1 1 EUCAPA 2012 Banquet and Awards Ceremony: 2 3 Mr Aylward: Ladies and gentlemen. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. And you're 4 very welcome tonight to our banquet celebrating EUCAPA 2012 here in the Kingdom of 5 Kerry. 6 7 Céad Míle Fáilte and I'm sure lots of Irish people have said Céad Míle Fáilte to you 8 over the last few days and we definitely mean it! 9 10 100,000 welcomes. 11 12 Particularly I'd like to welcome the largest delegation that are here, who are not 13 Irish, but Finnish! 14 15 (applause) 16 17 And I know at an international conference we work in the English language as a 18 language of equal difficulty for everybody except Irish, English and Americans here, 19 but perhaps if we were to look at it in a more democratic way then I would say 20 tonight. 21 (In Finnish) Dear Finnish friends, welcome, tonight the President of EUFAPA welcomes 22 you, and he is buying the beer! 23 24 (applause) 25 26 You'll notice that on the top of your menu it says EUCAPA 2012 "Shining a Light on 27 APA" and I think that's what we have been doing here for the few days in County 28 Kerry, shining a light. 29 30 You can see from the beautiful pottery lamp here beside me, we have given these as 31 presentations to our invited guests and I think to our competition winners tomorrow 32 for posters, again they will be receiving these lamps. And I think it's quite 33 significant, in terms of a metaphor for what people are doing by coming to EUCAPA. 34 Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 2 1 You are shining a light on an area that is incredibly important for the whole of 2 society around the world. Not just for people with disabilities, but for the whole 3 of society to include people with disabilities, and I think everybody would agree 4 that we all benefit from that. 5 6 It gives me great pleasure to call upon our first speaker for the evening. Our first 7 speaker, like many of our guests here this evening, is a physical education teacher. 8 9 I think when a lot of us embark on a career we sometimes change career, but our first 10 role in life tends to be something that we identify ourselves by, and our first 11 speaker started out as a physical education teacher and many years ago, I won't say 12 how many, Minister, actually included in his studies in physical education, inclusive 13 practices. 14 15 I think many of you folks are heroes in your advocacy for people with disabilities 16 and their participation in physical activity, but here in County Kerry we have a 17 particular kind of hero, sporting heroes, and particularly heroes who play Gaelic 18 football. 19 20 And our Minister Jimmy Deenihan has had that role over several years of being an 21 inter-county player, representing Kerry and receiving All-Ireland medals for it. 22 23 As I said he started out as a physical education teacher, but he is current Minister 24 for Arts Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs, I give you Minister Jimmy Deenihan. 25 26 MINISTER DEENIHAN: Good evening everybody, I'm delighted to be here with you. I was 27 introduced as a physical education teacher, and I suppose that's my profession, I 28 became a politician by accident, 30 years ago now, and I'm still in politics. 29 30 But I have always retained my interest in physical activity, I still cycle and play a 31 bit of golf and I ran a Marathon just two years ago, so I'm still very much into 32 physical activity and obviously I see the benefits of it. I think it's very, very 33 important -- thank you very much, I wasn't holding the mic close enough. 34 Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 3 1 So just to say to you down at the back and if you didn't hear me in the beginning, I 2 was introduced as a physical education teacher, and that's the way I started off my 3 career, I taught for eight years, then I was asked on a Thursday to run for politics 4 and I was a politician on the Sunday! 5 6 So that must be the fastest, I would say, transition of anybody into politics, and 7 I'm in politics for the last 30 years. I'm now the Minister for Arts Heritage and 8 the Gaeltacht, I would have a particular interest in the arts as well, I come from a 9 town, I suppose, that would be very much associated with literature. 