President hails spirit of people ‘who simply keep going’ as she marks first year in office

President Catherine Connolly began her second year in office as she began her first – with a visit to a Gaelscoil.

Her first engagement as President of Ireland was to Gaelscoil Inse Chór a year less a day previously.

This time it was to one of the newest Gaelscoils in the country, Gaelscoil Áine in Drumcondra. The school was established in 2019 with just 13 pupils. It now has 176.

It hosted a joint celebration, both for Connolly’s first anniversary and its own sixth class intake, the first in the school’s history.

Many of the children participated in a concert for the President which they had been preparing for months and their names were engraved on a cake to mark the occasion.

It was followed by a presentation to Connolly of a wooden sculpture with a series of concentric circles representing the sun’s light as it travels through the passage tomb at Newgrange and other ancient Celtic sites.

The President made the promotion of the Irish language a central part of her presidential campaign and said schools like Gaelscoil Áine were “exceptionally important in allowing families to live their lives through our native language”.

The President has attended 40 Irish language events in her first year and has now launched Togra Gaeilge an Uachtaráin, a series of events over the next 12 months to support the Irish language.

The President followed up her visit to Gaelscoil Áine in Drumcondra with visits to Hill Street Family Resource Centre in Dublin 1 and the Raheny Community Nursing Unit, mirroring her visits to the Trim Family Resource Centre and Merlin Park Community Nursing Unit on her first day in office.

The first anniversary was marked by a publication from Áras an Uachtárain of a 16-page booklet detailing her activities in office with a long list of facts and figures.

There have been 345 public engagements, while she has visited all 32 counties and five different countries.

She has signed 48 Bills into law, 26 ambassadors have presented their credentials and 56 ambassadors have been accredited abroad. There have been 22 judicial appointments.

She has sent a letter and a centenary bounty of €2,540 to 542 citizens on their 100th anniversary, while sending commemorative coins to 774 citizens on their 101st and subsequent birthdays.

Some of the most significant events of her first year in office, most notably her meeting with US president Donald Trump, are mentioned in passing.

She concluded the booklet by stating: “I have never believed more in the spirit of the country. Having travelled the length and breath of the island, I have witnessed it in every county, in every corner of Ireland.

“I have felt it in the quiet dignity and stoicism of those who simply keep going, despite the very real challenges that they face.”