Published on Wednesday18thMay2016
Taoiseach speaks at Opening Gala of ‘Ireland 100’
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Vice President Joe Biden at the Kennedy Center
Taoiseach Enda Kenny today spoke at the Opening Gala of ‘Ireland 100’ at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The three week festival is the centrepiece of the 1916 Easter Rising commemorations in the USA and will feature more than 50 performances with the participation of more than 500 artists, will include some of Ireland’s best known and most exciting artists. It will highlight Ireland’s rich cultural legacy and its major footprint in the fields of theatre, literature, music and dance.
The Taoiseach said:
The next three weeks at the Kennedy centre are not about entertainment per se.
Rather Ireland 100 gives audiences the chance to consider Ireland in its complexity in a strangeness that is inherent.
Increasingly we live in a world of spectacle one of instant reaction where our response is published to the world before we have time to absorb never mind reflect.
In any city, right here in Washington, we see visitors walking around with ipads held up in front of them.
Instead of living the moment they have outsourced their experience to a piece of technology.
Instead of seeing with their own eyes, instead of listening with their own ears, they are recording.
Read the Taoiseach's full speech here.