10 11 But also I still retain my interest in physical activity, I still cycle a lot, for 12 charity mostly, and I run a bit, I ran a Marathon just two years ago actually, the 13 Dublin City Marathon and I run maybe 10k every week. So I still realise how 14 important physical activity is. 15 16 I developed an interest in adapted physical education years ago, I suppose when I was 17 in PE college, and I went to the National College of Physical Education in Limerick, 18 it has gone through a name change since, but back then it was the National College of 19 Physical Education, and the director was a man called Jim Oliver and he was one of 20 the people that started the Special Olympics with Eunice Kennedy Shriver, some of you 21 from America would know that. 22 23 So he introduced a whole module on Adapted Physical Activity. So when I came out of 24 college, it so happened that a special school was established by the Presentation 25 Sisters, nuns, close to my home, just a few miles from my home. So I asked my 26 principal to give me every Monday morning off, so that I could work with them, so I 27 was free from any class time every Monday morning for a number of years. 28 29 So I saw, over a period of four years, the improvement that took place with so many 30 young people, a few people I was very successful with, that couldn't walk, not able 31 to walk, just to stand properly, to sit properly, to catch a ball, to throw a ball, 32 to tumble and do very basic simple things, to actually do cart wheels and flips and 33 hand springs, even to that level, some went on actually afterwards and won medals at 34 the Special Olympics. Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 4 1 2 But even still I meet some of those young people, there was one in particular that I 3 taught how to walk straight and keep their head up, and even still after 30 years or 4 so, when I see them, even if they see me in the distance, they always straighten up 5 when they see me! That still happens. 6 7 It was something I got a lot of satisfaction out of, even after going into politics, 8 the school changed from the village to Listowel and actually it became amalgamated 9 with a primary school, mainstream school, so it's quite unique, the special school 10 and mainstream school, they are on the same site, they share the same gym, so it was 11 actually an arrangement that I was involved with, with the Department of Education, 12 but it works very well, it's in Listowel, a town called Listowel for those of you 13 visiting. 14 15 So it's quite unique in that sense, so you have a special school and a girls primary 16 school in the same building and the gym links both of them. And I started doing 17 physical education with the primary school and the special school, and some of the 18 kids in the primary school actually helped me do it with the special needs kids, and 19 actually one of those people became a teacher afterwards and she is teaching now in 20 the school. 21 22 But again it taught me the value of doing physical activity and mixing mainstream 23 children with children with special needs, and there was a great interaction, great 24 understanding from the mainstream children and also a lot of confidence, I suppose, 25 was gained from the kids with special needs. 26 27 So I'm very supportive of what you are doing here. Over the years I've developed a 28 very good friendship with Pat Flanagan, you could say I suppose he would be the 29 father, I suppose, of adapted physical education in this country, in the sense that 30 he has done so much for it. 31 32 First of all to highlight the benefits of it and then to develop it through the 33 college in Tralee, the Institute of Technology in Tralee, which I must say has shown 34 massive leadership, really important leadership, not only in Ireland, but also now in Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 5 1 a global sense, in this whole area. 2 3 And to Pat and his great staff, and also supported by the director and all the other 4 staff, Oliver Murphy here and the Chairman of the Board of Management, Board of 5 Governors, Flan Garvey, and all the other staff, they see it as a very important 6 niche and they have really developed something very important here. 7 8 And I was very encouraged with some words I had before we started with Lauren 9 Lieberman, she told me how this centre was so important and she is, as you know, an 10 international expert in this area, and certainly her words of encouragement and 11 endorsement of the centre were very important to me personally, so I now realise that 12 we have something very special here and something that the system must support as 13 soon as possible or as much as possible. 