The trade union movement will play a pivotal role in rebuilding our damaged society, President,Michael D Higgins said today during his first official visit to Belfast.
Addressing the Women’s Conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr Higgins said Irish society was at a point when it needed to reaffirm “active citizenship”.
He added that women had been central to the Irish trade-union movement, Naming a number of activists including Inez McCormick, first female Ictu president and Betty Sinclair, first chairwoman of the NI Civil Rights Association.
He also paid tribute to another Belfast woman and his predecessor in office, Mary McAleese.
The president was the keynote speaker at today’s event at the Waterfront Hall, the theme of which was 'Fighting Back'. Accompanied by his wife Sabina, he later visited Belfast Metropolitan College, the Crescent Arts Centre, the Wave Trauma Centre and held a short briefing with the Human Rights Consortium. The president and his wife had a private lunch engagement at Queen’s University.
Addressing the 250 delegates at the biennial women’s conference, Mr Higgins paid tribute to the “particularly effective” style of leadership women bring.
“I have only to reflect on the amazing work achieved by my two predecessors in Áras an Uachtaráin. They worked in a measured and focused way to unpack problems, break down barriers and get to the heart of an issue in a way which made it amenable to solution,” he said.
“The achievements of Mary McAleese in respecting and reaching out to all traditions and fostering friendship across communities are peerless. The work of Mary Robinson on behalf of the most disadvantaged across the globe has brought her an international recognition she never sought herself.”
He said it was time for Ireland, north and south, to reaffirm values of “community and cohesion” after the bitter lessons of the economic downturn.
“It is very understandable that people are hurt and dismayed by the economic crisis that shattered their lives,” he said. “A huge price has been paid for the speculative period of unsustainable growth and false property-led development ... For those who promoted this bubble, personal wealth and material possessions became a dangerous obsession.”
He warned, however, against too much negativity. “We are certainly entitled to curse that darkness ... But we also need to light the candles of hope ... The tone of cynical fatalism that has dominated some of the public discourse in recent years will not serve us well”.
Referring to the North’s peace process, he said: “No problem, however its apparent intractability, is impervious to solution if we summon up the collective will, determination and ingenuity to address and resolve it.”