted a line from Yeats’ poem, Easter 1916: A terrible Beauty is born.
It might be wise to reflect now on another easily identifiable poem (The Second Coming) by Yeats, written a few years later in the dark shadow of the Great War, in which he says: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
There are strong signals that we need to take more care of our democracies, we need to be more vigilant as citizens - we need to look out for each other - as individuals and communities, but also as nation states - one to another.
As 2016 draws to a close we have landed in an unexpected place: We’ve enjoyed a year of discovery about ourselves - we’re emerging from 2016 with a stronger sense of our identity and loftier ambitions for our future.
But we belong to a Europe and a global democratic community that are facing real challenges - democratic institutions seem unconvincing to large numbers of people; a loss of belief in truth and fact-based evidence; a breakdown of trust; the dissemination of ‘false facts’ or ‘false news’ are real worries.
Our contribution to international solidarity has been most notable in our unbroken record of service to UN peacekeeping. Perhaps we can now add to our international contribution by showing how participative engagement with culture, combined with active citizenship, can strengthen a society, underpin democracy and foster compassion.
That is, I believe, a worthy ambition for our country; that we might arrive at 2022 and be able to say yes, we are truly on the path to being a state that exists to fully serve its entire people, in all dimensions of their lives – in short, a republic.
We are now a mature, sovereign state with immense human resources. What we need to do next is draw together all the strands of those resources.
If we do not create our own future, we run the risk that it will be created for us. Together we can do extraordinary things - to ensure every child has the opportunity to participate in art, music, drama and coding.
This is a unique opportunity and will not come again in any of our lifetimes. We must grab it with vigour; we must work together and make it happen.
Thank you.