McAleese hails ‘sign of hope’

THE way ahead contained in the Limerick regeneration report represented the vision of the people of Moyross, Southill and Ballinacurra Weston, President Mary McAleese said yesterday when officiating at the launch.

She said: “It is a document that will transform your lives as the words become action. When I arrived today I saw a lovely rainbow over Moyross. That was a benediction and I took it as a special sign of hope.”

President McAleese said the document was the launch of a new start for the communities and all the citizens in a shared republic.

She said: “You have been through so much in the past years that your expectations of any real change may be low and who could fault you for that, but I am here today to reassure you that the process of change we are launching today is not like any other you may have experienced in the past.”

The people in these Limerick communities know how draining and depressing it feels to be excluded and forgotten. They had grown cynical and close to giving up all hope of a natural life, she added.

President McAleese said: “But there is an impulse in the human spirit that simply never surrenders and the people of Moyross, Southill and Ballinacurra Weston have distilled their suffering into a strong-willed passion for change and a determination that it is going to happen... Out of that change will come achievements you can and will be proud of, a place to be proud of and to live in with peace of heart and peace of mind.”