President Catherine Connolly on song during first official visit to Cork
President Catherine Connolly (left) with Lauren de Gras (right) at Gaelcholáiste Mhic Shuibhne in Knocknaheeny, Cork, where she visited the Barr na gCnoc project, an initiative focused on educational and social enhancement using Irish-language education as an enabler. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
The President of Ireland was welcomed with applause, laughter, song and the Irish language at her first official visit in the capacity of 'first citizen' to Cork City.
Catherine Connolly's visit saw her call on a gaelscoil in the northside of the city and to UCC where she was welcomed with musical performances as well as a sit-down with children. A separate visit to the Main Quad at UCC also saw Ms Connolly look up the university's copy of the 1916 proclamation on display at the library.
A guard of honour was formed for the President by students and teachers of Gaelcholáiste Mhic Shuibhne in Knockanaheeny, as she entered the school to meet the children who are pursuing their education through Gaeilge there.
Sitting with some of the students in the sweltering heat at the school's library, conversations were had in Irish with the primary school children about their favourite things. A look of astonishment filled their faces as the President took her time speaking to each student who was carrying out exercises in Irish.
Questions included if she liked dogs, chocolate and swimming. At one point, Ms Connolly ended up singing Puc a Bhuile — something the students had rehearsed in advance.
The Gaelscoil is a DEIS school in the Knocknaheeny/Hollyhill area of Cork City's northside which provides inclusive access to Irish-medium/second-level education for local students. Around 80 students are currently pursuing their education through Irish at the school.
It is also part of the Barr na gCnoc project, which is a University Assisted Community Schools initiative.
Professor of Modern Irish at UCC, Pádraig Ó Macháin, said everyone had looked forward to the President's visit. "We did a couple of rehearsals, and I actually got to [pretend] to be president," he told the .
"It's a great success, and what we are seeing today is great encouragement and recognition from the first citizen of the state. And that's very important to us. It's doubly important in that we know that President Connolly has a particular interest in social issues and in education.
"And that, in a sense, she has a similar background to many of the children from here, from this catchment area of the school, and so she would have an empathy with what's going on here and therefore realises the unique sort of project that we're running here between partnership with UCC and Joyce MacSwaney and also the value of it and the potential of it, and I suppose the pitfalls as well, a lot of risks involved," Mr Ó Macháín added.
Her visit also saw a performance from members of The Kabin Studio, who are students at the school.
The nearly five-hour visit to Cork also saw her meet members of the Irish language department as well as university students involved in learning the language through various course streams, including Law and Arts.
President of UCC, John O'Halloran, said it was a "huge honour to have our first citizen of our country here and also to visit our community and connect us with our community, particularly in the north side of the city".
"This university reaches into communities deeply, and having the President affirm that, but also participate in that, is something that's really important to us.
"And then secondly, we have about 1,000 people study Irish here in UCC. So having that reinforcing and role-modelling of a president speaking almost completely as Gaeilge was just a really important day for us," he added.
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