14 15 Now just to say that the institute have major plans for a sports academy, you 16 probably, that was mentioned during the course of discussions for the last few days, 17 and very much part of that will be inclusiveness and also accessibility and it will 18 be much -- a centre for people with various needs as well as for elite sports people 19 and I think that's very, very important as well. 20 21 So ladies and gentlemen, I understand you are here from 33 countries, 300 delegates, 22 you are very welcome here to Killarney. Killarney is, I think, one of the most 23 beautiful parts of the world really, so make sure that you get out and see it as much 24 as possible, it's quite unique, it's been recognised the world over for its beauty, 25 for its landscape, for the biodiversity, make sure and visit our national park which 26 is 22,000 acres of land that's in public ownership and you can get lost there for 27 days if you like! 28 29 But certainly it's a very special place here and this is a very, very good hotel as 30 well. 31 32 So ladies and gentlemen, just again, thank you for being here, I'm delighted just to 33 be associated with this event, I do have a genuine interest in adapted physical 34 education. I think it's very important not only for the young people themselves, but Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 6 1 also for the parent involved. Parents that have the challenge of looking after their 2 children with special needs deserve every support possible, and certainly I think 3 it's very important as well that parents would be included as much as possible in 4 everything that you are doing, I think they are a very important target audience as 5 well. 6 7 So thank you for your attention and I'm delighted to be here with you. Thank you. 8 9 (applause) 10 11 MR AYLWARD: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're enjoying your starters. 12 13 If you don't mind I'd like to take the opportunity to ask you all to raise a glass 14 and if we may have a toast? 15 16 And that our toast may be to say thank you very much to the board of EUFAPA for the 17 excellent decision they made to bring the EUCAPA congress to Ireland in 2012. 18 19 So to the EUFAPA board and the whole organisation. 20 21 Slainte! 22 23 May I now call on Dr Martin Kudlacek, president of EUFAPA, to speak to us, thank you. 24 25 DR KUDLACEK: Thank you very much Tom for a nice toast. I'd like to steal a few 26 seconds of your time, it's lovely to see you here. 27 28 Great thanks to the EUCAPA 2012 team, you deserve a round of applause for all the 29 team. 30 31 You are doing great work and you are making a tough job for Javier, who is going to 32 organise 2014 in Madrid. So I would like to take this opportunity to notice and 33 identify some people that are very important and they usually stay behind and work. 34 Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 7 1 I would like to quickly introduce you to the board of directors of EUFAPA, so let me 2 start with our vice president, Tony, if you can wave a hand? 3 4 Tony is from Finland and he is responsible for development and his main job now is to 5 create the network of national organisations and B, he is to get money to make it 6 work, so good luck Tony. 7 8 Next is our president elect, which means future president comes from Portugal from a 9 lovely town Coimbra, Pedro Ferraria. 10 11 The next around the table is the organiser of EUCAPA 2010, Paul. 12 13 Probably one of the most hard-working person is always secretary, so EUFAPA secretary 14 comes from Latvia and it's Aija Klavina. 15 16 Then very important person, as I mentioned already is the organiser, Chairperson of 17 EUCAPA 2014, which will take place where? In Spain, Madrid, so Javier Perez. 18 19 Take a good look at him, it will be great, it will be tough after EUCAPA 2012. 20 21 And EUCAPA 2012, the person key to the EUFAPA board is Ursula Barrett, I believe from 22 Ireland. She has my admiration, because she is very responsible and as EUFAPA board 23 member she was the one to be primary guide to the very challenging tour of Killarney 24 pubs last night, when I heard it finished between 3 and 4 am, so again a round of 25 applause for Ursula. 26 27 EUFAPA secretary comes from the Czech Republic, Hana Valkova. 28 29 And also key person for the history and presidents of EUFAPA is past-president, Maria 30 Dinold from Vienna, Austria. 31 32 I would like to take this opportunity to invite Maria and Hana come closer here to 33 present EUFAPA Awards of 2012. 34 Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 8 1 MS DINOLD: Thank you everybody, it is my pleasure and honour to chair this short 2 awards ceremony. And it is our tradition now, since four years, that we confer this 3 EUFAPA awards during the conference and we are very pleased to present you one of the 4 most rewarded persons, from a country where we don't have delegates at the moment, 5 but I think there is a very strong delegation coming next year, or next time. And I 6 would like to ask our treasurer, Hana Valkova, to present our award to Yves Francis 7 Eberhard. 