Óráid ón Uachtarán Catherine Connolly ag an 'Leeds Irish Centre'

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]D Vacar Gwaylo, and I can't think of a nicer room to be in the Claddagh Suite, as I live in the Claddagh in Galway, the best place in Ireland.

[00:00:08]Leeds, second place.

[00:00:11]And we still have our own king of the Claddagh, so thank you for welcoming me in the Claddagh Suite today. It's lovely. I feel I'm at home. And I also want to say that I was here at college.

[00:00:21]I was in university in Leeds, and it I won't use the word shame because I don't like it, but it is a regret of mine that I didn't visit the Irish Irish at the time. So, I'm trying to make up to you now as president of Ireland.

[00:00:36]Ambassador and Mrs. Fraser, you're a cordial. It is a wonderful pleasure to be with you in Leeds this afternoon as I conclude my first official visit to Great Britain as the 10th president of Ireland. And I am very pleased to be following in the footsteps of former presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, who also visited this center, I understand, in '96 and '98, respectively.

[00:01:03]I understand that Michael D was to follow up on that, but unfortunately COVID changed all our lives and prevented his visit. So, I'm here today, and Michael D's spirit is also with us.

[00:01:14]I am so pleased to be visiting at a time when relations between our countries are so positive, with annual summits taking place focused on meaningful cooperation between our countries. I should say, I'm delighted that you're sitting down, so that will allow me to go on for a little bit longer.

[00:01:31]>> [laughter] >> When I see people standing up, I stop very quickly. But It's even long.

[00:01:58]I'm sure as always.

[00:02:02]>> I am absolutely delighted to be joined by so many Irish community representatives from across the north of England as well as by those who have traveled from Scotland. I would like to pay a particular tribute to Leeds Irish Health and Homes who are making their 50th anniversary this year and who have been absolutely at the heart of the Irish community in Leeds supporting some of the most vulnerable members of our society and your society for the last 30 years. I should also go back and thank and congratulate the manager who have served you for 50 years and I understand he celebrated 50 years as manager last year and I think a good boss is well deserved >> [applause] [applause] >> I also want to thank the the chair Eileen Thomson and the hard working secretary. That doesn't mean the chair isn't hard working as well. Rina Cosgrove Last month I had the privilege of attending the Global Irish Civic Forum in Dublin's Croke Park and I had the honor of meeting some of you there and the forum of course was an opportunity for me and for Irish society to recognize the many contributions that the Irish abroad have made and the important role that the Irish diaspora has played and indeed continues to play in shaping the many facets of our Irish identity. It is a contribution that influences not only how we see the world but also indeed how the world sees us.

[00:03:46]This is particularly true of the Irish diaspora in Britain. Our our ties are so and intertwined. They rest on the generations of Irish people who came here not just after the famine and in the 19th century, but continue to come here and particularly certain decades stand out like the '50s and the '80s.

[00:04:08]And who made places like Leeds home. And this is reflected in our history and I think of Michael Davitt who came here to Heslington, just I think it's less than an hour from here, and who is commemorated very very proudly in this center. He was 4 and 1/2 years old when his family were evicted from their cottage in Mayo in the 1850s.

[00:04:32]That experience of eviction, along with the subsequent life and work in Victorian England, left an indelible mark on Davitt, including losing his arm when he was 11 years old in a factory in a cotton mill, leading him to become a political activist that literally changed the landscape and the mindscape in Ireland. And we're all deeply indebted to that man.

[00:04:57]The decolonization of Ireland, and I was making this point a day or two ago in the embassy in London, the decolonization of Ireland was not just about land and law, it was about the decolonization of our minds as well, reclaiming confidence in our culture, our language, our identity after centuries of being told that what was Irish was lesser.

[00:05:22]That process could not have happened, of course, without you, the contribution you have made in England and all over Great Britain.

[00:05:30]At the time when Irish music and culture was undervalued at home, you kept it alive. In this center, in GAA clubs, in language groups, in homes, and after long days at work.

[00:05:44]You do not have to travel very far in this city to see what Irish people built. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is here as you arrive by train, an enormous undertaking that relied on Irish labor.

[00:05:57]Canals, railways, motorways, Irish hands are in the fabric and the texture of this country.

[00:06:05]That contribution is real and documented in historical documents, personal testimonies, films, and then both Irish and English literature. I think in particular of the novel Journeyman by Pádraic Ó Conaire. I also think of Gille an Journeyman, an autobiography by Dolan MacAuley. And I think it's worth referring to Dolan MacAuley who um was from Galway, which is helpful for where I'm from myself, and there's a school named after him. And Gille an Journeyman is the diary of an immigrant.

[00:06:41]And I can quote no better person than Dolan McCann.

[00:06:44]When he referred to a second book that Dolan Dolan MacAuley wrote, it was his record as a soldier. He wasn't a very good soldier, but he joined up here in Cork in Galway. And he wrote very lovingly and humorously about his lack of skills as a soldier, and he subsequently then immigrated. And Dolan McCann said of MacAuley, "He sought to recover every pub, every dance hall, every sunset, every stone wall, every rainbow in his mind to pack in the suitcase so that she, the city, remained with him forever so that he could all at once hear her lost voice whenever he wanted to." And I think that really is a pen picture and captures for me the experience of immigrants coming to this country. And also it's worth mentioning Pádraic Ó Conaire again. Forgive me for mentioning Galway, but poor writers capture something universal. And in his book, Joureyman, which was the first modern book in Irish literature, he wrote it back in 1904, published in 1910, he captured what Ireland and England and the immigrant caught between two cultures and also the resilience and the humor. And he referred and when somebody was reviewing that, referred to the I just get the exact words rather than trying to ad-lib them.

