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爱尔兰总统希金斯在英国议会英语演讲稿
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.”
While O’Connell may not have achieved that ambition during his own lifetime, it was such anidealism that served to guide and influence, so many years later, the achievement of themomentous Good Friday Agreement of 1998. That achievement was founded on thecornerstones of equality, justice and democratic partnership, and was a key milestone on theroad to today’s warm, deep and enduring Irish-British friendship.
Our two countries can take immense pride in the progress of the cause of peace in NorthernIreland. But of course there is still a road to be travelled – the road of a lasting and creativereconciliation – and our two Governments have a shared responsibility to encourage andsupport those who need to complete the journey of making peace permanent andconstructive, enduring.
Mr Speaker, Lord Speaker:
I stand here at a time when the relationship between our two islands has, as I have said,achieved a closeness and warmth that once seemed unachievable. The people of Ireland greatlycherish the political independence that was secured in 1922 – an independence which wasfought for by my father and many of his generation. The pain and sacrifice associated with theadvent of Irish independence inevitably cast its long shadow across our relations, causingus, in the words of the Irish MP Stephen Gwynn, to:
“look at each other with doubtful eyes.”
We acknowledge that past but, as you have said, even more, we wholeheartedly welcome theconsiderable achievement of today’s reality – the mutual respect, friendship andcooperation which exists between our two countries, our two peoples. That benign reality wasbrought into sharp relief by the historic visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland three years ago. HerMajesty’s visit eloquently expressed how far we have come in understanding and respectingour differences, and it demonstrated that we could now look at each other through trustingeyes of mutual respect and shared commitments.
The ties between us are now strong and resolute. Formidable flows of trade and investmentacross the Irish Sea confer mutual benefit on our two countries. Be it in tourism, sport orculture, our people to people connections have never been as close or abundant.
Generations of Irish emigrants have made their mark on the development of this country. Assomeone whose own siblings made their home here at the end of the 1950s, I am very proud ofthe large Irish community that is represented in every walk of life in the United Kingdom. Thatcommunity is the living heart in the evolving British-Irish relationship. I greatly cherish howthe Irish in Britain have preserved and nurtured their culture and heritage while, at the sametime, making a distinctive and valued contribution to the development of modern Britain.
Mr Speaker, Lord Speaker:
As both our islands enter periods of important centenaries we can and must, reflect on theethical importance of respecting different, but deeply interwoven, narratives. Such reflectionwill offer us an opportunity to craft a bright future on the extensive common ground weshare and, where we differ in matters of interpretation, to have respectful empathy for eachother’s perspectives.
This year the United Kingdom commemorates the First World War. In Ireland too, we rememberthe large number of our countrymen who entered the battlefields of Europe, never to returnhome. Amongst those was the Irish nationalist MP Tom Kettle who wrote that:
“this tragedy of Europe may be and must be the prologue to the two reconciliations of whichall statesmen have dreamed, the reconciliation of Protestant Ulster with Ireland, and thereconciliation of Ireland with Great Britain.”
It is, I think, significant that Kettle refers to “this tragedy of Europe.” We must alwaysremember that this brutal and tragic war laid the hand of death on every country in Europe.
Kettle died as an Irish patriot, a British soldier and a true European. He understood that to beauthentically Irish we must also embrace our European identity. It is an identification weproudly claim today, an identification we share with the United Kingdom, with whom we havesat around the negotiating table in Europe for over 40 years. We recognise that it has been inthat European context of mutuality and interdependence that we took the most significantsteps towards each other.
Mr Speaker, Lord Speaker:
I have been struck by the imposing canvases in this room, these depictions of the Battles ofTrafalgar and Waterloo, painted by the Irishman Daniel Maclis. They call to mind anotherfamous painting by this great artist that hangs in the National Gallery in Dublin. It depicts the12th century marriage of Aoife, daughter of the King of Leinster, to Strongbow, the leader ofthe first Anglo-Norman force to arrive in Ireland. Those nuptials took place in the context ofconflict and did not necessarily become a harbinger of harmony. Neither was there to be amarriage of hearts and minds between our two islands in the following centuries.
Today, however, we have a fresh canvas on which to sketch our shared hopes and to advanceour overlapping ambitions. What we now enjoy between Ireland and Britain is a friendly, co-operative partnership based on mutual respect, reciprocal benefit, and deep and indeliblepersonal links that bind us together in cultural and social terms.
In the final days of his life, the soldier and parliamentarian, to whom I have referred, TomKettle dreamed of a new era of friendship between our two peoples – “Free, we are free to beyour friend” – was how he put it in one of his poems.
The journey then of our shared British-Irish relationship towards that freedom has progressedfrom the doubting eyes of estrangement to the trusting eyes of partnership and, in recentyears, to the welcoming eyes of friendship.
I am conscious that I am in the company here of so many distinguished parliamentarianswho have made their own individual contributions to the journey we have travelled together. Iacknowledge them and I salute them, as I acknowledge and salute all those who haveselflessly worked to build concord between our peoples. I celebrate our warm friendship and Ilook forward with confidence to a future in which that friendship can grow even more resoluteand more productive.
Gur fada a ghabhfaidh pobail agus parlaimintí an dá oileán seo le chéile go síochánta, goséanmhar agus sa chairdeas buandlúite idir Éire agus an Bhreatain.
Long may our two peoples and their parliaments walk together in peace, prosperity and evercloser friendship between Ireland and Britain.
Mr Speaker, Members, thank you again for your kind welcome.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.
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