8 9 MS VALKOVA: I'm very happy that I shall introduce shortly Yves Francis Eberhard from 10 Grenoble, from the University -- Joseph Fourier University. 11 12 Short biography, he started as a general PE teacher and step-by-step he continued as 13 a university teacher and recently he is young, freshly retired Emeritus Professor, 14 congratulations. 15 16 And he is very skillful in a lot of lectures in different universities in France and 17 in international programmes like European masters degree or Eramus Mundais degree in 18 APA. 19 20 You can see a lot of research results and publications and his main intention is 21 international disability from different aspects. 22 23 He passed a lot of administrative functions, has a very, very good manager, he was 24 the dean of two universities and his last position of dean of faculty of physical 25 education and sport, again in Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble. 26 27 But, his main approach was his pioneering in the development of Adapted Physical 28 Activity. He started in 1986 and he was one of the founders of the first European 29 association for research in APA and recently he is included in European master, and 30 what I would like to stress, it was the programme with orientation on French 31 language, intensive programme on APA, which was changed for a recent design, and it 32 continues in Finland. 33 34 He received a lot of honorary distinctions, but last but not least is today European Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 9 1 Professional Award for Outstanding Achievement, today awarded with EUCAPA 2012 Yves, 2 I am very happy to congratulate you first, not only from the aspect of the European 3 board, but from my personal, private aspect, as not only a very good teacher, very 4 good researcher, but very good man. Thank you. 5 6 PROF EBERHARD: It's a great honour for me to be here today. 7 8 Firstly I wish to present all my gratitude to the EUFAPA board for the distinction, 9 unexpected in my retirement position. 10 11 So it is with sincere emotion that I can, I must recall the origin of the APA 12 movement in Europe. 13 14 1979, introduction of this body of knowledge in Europe by Jean Claude dePorte during 15 the second EUFAPA symposium in Brussels. In 1986 creation of the European 16 association for research in Adapted Physical Activity in Brussels, always under the 17 visionary act of Jean Claude dePorte who convinced several of us to found a European 18 association focused around the research. 19 20 In 1987, under the umbrella of ISAPA the group improved its action successively in 21 Lisbon and in Madrid. 22 23 In 1988 it was a seminar in the north of England, a meeting and this generous idea of 24 creation of the master degree in Adapted Physical Activity. He was helped by a man 25 of great quality, John Helvin from Newcastle University. 26 27 In 1989 in Berlin, in June, the wall was present, but in November it was pulled and 28 in November 1989 was one of our last meeting, putting in place the structure of our 29 master degree in APA with the certainty and support of (inaudible). 30 31 September 1991 was a year of the first course in Catholic University of Lueven, and I 32 have a special thought for Edina Riggs, then after several who were successively 33 coordinators of the diploma, even if Herman Broncol had the honorary position. 34 Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 10 1 During 20 years I have the advantage to join the Catholic University of Lueven for 2 different lectures, I meet different colleagues and some are here, different students 3 who are aware of the great importance in the development of APA, not only in Europe, 4 but also in the world, sometimes in spite of many political difficulties. 5 6 Among them Aboin Koe as a recognition of the APA in Italy, the same for Hana Valkova 7 who promoted APA with skill and patience in the east of Europe. 8 9 Along my professional life, apart from my lectures and research profession, in 10 exercise physiology for persons with intellectual handicap, during my commitment for 11 APA I was always convinced that the improvement of APA must be based on the dynamism 12 and high scientific level of students. 13 14 But it must be built in parallel, as ambassadors or messengers of a new world, 15 focused in first, on human qualities. 