I would like to thank you Mayor and each and every member of the Kilkenny Borough Council for this great honour, which I know is rarely dispensed. It is a great privilege to be made a Freewoman of Kilkenny City and to be in the company of two such distinguished citizens as Brian Cody and Seamus Pattison. I understand that we are the only three people living to hold this distinction and I will treasure it and the memory of the goodwill and pride of the people of Kilkenny in their city which caused me to receive it.
I have a piece of Kilkenny in my study in the form of a hurl and sliothar signed by DJ Carey so I am hoping some of that Kilkenny sporting DNA, the Cody charisma, might rub off and bring an Ulster team a bit closer to one of those days out in Croke Park that Kilkenny takes so much for granted.
Like the hurling team that carries the name of city and county, this city, Ireland’s only inland city, is renowned for a level of excellence that puts it a head above the rest. Yours is an old city with layer upon layer of history visible in its old walls, its abbeys, castle and cathedral. One writer well described Kilkenny as, “a city old in Christian living and wise in human experience. One can feel the heartbeat of an ancient civilised community”.
And that is true but one can also feel the pulse of a city that is very much a 21st century leader. It is a self-assured city drawing on that history, celebrating and protecting it but determined to let each generation leave a proud imprint of its own.
Just recently you marked the 400th anniversary of the Charter of James I in April 1609, granting Kilkenny its status as a city. But for many in my generation, long before prosperity started to creep into Irish homes, long before the country was infused with a new imagination and self-confidence, the first stirrings of a new mood and new possibilities were to be found here. We came here as on a pilgrimage to see what a city could do when its people worked together with pride in the past and faith in the future.
The streetscapes and shop-fronts, the ancient buildings so beautifully cared for, spoke of a community with a plan for itself. The cultural and craft life, the dynamic creativity, the welcome spoke of a place to visit, to learn from, to be inspired by.
Kilkenny’s ambition for itself was formed and achieved in the toughest and least optimistic of times when large numbers emigrated and unemployment levels were at twenty percent. This city did not wait for the good times to roll around by coincidence - its people pulled together, harnessed their collective strength and individual genius and let the future in through a door they created themselves.
It is that spirit that makes me particularly proud to be here today for it is a spirit that will help us transcend the economic problems that beset us once again and to triumph against the odds. Now, of course, the odds have shifted in Kilkenny’s favour - so dramatically that I once heard it said it would take two teams to beat you. That is a compliment that could as easily be made of the city as of the hurling team.
My thanks for the welcome you have given to Martin and me. To the Mayor, Cllr. Pat Crotty, Deputy Mayor Cllr. Betty Manning and all of the members of Kilkenny Borough Council, my warmest thanks for bestowing on me Kilkenny’s highest civic honour.
Is cúis mhór áthais agus bróid dom an onóir seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh arís.
