Press Releases
Archbishop Eames' Opening Address at the Forum on Child Poverty in Ireland, Dromantine Conference Centre, 6th December 2005
Ladies and gentlemen : it is my pleasure to welcome you all to this Forum on Child Poverty in Ireland and to thank you for your attendance, support and concern.
I have felt for some time that there is a real need for Irish society to become much more aware of the true and often tragic situation in which too many children and young people find themselves because of poverty on this island.
In my Address to the General Synod of the Church of Ireland last May I spoke of my concerns and floated the idea of a Forum such as this. I have to tell you that I was overwhelmed by the reactions to my remarks. While I knew something of the situation I was confronted by those reactions of a situation which was much worse than I had imagined. Professional people, organisations and individuals from north and south wrote to me of their own experiences and left me in no doubt that child poverty was one of the most tragic elements of our society. Those responses told me that this was by no means a problem confined to any one part of Ireland. In Northern Ireland behind the smokescreen of our years of violence, the Troubles, child poverty had emerged in ways many were unaware of. In the Republic of Ireland behind the smokescreen of the successes of the Celtic Tiger child poverty had reached proportions which could not be ignored in any caring society.
This Forum while being hosted by the Church of Ireland is by no means a Church effort alone. This morning we welcome experts from many fields who have brought their experience and knowledge to share with us. We will listen to their opinions and descriptions of the situation they know intimately. But at the root of my desire to hold this Forum was the wish to confront the Churches with the realities of this tragedy in our midst. All Christians are charged with making the Gospel of our Lord as relevant and as sensitive as we can to the needs of society. I cannot imagine a more pressing cry for that Christian attention than that of little children who are being denied the privileges of so much of society because of poverty.
No one doubts the work which is already being done by agencies and government on both sides of the border. No one doubts the valuable caring and supportive work of local churches. I have made it my business since last May to find out the extent of such work. I have been greatly moved by the stories I have heard of hardship among children and young people caught in the prison of poverty. But I have also been left with the firm conclusion that our society as a whole is ignorant of the true facts. Some of those facts will I am sure surface today in this Forum. I hope the conscience of the Churches will be challenged by what we hear. But I also hope the whole of our society will listen ? and those who can will react.
This Forum must not become a ?one off? event. It must first grasp the true facts and then institute a process which in turn will lead to action. We are not here to be confronted ? we are here to be uncomfortable until we reach out as Churches, groups and individuals to understand and then alleviate if we can, the lot of children in poverty. At the very least let us use this day to call on society to take notice of the real story.