16 17 Today I am sure that the new generation who are here, Martin Kudlacek, Maria Dinold, 18 Jorge and so on, and all the participants of that gorgeous EUCAPA in Ireland, will 19 certainly succeed better than the ancient generation, and I see you, in conclusion, 20 good luck for the future challenges. 21 22 Thank you for your attention. 23 24 MS DINOLD: Thank you very much Yves and my best congratulations. And I have to 25 announce that we still have more awards and one of the important awards is of course 26 the Young Investigator Award, but as we have one more day to go, tomorrow, we can not 27 confer it already today. 28 29 So we have two more candidates that we have to evaluate and we'll award this tomorrow 30 at the closing ceremony. 31 32 But it is also a good tradition now that we award one of the persons of the country, 33 which is organising the EUCAPA, and for this I would ask Peter Smyth to come forward 34 to honour the award winner of the EUFAPA award for achievement of the local country. Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 11 1 Please. 2 3 MR SMYTH: Ladies and gentlemen, actually before I go into the speech I would just 4 like to congratulate a group who are doing Trojan work and I have been watching an 5 example of the work, the people doing typing and recording for posterity, they are 6 doing a super job, so please would you mind ... 7 8 I have a menu here which I don't know how long it takes to turn around a menu, but 9 the menu I would imagine was printed maybe a couple of days ago and I notice my name 10 is on it to present this award tonight, now I have a feeling I have been a victim of 11 the Kerry Mafia again, I came down here I get a job that I didn't realise I had! 12 13 So I'm presenting the EUFAPA award for Outstanding Achievement at a National Level 14 2012, I am absolutely delighted to be doing so. 15 16 Because we are here to honour a person who I am pleased to say that I have known for, 17 as a friend, and as a great influence on my life for the last ten years, nine years! 18 That's of course Pat Flanagan. 19 20 I think Pat is a man with a deep sense of occasion, I actually think in a former age 21 Pat might easily have taken to the cloth and become a priest! 22 23 But their loss is our gain, and it is great that we're recognising his contribution 24 this evening. 25 26 To continue on with the priestly analogy, Pat is considered by those working in APA 27 as the father of APA. I think you could add mother and Holy Ghost as well! 28 29 His interest in APA goes back to when he was a PE teacher in the 70s, and I'm not 30 sure whether it's the 1870s or 1970s ... Pat has that sense that's associated with 31 some wisdom, but actually, yeah it's obviously the 1970s and 1980s! 32 33 Pat, things started really taking off with Pat in the 1990s -- 34 Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 12 1 Things started really taking off in the 1990s when Pat joined IT Tralee, they are 2 still trying to get rid of him! 3 4 In 1995 he saw a need for APA studies to be part of undergraduate training for health 5 and leisure students and he started to develop a unique model of delivery, which 6 included engagement with disability groups in the community, so his students acquired 7 the practical skills and confidence working with individuals with disabilities and 8 physical activity in sports settings. 9 10 As Pat would be inclined to say, nothing about us without us. 11 12 Moving swiftly along to 2000, 2003 to be specific, the first national APA conference, 13 A Right to Access, it set down a marker that service provision in Ireland had to 14 change. This is also officially what I might call my first date with Pat! It didn't 15 necessarily work out well for one of us, I had managed to persuade my organisation to 16 provide some funding for the conference and came down thinking everyone would love me 17 ... how naive was I! 18 19 Pat persuaded me in that insidious personable warm way of his to sit on the panel at 20 the end of the conference to take any questions that might come my way, he suggested 21 that there were unlikely to be any hard ones. 22 23 Claudine Cheryl was there I think I'm right and she would be the main focus of 24 interest, questions, what questions? I was downed in a volley of verbal bullets! 25 26 I didn't stand a chance, but Pat persuaded me to come back for more, remember what I 27 said about personal, warm, engaging. I remember for a long time operating on the 28 misapprehension that Pat was from Kerry he was that charming ... he's not! 29 30 So we had subsequent conferences on APA, which attract changes in service provision 31 and programme development. They have led to strong relationships being formed with 32 many APA experts around the world, yourselves. 