President Connolly hits the high notes on her first Cork visit

The President of Ireland was welcomed with applause, laughter, song, and the Irish language at her first official visit in her capacity of ‘first citizen’ to Cork city, earlier this week.

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 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 Knocknaheeny, on her arrival.

Sitting with some of the students in the sweltering heat at the school’s library, conversations were had in Irish with the primary schoolchildren about their favourite things. 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 An Poc ar Buile — something the students had rehearsed in advance.

A 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 said.

“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.”

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.

The president of UCC, John O’Halloran, said it was a huge honour to have the first citizen there. “And also to visit our community and connect us with our community, particularly in the north side of the city,” he said.

“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.