President of Malta receives huge welcome in Cork

UCC STUDENTS gathered in their droves this afternoon to give a warm céad míle fáilte to the President of Malta, Dr George Vella and his wife Miriam accompanied by President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina on a visit to the campus.

President Vella and his wife are currently on a three-day State visit to Ireland which commenced on Wednesday.

He attended a number of engagements in Cork today joined by Sabina and President Higgins who told reporters he was “very anxious” that President Vella would see some of Cork during his visit.

While at UCC, President Higgins and President Vella visited the Honan Chapel which recently underwent a major renovation.

During the visit, they also received a presentation from researchers at UCC’s Environmental Research Institute (ERI) and met UCC students and Maltese students studying in Cork.

The @PresidentIRL, #MichaelD Higgins, obviously well able to draw a crowd @UCC. Amazing what the promise of a half day and no homework will do for students… pic.twitter.com/Lu6DY3qq86

— Paschal Sheehy (@PaschalSheehy) March 2, 2023

Marking World Book Day today, the two presidents also took the time to view The Great Book of Ireland, ( Leabhar Mór na hÉireann) which has been described as “Ireland’s modern-day Book of Kells”.

A modern vellum manuscript comprising the original work of 121 artists, 144 poets and nine composers, it includes Samuel Beckett’s last handwritten poem and a poem by Michael D Higgins himself.

President Vella’s visit reciprocates the State visit of President Higgins to Malta in May 2022.

The discussions between the two presidents, in addition to current matters, have continued themes discussed between the two during President Higgins’ State visit to Malta, and again at the 2022 meeting of the Arraiolos Group of non-executive European Heads of State, which was hosted by President Vella in Malta last October.

Speaking today, both presidents acknowledged that a friendship has been formed.

President Vella said their informal discussions on a range of issues have been particularly thought-provoking.

“When one exchanges informally thoughts, opinions and comments, I think that is very, very enriching,” he said.

“The discussions... would have been about the appropriate relations between matters of economy, society, social justice, migration, how we can recover a relationship with nature, the new kind of ecological responsibility that sustainability asks of us and the consequences of climate change,” President Higgins added.

“We are both very committed to multilateralism.

“The hope of humanity is in the pursuit of peace and it is a tragedy when we find ourselves not able to in fact deal with these problems that are existential ones in relation to the environment, for example, but also the many, many increasing levels of conflict creating the displacement that it does and many, many issues in relation to migration.” 

🇲🇹Cork City Council was honoured to today welcome the Presidents of Ireland and Malta to Cork City Hall as part of a 3 day Maltese State Visit to Ireland 🇮🇪 @PresidentIRL @presidentmt @DamianBoylanFG @dfatirl pic.twitter.com/4yUFYxLzC0

— Cork City Council (@corkcitycouncil) March 2, 2023

Earlier in the day, the two presidents and their wives also visited Cork City Hall where they were greeted by Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Damian Boylan, Mrs Brenda Boylan, and Cork City Council’s chief executive, Ann Doherty.

“We were honoured to welcome President Vella to Cork City Hall.

“It is a further great privilege to have Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D Higgins and Mrs Sabina Higgins in Cork with us again,” Mr Boylan said.

“I was pleased to discuss the history of our city with both presidents and to celebrate Cork as a great place to live, work, study and invest in today.

“I hope this special occasion will mark the start of greater and closer links between the people of Cork and Malta. 

“We will fondly remember the day two presidents came to City Hall.”