33 34 The national centre in APA, CARA, emerged from one of the conferences and again was Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 13 1 the brain child of Pat. While he was making all this happen he was the key and 2 influential actor in the process of securing funding for a new programme called 3 Sports Inclusion Disability Programme. This is now a national programme around the 4 country and has been central to increasing the participation rates of people with 5 disabilities in Ireland. 6 7 The ripple effect of his vision has travelled way beyond Ireland, in 2007 he became 8 chair of a European project aimed at developing a teaching resource for the training 9 of undergraduate PE teachers across the continent. European Inclusion in Physical 10 Education Training, EIPET module, was launched in 2009 and is available now to many 11 third level institutions around Europe. 12 13 The programme has also received an EU award for best project in 2009. 14 15 Pat has had a huge influence on the landscape of APA in Ireland and abroad but 16 remains committed to one area above all others, the APA programme at IT Tralee, 17 apparently the students are fond, besotted is probably a better word, of the man who 18 shows passion for his subject every day of every semester and prides himself on the 19 quality of experience that each individual client, who is part of the programme, is 20 entitled to, and receives. 21 22 He is a man who understands standards and he sets the bar high for himself, for his 23 students and for his colleagues. 24 25 As a true advocate of APA he leads by example, facilitates encourages and drives 26 others to do the same ... I'm nearly finished! 27 28 I could say, hand on heart, that we would not be here if it were not for Pat, his 29 vision, his passion, his work ethic, his engaging personality, his drive, his 30 commitment, oh my God he sounds like a saint! Have been a source of inspiration to me 31 and countless others who know him. 32 33 Finally, let me, for a moment, take you to the movies for a line that captures my 34 feelings about Pat best, I'm not sure it's appropriate but I'm going for it ... the Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 14 1 movie is "As Good As It Gets" stars Jack Nicholson, as a compulsive obsessive and 2 Helen Hunt as a waitress and mother of an asthmatic child. 3 4 Nicholson's character is generally obnoxious, that's not Pat, he almost can't help 5 it, as Donna Goodwin might suggest he needs to reflect on the way he behaves in a 6 relational ethics perspective. So Jack -- again not your Jack, Dr Goodwin -- never 7 seems to have a nice word to say about anyone including Helen Hunt, he treats her 8 badly almost every time he is in the restaurant, but in the end finds some salvation 9 through her, and at one stage in the movie she gets fed up with him in the restaurant 10 and pushes him to say something nice, "anything", she cries, which attracts the 11 interest and attention of the remaining restaurant goers. 12 13 So with the rest of the restaurant looking on, Jackie eventually turns to her and 14 says: "You make me want to be a better person." 15 16 Pat, you make me want to be a better person in every way. I thank you from the 17 bottom of my heart. For being a great friend. I thank you for your 18 extraordinariness, I love coming down here, it's a great place that you and your team 19 have nurtured and developed. Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together as loudly 20 as you can for Pat Flanagan. 21 22 (applause) 23 24 MR FLANAGAN: With friends like that who needs enemies! 25 26 Peter, thank you very much for those overkind and probably over-generous words. And 27 amazing that you pick my favourite film to take a line from, funny enough one that I 28 enjoy a lot and a line that I would admire in other people a lot. 29 30 I want to say very few things. One is that my interest in disability goes back a 31 long way, a very quick story that might put it in context why I'm very interested in 32 access and inclusion. 33 34 My brother Tommy was diagnosed, I suppose got Polio at six months and at five years Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 15 1 my mother tried to bring him to school at a near school. And he had Polio and he 2 used splints to walk and she brought him to the school and the school wouldn't take 3 him in 1965, because his splints would mark the floor. 