As President of Ireland, may I send my warmest wishes for a peaceful and happy New Year to all of the Irish community in Britain.
As I enter the final year of my terms as Uachtarán na hÉireann, I recall the values that I stressed as I entered office in 2011. The ethical values I invoked as a project for all of us – building a just and inclusive society that ensures the participation of all of our citizens – are surely as valid today as they were then, retaining a capacity to go to the hearts of Irish people wherever scattered they may be.
Over the Christmas period, families throughout Ireland will have welcomed the homecomings of many of our Irish community abroad. But there are those of course who for different reasons were unable to travel home, but whose connection with family and friends remains so strong.
As we begin this new year, let us look to the future with hope
In the same spirit, I think of all those who have moved to live with us and make a new home in Ireland, our new citizens and those who have sought asylum here – those seeking refuge, those searching for a life free from fear and persecution, or who, like so many of our Irish over the generations, in Britain and elsewhere, simply wish for new opportunities. Just as has been the case with the Irish community abroad, their new home does not require any forgetting of their home cultures or families.
As we enter 2025, we find ourselves in circumstances in which it is not sufficient nor morally acceptable that any passivity, evasion or silence is offered in the face of multiple, interlocking crises across our world – food insecurity, malnutrition and global hunger, the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss, rising global poverty and deepening inequality.
The painful lessons of history and our hopes for the future must surely persuade us to strive, with urgency, for a world where diplomacy triumphs over endless preparation for war, where the pursuit of peace is a shared objective with far greater resonance than is present at the moment. When we might speak of peace in a diverse world, where the safety and dignity of every human being is valued. This is now our best hope and preparation for responsible and sustainable lives together on what is our vulnerable shared planet.
When I addressed the UN Summit on the Future of the United Nations in New York in September, I spoke of authenticity, of how our urgent interacting crises require us to recover a lost authenticity between words and actions, to draw on what were our better, promising moments of achieving trust, such as in 2015 when we agreed collectively the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, a shared blueprint for peace and human development in recognising and responding to the consequences of climate change and the promise of sustainable living.
We are challenged however by the fact that our delivery on these Goals has been so much less than what was committed. Today, just 17 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals are currently on track. Half of the 17 goals are showing “minimal or moderate progress”, while over a third are either “stalled or regressing”.
The failure to achieve peace, to eliminate acute global poverty, hunger, and the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss have been accompanied by a return to an arms race, to a world that has rewarded investors in instruments of death rather than promoting sustainability.
Now is the time for all of us, for all peoples to speak and urge countries of the world who wish to see a world of peace, a sustainable and more equal world built on the Sustainable Development Goals, to come together, speak out and force the measures that will make these vital goals a global achievement.
May I take this opportunity to thank all those who sent messages of good wishes for the health of Sabina and I over the last year – your warmth and encouragement was deeply appreciated by us both.
2024 marked ten years since I made a return State Visit to the United Kingdom in 2014, the first such visit by a President of Ireland to the UK, and following three years after the State Visit made by the late Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland in 2011.
I was pleased to mark that anniversary with a visit to Manchester last April, where I received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Manchester – a university where I undertook post-graduate studies from 1968 to 1971 – and to have the chance to again meet with some of the Irish community both in that city and from Britain more broadly.
My warmest wishes for a peaceful and happy New Year to all of the Irish community in Britain
As I enter this 14th and final year as President of Ireland, it remains the greatest honour and privilege to serve the Irish people. I look forward immensely to continuing to do so over the coming year.
During my terms in Office, both Sabina and I have experienced and valued the warmth and friendship of people both at home and abroad, including in each of our visits to Britain. We have witnessed the resilience, compassion, creativity, empathy and kindness of Irish people across the globe in so many different ways. It is something we so deeply appreciate and we will always cherish.
And so, as we begin this new year, let us look to the future with hope, recalling our shared vulnerabilities, resolving to forge together a renewed sense of solidarity. May we find an opportunity to deepen our understanding and accept the responsibility of what it means to live together in harmony and to take seriously our responsibilities to each other and to the world we share.
Beirigí gach beannacht don athbhliain is don todhchaí
