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

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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…

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.

[ Connolly’s first year as president: ‘New Republic’ feels a lot like the old oneOpens in new window ]

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