4 5 So she brought him to a school a mile and a half away, where she would have to walk 6 with him to the school and that school wouldn't take him because his splints would 7 mark the floor and he might upset the other children. 8 9 Finally a school about two and a half miles away, in Ireland the Christian brothers 10 have been much maligned but a Christian brothers school, took him in and said the 11 floor will be there forever, he needs education. And it made a huge difference to 12 our family, throughout that, that that kind of barrier was put in front of someone 13 who just want to go to school. And I would hate to see barriers that would stop 14 anybody access to something that we now know is their right, and should be provided, 15 so anything that can be done by us, me, or government, Government Ministers that can 16 fix that and increases access and doesn't allow those barriers and as Donna Goodwin's 17 talk again today really rang home very firmly, that it's about people and it's about 18 dignity and it's about life, and sometimes it can be difficult and we can make that 19 just a little bit better. 20 21 So with that, I'd like to thank a small number of organisations and people, I know 22 I'll leave people out, but I'll be very brief, I'd like to acknowledge my colleagues 23 at IT Tralee who have made this APA programme possible over the years, from 24 management, people like Flan Garvey, who has been there all along supporting it and 25 current staff, people like Ursula Barrett who now drives the programme and moves the 26 programme on, deals with very large numbers of students and people with disabilities. 27 28 Tomas Aylward who's brought a huge element of professionalism to the outdoor 29 education side, Aoife, Sharon Phelan, Karen Weeks, I'm sure I'll leave some out, but 30 there is a huge number of staff at IT Tralee at management level and lecturing level 31 who make this programme possible and I definitely wouldn't be able to do all of that 32 on my own or reach that number of people with disabilities. 33 34 On the management side, they have been hugely supportive and deserve every bit of Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 16 1 recognition that they get from UNESCO or from anywhere else, the directors, Oliver, 2 Michael Hall, the current registrar, Aidan Kenny, Seamus O'Shea who hasn't been with 3 us due to illness, as a head of school was hugely supportive when I arrived in Kerry 4 first. 5 6 I would like to acknowledge the committee of the EUCAPA conference and EUFAPA board 7 for their support in awarding us the conference and the great work done by the 8 committee over a number of years, again a lot of the staff at IT Tralee and other 9 organisations who have come into assist us and it's been wonderful to meet the 10 international people, everywhere I go, when you listen to Martin Kudlacek and James 11 Rimmer and Lauren Lieberman and Donna Goodwin, all those wonderful people who inspire 12 me and inspire us here to be better, APA people, and then you have people like 13 Terrence McSweeney there, to me he is the father of Adapted Physical Activity in 14 Ireland. When we started we didn't know really a lot about it, he would have been 15 getting all the journals and my students would have been contacting Terrence to find 16 out about research and he would have been very, very significant in starting a lot of 17 the APA concepts in Ireland. 18 19 But finally, I'd like to thank someone who is probably been the most patient and we 20 are talking about reality ethics, I thought my wife had had a chat with you Peter in 21 relation to ethical -- because I was probably the most -- I caused more burnt dinners 22 than anybody in history and been home later and later and Anne Marie has shown 23 patience, perseverance, understanding and guidance and used all of her counselling 24 skills and all her motivational skills to help me through day-to-day and to also help 25 us grow as a couple and as parents for Patrick and Aoife. 26 27 So to Anne Marie and to all our friends and people working in APA, thank you very 28 much for your support and it's a great honour to get this award, thank you very much. 29 30 (applause) 31 32 MS DINOLD: Thank you and enjoy the evening. Have fun. 33 34 (Dinner commences) Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 17 1 2 MR AYLWARD: Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you've enjoyed your meal this evening, I 3 hope you have enjoyed the evening's proceedings so far. 4 5 Next we have something quite special for you. We invite you to join us to listen and 6 to hear and to see Siamseoirí na Ríochta, which translates as the entertainers of the 7 kingdom, the kingdom being the kingdom of Kerry! 