Positive Ageing Week has struck a chord among the elderly, bringing together all that is best in the older generation: its resilience, tenacity and humour.
Until next Saturday, local communities will celebrate the ageing process, and in Dublin, among other events, there will be seminars on anger management for carers and on poverty among the old.
Significantly, the week was inaugurated with a religious theme. An ecumenical ceremony in Dublin's Pro- Cathedral set the tone for an annual event which involves people of various denominations, and none. It was a celebration of the spiritual dimension of ageing which recognises the value of all stages of life. Indeed, it is ironic that the Old and New Testament have little to say about the elderly, perhaps because in ancient times there was a palpable reverence for old people.
One question posed by Positive Ageing Week is whether that reverence has been extinguished by the pace of modern living, individualism and indifference to civic codes and inter-generational co-operation.
Each family and community will have its own answer, but there is no doubt that many elderly people believe they have been denied a real role in aspects of Irish life. From the married couple who take their parents' babysitting for granted to the doctor who dismisses the aches and pains of the elderly, there is a gamut of offensive indifference to people in the autumn of their lives.
Tackling such attitudes is a challenge and Age Action Ireland, the initiator of Positive Ageing Week, has with its annual essay and short story competition sought to change young people's attitudes to the elderly. The competition, launched yesterday in Dublin, is aimed at 15 to 17-year-olds and asks them to outline their views on being old.
This is not before its time, as these students by 2050 will be only a handful of years away from being 65. At that age, if demographic trends continue, they will belong to the 25 per cent of the population which is 65 and over. Hopefully, by then, they will live in an enlightened and egalitarian Republic where their security, housing and health provision will be guaranteed.
Most importantly, they should also be free from the discriminations, both big and small, which can inhibit the lives of old people and prevent them from maximising their talents to their own and the State's benefit.
Also, when they become frail, it is imperative that they should have prompt access - as a matter of right - to a range of services, both residential and in the general community, which allow them to live out their days with dignity.