Plan to bestow Freedom of Cork honour on President Higgins

President Michael D Higgins is set to be made a Freeman of Cork.

The lord mayor, Labour’s Cllr Catherine Clancy, will ask city councillors next Monday to support her plan to confer the highest honour the city can bestow on the former president of the Labour Party.

If her nomination is approved, Mr Higgins will become the sixth president of Ireland to receive the Freedom of Cork — following in the footsteps of Douglas Hyde, Éamon de Valera, Sean T. O'Kelly, Mary Robinson, and Mary McAleese.