8 9 The Irish State believes that Kerry is just one of its 26 counties, but here in Kerry 10 we know it is actually a kingdom. But anyway, this is a seasoned group of singers, 11 musicians and dancers with a long experience of performance throughout Ireland and 12 abroad and they are under the direction of Pat Ahern. 13 14 So if I could ask for your attention please for Siamseoirí na Ríochta, go raibh maith 15 agaibh. 16 17 NARRATOR: In this short recital we hope to give you a flavour of the rich treasure 18 that is Ireland's heritage of music, and song, and dance. 19 20 It stems from a time in Ireland when Irish was the spoken language of the people. 21 Because summer is now upon us we'll present our recital this evening under the 22 slogan: Thugamar féin an Samhra linn; 23 we have brought summer with us! 24 25 Like many folk cultures of the world, Ireland possesses a wealth of love songs, some 26 of them are happy songs and some are sad. 27 28 The love song that we're going to sing to you now might be called, a troubled love 29 song. Because the poet, who is unrequited in his love, sings of a heart in him that 30 is broken, a mind that is deserting him to the point of despair. 31 32 (Choir sing) 33 34 ALL: Shush! Shush! (bird song). Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 18 1 2 NARRATOR: Who will tell me what bird that is? Has anybody got any idea? What bird 3 is that? An Droilean? No, good attempt Flan. It's the blackbird. 4 5 And for some obscure reason this sweet warbler gave it's name to a celebrated Irish 6 tune. To which has been said, a solo step dance. 7 8 It's unique to this part of Ireland, and it's a real challenge to any dancer, young 9 or ... not so young! 10 11 The dance is called simply: The blackbird. 12 13 (Music and dance) 14 15 NARRATOR: We're now going to sing you a love song of a very different kind. 16 17 This time the poet is singing of his love for his country, his native land, this song 18 comes from a time in Ireland when poets were forbidden to pen the praises of their 19 native land. 20 21 So, in this case, to disguise his subject, the poet personalises his country, as a 22 beautiful young woman, with whom he is deeply in love. 23 24 He calls her Roisin, her mood seems dark to him, so he calls her Roisin Dubh, dark 25 Roisin. Dark with the darkness of oppression. 26 27 Roisin Dubh. My dark Roisin. Fear not, and do not weep, the ships are on the ocean 28 green, they March along the deep. 29 30 To give you help, and hope Roisin, some day, before you sleep. 31 32 (Singing and dancing) 33 34 MR AYLWARD: Well ladies and gentlemen, we just experienced a most fantastic Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie 19 1 rendition of the best of performing arts in Ireland, traditional performing arts, in 2 singing music and dance. 3 4 One or two final announcements to make this evening. As you know it's been a huge 5 team effort to bring the congress here to Tralee and on the international stage we 6 have been very appreciative of the support of one man in particular, Dr Martin 7 Kudlacek and we have a very small presentation we'd like to make to him now, if I 8 might ask him to come and join us at the stage. 9 10 This will be presented by Kevin Smith from the National Learning Network who is a 11 member of our organising committee. 12 13 It's a handcrafted miniature hurley and I'm sure from last night's exhibition in the 14 GAA you all have a new appreciation of hurling, which is one of Ireland's traditional 15 sports and it was produced by Handcraft Hurleys in Newcastle West in County Limerick. 16 17 Hopefully the security people in Dublin Airport won't take it off Martin as he is 18 travelling through! He could always claim that it's a wooden spoon and not a lethal 19 weapon. 20 21 Thank you very much Dr Martin Kudlacek. 22 23 I suppose for the end of our evening we are moving out of the eating phase, I am sure 24 you are thinking that sleep is coming, but not in Ireland, at this stage of the 25 evening we have more entertainment for you, we have some dance music coming on now 26 and you'll be delighted with the arrangements we've made for plenty of dancing here 27 for this evening, and I suppose I'd just like to say again thank you all very much 28 for coming to our congress, I hope you enjoyed your evening here. 29 30 And as they say somewhere; (In Finnish: Let the dancing begin!) 31 32 Thank you very much. 33 34 Dancing and festivities begin Premier Captioning & Realtime Ltd www.pcr.ie