Irish Centre Chairman says "rare honour" to welcome Irish President Catherine Connolly
Irish President Catherine Connolly returned to her old university in Leeds and also paid a visit the the city’s famed Irish Centre.
The 10th president of the Republic was a student in the Yorkshire city in 1981 when she spent a year at Leeds University studying a masters in Clinical Psychology.
Yesterday - her third and final day of a visit to the UK - Galway-born President Connolly enjoyed a three hour visit to the country’s first purpose built Irish centre and was greeted by its well known manager of more than 50 years standing, Tommy McLoughlin OBE.
Speaking in Garlic and English, Ms Connolly revealed “it is a regret of mine that I never visited here while at uni that year but I’m so pleased to visit now when relationships are so positive”.
The 68-year-old barrister said the Irish diaspora had “influenced how we see the world and how the world sees us”.
Praising all the cultural and community work the centre does, she spoke of the pride they should feel.
And she detailed how migrants had physically shaped Leeds. “You don’t have to travel far in the city to see how they built it and Irish hands were in the fabric of this country.”
She sang the praises of Irish women who historically migrated in larger numbers than men, because of the morality of the times.
“At one point there were 300,000 Irish nurses in the U.K., one in eight in the NHS. They held it together in the early years,” she added.
The President went on to cite well know people with Yorkshire links including ex-Leeds United players Johnny Giles and Jack Charlton who, she said, gave Ireland hope when he, as manager of Ireland, took the national squad to their first World Cup finals in 1990.
She also mentioned Patrick Brontë, father of the Bronte sisters, who was born in County Down.
Centre chairman Liam Thompson, said: “It is a rare honour to welcome a president of Ireland over here. This is our third presidential visit to the Leeds Irish Centre over the years.”
Earlier Ms Connolly visited the University of Leeds, where she spoke about her years living in Headingley and Armley as she met staff and students while being shown around the Parkinson Building.