[00:08:16]It depicts his book depicts the joys and the tribulations of the down-and-out, the flotsam and jetsam of an uncaring society. And that was captured beautifully in Pádraic Ó Conaire's book, Joureyman.

[00:08:32]Of course, women's contributions deserves particular acknowledgement because it is often overlooked that with the exception of two short periods in the '60s and the '80s, women have always outnumbered men in Ireland's immigration figures to Britain. And it hasn't really been captured in our literature. And Jime and Joureyman captures perfectly the work of the hard work of the navvy working all over England, but women's experience hasn't been captured in this with the same light.

[00:09:05]Many were obliged to leave a country that defined morality in narrow, self-serving terms and offered room for dissent or independent thought. Amongst a range of jobs and positions, many of these same women became doctors and nurses. And by the 1960s alone, roughly 300,000 Irish-born nurses were working in the NHS. One in eight one in eight of the entire workforce.

[00:09:32]They held that health service together in its early years and Ireland is indeed very proud of you all. Of course, Irish people have made their mark in every area of life, in business, in the arts, sport, and civic and political life. I'm no expert on football, but I'm rapidly learning in relation to rugby football and Gaelic. I had a different interest in sports, but I'm learning. And in football, of course, I couldn't forget Johnny Giles. He joined Leeds United in 1963, which is a very special year in Ireland cuz it was the year that Kennedy the president, former president, visited Ireland and Galway, and was at the heart of the club's greatest years, one of the finest midfielders of his generation.

[00:10:14]And of course, who can forget Jack Charlton, who became an Irish citizen and managed the Republic of Ireland football team for a decade, gave a generation of Irish people some of their most joyful sporting memories.

[00:10:28]Also gave us hope, and that was something very important. And I also understand he was a regular visitor to this center.

[00:10:35]May I pay particular tribute to the strength and success of women and girls soccer here, as represented by Leeds United women and other women's teams at regional and national level. We share this pride at home in Ireland, too. And of course, the city is synonymous with the Brontë family, and we always have to find an Irish connection. One of the most celebrated literary families in Yorkshire with Irish roots. Patrick Brontë was indeed born in County Down in 1777, the son of a farming family. He came to Yorkshire, and it was here in Leeds, at Kirkstall Abbey, that he proposed to his wife, soon to become his wife, in 1812.

[00:11:16]And I'm told and informed, I didn't realize this, that he bought 12 wooden soldiers in Leeds, and that his children then turned these into characters and stories, the creative seeds of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

[00:11:33]Above all, Irish people enrich the communities in which they settled and society in which they made their homes.

[00:11:42]And often in very, very difficult circumstances. They brought something special, a love of Ireland and Irish culture. And like immigrants all over the world, they brought Ireland with them as Donal McCann has captured when he described Donal MacDonal MacAuley's second book.

[00:11:59]That love of Ireland, that desire to keep alive the link with home, has found expression in this wonderful, wonderful center which has served the community here for over 50 years.

[00:12:13]It has been a place where people could walk in and find something familiar, a face, a voice, a game on the television, a music session on a Friday evening.

[00:12:24]For people who arrived here with very, very little physical possessions, that mattered enormously. And it continues to matter. Places like yours are sustained by people who show up year after year, and I should say day after day. And the same is true of so many other Irish centers across Britain. I had the privilege of being in the Hammersmith center in London, and that was also wonderful. I was delighted to meet work with representatives of some of these organizations earlier in my visit this week at an um an evening uh hosted by the ambassador.

[00:13:04]And all of these centers and all of these organizations, of course, have served as hubs for the Irish community, spaces for Irish people and people of Irish heritage to connect, to support each other, and to celebrate Irish music, culture, and creativity with pride.

[00:13:24]For mhuintir na hÉireann le cuiligíní an saol an saol seo sa Bhreatain Mhór, tá >> Indeed, the Irish community across Britain played such an important role in keeping Irish music and Irish culture alive in pubs and centers like this and in homes. And I repeat, because I think it's important to say, after very, very long and hard-working days, they still give back to society. I'm particularly pleased to note that today we have groups with us who are dedicated to breathing new life into our language and our music. This cultural connection, of course, is not one-way. It's reciprocal.

[00:14:39]In the same way that generations of immigrants brought Ireland with them, enriching so many aspects of life here in England and Great Britain, they have also shaped our identity and enriched our republic. Indeed, I would say that your contributions have often forced us to grow up and become a more inclusive society and to belatedly recognize how important our diaspora is in this country and throughout the world. The desire to sustain connections with home also finds reflection in sport. And of course, I couldn't not but mention Gaelic games. And I know that GAA counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire are represented here this afternoon. And I wish again to acknowledge the powerful role the GAA has played and continues to play in Britain and indeed globally as a support structure and as a community. I would also like to acknowledge the role of many organizations whose trustees, staff, and volunteers embody values of inclusiveness, kindness, compassion that have never been more important.

[00:15:48]Through their hard work and commitment, they've made a profound and positive impact on the more vulnerable and marginalized members of our community, includ- including those who may I don't say may, who did leave Ireland often in crisis. Our community, of course, is Our community is not, of course, an island. It is an integral part of the fabric of life here. In the same way that cities like Coventry, Liverpool, Manchester, or Leeds are part of our story, Ireland has become part of theirs. And Irish people contribute continue to contribute positively to every aspect of British society. They bring our islands and our people closer together.

[00:16:32]My ocal score conclusion I look forward to meeting all of you as I move from table to table this afternoon and indeed in the coming years as president. And you are our nearest neighbor, you are our people, and I think we can only learn from each other. So, I myself as president would like to thank you. We are indebted to your work and what you have done over the years in very difficult times and in good times, and we are indebted to you as a country, and I look forward to meeting you and learning from you in the weeks