{"id":133200,"date":"2025-11-11T01:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/133200\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T01:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:55:09","slug":"eight-things-to-listen-out-for-in-catherine-connollys-inauguration-speech-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/133200\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight things to listen out for in Catherine Connolly\u2019s inauguration speech \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Connolly<\/a> will give her first speech as the 10th President<\/a> of Ireland on Tuesday when she is sworn into office in St Patrick\u2019s Hall at Dublin Castle before being brought by motorcade to \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in.<\/p>\n

The inauguration ceremony is scheduled to begin at about 10.30am (the live broadcast starts at 11.20am), with the Chief Justice set to present the Presidential Seal to Connolly shortly after 12.40pm, followed by her speech. <\/p>\n

Inauguration speeches can set the tone for a president\u2019s time in office. What should you watch for in Connolly\u2019s first speech?<\/p>\n

Irish<\/p>\n

Before the 1960s, inaugural speeches were entirely as Gaeilge<\/a>. Could Connolly, who plans to make it the working language of \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in, return to the tradition? <\/p>\n

She may note that her inauguration marks the centenary of the first Gaeltacht Commission, which gave recommendations of how to prevent the further decline of the language. <\/p>\n

She may want to balance her use of Irish with making sure her speech is inclusive. After all, only 40 per cent of people said in the last census they could speak the language. With this in mind, she may want to be inclusive to people who have moved to Ireland<\/a> as adults.<\/p>\n

This could be overcome with translation or subtitles, however. It\u2019s a good bet that at least half the speech will be in Irish.<\/p>\n

A theme<\/p>\n

\u201cPresidents, under the Irish Constitution, don\u2019t have policies. But . . . a president can have a theme,\u201d the fifth president, Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh, said in his inaugural speech. Mary McAleese<\/a> quoted him as she took office in 1997, announcing her theme of \u201cBuilding Bridges\u201d. <\/p>\n

Will the Connolly presidency have one unifying theme? Or, like her predecessor Michael D Higgins<\/a>, will she choose a series of \u201cspecial initiatives\u201d?<\/p>\n

\"MaryMary McAleese at Dublin Castle after her presidential inauguration in 1997. Photograph: Joe St Leger Reaching out<\/p>\n

It\u2019s customary for presidents to use their inaugural speech to promise to be inclusive and to serve everyone, even those who opposed them as a candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe now has to reach out to all those who didn\u2019t vote for her, which is the majority of the country given the turnout,\u201d said Prof Gail McElroy, political science professor at Trinity College Dublin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s very keen about being a steady hand. I suspect she\u2019ll want to reassure those who might be worried that she\u2019ll be ideological in the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neutrality<\/p>\n

Connolly will be honoured with a 21-gun salute as she becomes the supreme commander of the Defence Forces. The guns are former British Army weapons that were acquired by the Defence Forces after they were heavily used in the second World War.<\/p>\n

There is once again war on the European continent as Connolly takes office. She brings strong views on defence policy into her role. How strong will her remarks on neutrality be? <\/p>\n

Which conflicts, if any, will she mention? Ukraine<\/a>, Gaza<\/a> or Sudan<\/a> \u2013 each may suggest something about her international outlook and how strongly it will feature in her presidency.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Did Michael D Higgins change the nature of the presidency?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theme of her political career and her campaign is really pacificism,\u201d said Eoin Daly, law lecturer at the University of Galway. \u201cBecause there is a war on within Europe, you would expect her to give expression to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate change<\/p>\n

Connolly is the first president who was backed by the Green Party, but climate change did not feature strongly in the presidential campaign. She takes office as crunch talks at Cop30 in Brazil attempt to salvage hopes of avoiding dangerous levels of climate change. Will Connolly fulfil her campaign promise to \u201cdo everything in my power\u201d to keep climate change at the top of the national agenda?<\/p>\n

Irish Unity<\/p>\n

Connolly faced early scepticism within Sinn F\u00e9in about her commitment to Irish unity before ultimately convincing the party to back her candidacy. Will she refer, as \u00c9amon de Valera did in his 1966 inauguration, to \u201cthe political unity which we so desire\u201d?<\/p>\n

Constitutional bounds<\/p>\n

Although the Irish presidency does not have policy powers and is tightly circumscribed by the Constitution, campaigning candidates set out positions on everything from the housing crisis to international affairs.<\/p>\n

The last three presidents have tested the bounds of office \u2013 Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson<\/a> in a \u201csubtle way\u201d and Higgins with \u201ca sledgehammer\u201d, says Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Conaill, law lecturer at University College Cork. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think a phrase that would be interesting would be one recognising that the office does have limits,\u201d \u00d3 Conaill said.<\/p>\n

\"MaryMary Robinson is inaugurated as Ireland’s seventh president in 1990. Photograph: The Irish Times <\/p>\n

He will be watching for signs of whether Connolly intends to be more of an \u201cactivist\u201d or a \u201cstateswoman\u201d in the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if she is closer ideologically to Higgins, I wonder does she see more value in the Mary Robinson approach,\u201d \u00d3 Conaill said.<\/p>\n

One of the major questions Connolly\u2019s victory has posed is whether the broad left coalition she brought together can pursue other electoral victories. Daly expects her to steer well clear of anything that might seem like political campaigning.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though she has a radical left background, she does have a sense of constitutional decorum,\u201d Daly said. \u201cShe has a legal background, she understands the Constitution . . . I don\u2019t think she\u2019s going to go rogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cultural references<\/p>\n

New presidents often quote poetry. In 2018, Higgins quoted a prior speech of his own and an unfulfilled promise of the first D\u00e1il in 1919. Having galvanised a young electorate, Connolly might choose a contemporary cultural reference. Perhaps some words in Irish would be well suited to the cultural moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly will give her first speech as the 10th President of Ireland on Tuesday when she is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,77656,9820,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-133200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-joe-st-leger","10":"tag-mam","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}