The Power of Yes

A tumultuous year of building for Belfast came to a close for me on Monday night when the new Lord Mayor of Belfast, Nichola Mallon, took on role of First Citizen, reminding us all that this race is a relay with the baton being passed on rather than a solo run.

To all who made my year in office a time of progress and healing for Belfast, many thanks.

We tried something new in my term: we tried to say yes.

If individuals or institutions were good enough to invite the mayor to attend an event, I was good enough to attend.

Whenever, we could we said yes, and with a good heart.

That doesn’t happen in political life as often as it should.

And that’s a pity because ‘no’ is the most debilitating and paralysing word in the political lexicon and only feeds into the negative, mired-in-the-past credo of our yesterday’s men.

But you all made it possible for me to say yes by your spirit of generosity and desire to reach out.

For me, that’s the big lesson of my spell as Lord Mayor: the power of generosity as a political tool.

Who would have thought that acting with the heart and not the head would bring such benefits to Belfast or be reciprocated so readily.

The spin-doctors and analysts prefer the head and the cold facts but more often the heart and warm sentiment bring greater rewards.

For me, it’s back to porridge. I’m privileged to employ 50 people in a range of businesses and, having survived the Great Recession, it’s my intention to see those ventures thrive in the recovery. I am gearing up for the Belfast Big Jobs Conference in September, the Golden Bridges extravaganza in Boston in October and the Irish Labor 100 celebration in New York in November.

Thankfully, all the businesses I head are involved in building community — whether that community is in Belfast where the South Belfast News, North Belfast News and Andersonstown News serve their heartlands or in America where the Irish Echo is the premier newspaper serving Irish America. (And, since you asked, all are available on digital reader apps.)

Now is the time to invest in our communities and in our future so that we can create wealth and jobs to underpin our rise.

And, on that note, it’s time to look forward, not back but, with your indulgence, and as I start work on a new book in Gaelige about my time in office, I commend the photo diary of Dónal McCann who shadowed me throughout the year (and which will be exhibited during the Belfast Festival at Queen’s), and this final hurrah from Mark Simpson at the BBC and Judith Hill at UTV.

Just say Yes!