The Galway politician set out her vision for the role as head of state through drawing on Ireland\u2019s history of famine, of being oppressed and of striving for peace.<\/p>\n
She said Ireland had a \u201clived understanding\u201d of war, hunger and dispossession as she claimed the country could not \u201cclose our eyes\u201d to those forced to leave their homes because of war, famine or climate change.<\/p>\n
Referencing those she met during the election campaign, she also hit out at a \u201clack of services\u201d for people in Ireland and criticised the neglect of the Irish language.<\/p>\n
The former psychologist, barrister and Galway mayor has pledged to build on the work of her predecessors.<\/p>\n
Dignitaries from various walks of Irish life attended the inauguration ceremony in St Patrick\u2019s Hall at Dublin Castle.<\/p>\n
After repeating in Irish the Declaration of Office, read to her by Chief Justice Donal O\u2019Donnell, Ms Connolly then signed a printed form of the oath and was officially declared president.<\/p>\n
A 21-gun salute was fired from Collins Barracks as Ms Connolly was handed the Seal of Office.<\/p>\n
Introducing her to give her first address as president, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said Ms Connolly had a record of \u201coutstanding public service\u201d and would \u201cserve our country well\u201d.<\/p>\n
In her first address, Ms Connolly said she will ensure \u201call voices are represented, heard and valued\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she stood before those gathered \u201chumbly and proudly as the 10th president of this beautiful country\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly said: \u201cThe people have spoken and have given their president a powerful mandate to articulate their vision for a new republic, a republic worthy of its name where everyone is valued and diversity is cherished, where sustainable solutions are urgently implemented, and where a home is a fundamental human right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president added: \u201cThe change that led to this joyful day began with the small group of elected representatives and volunteers facing what appeared to be insurmountable challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were led to believe that it was too great a leap, that our ideas were too far out, too left \u2013 at odds with the prevailing narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn shared conversations all over the country, however, it became evident that the dominant narrative did not reflect or represent people\u2019s values and concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime and time again, people spoke of how it served to silence, to other, to label, to exclude and to stifle critical thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlong with that meaningful engagement, we saw the emergence of hope. We saw the emergence of joy, along with the courage and determination of people to use their voices to shape a country that we can be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland faces the \u201cinextricably linked\u201d threats of climate change and ongoing wars, Ms Connolly added.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cUnfortunately, we have all become witnesses to ongoing wars and genocide.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven our history, the normalisation of war and genocide has never been and will never be acceptable to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a sovereign independent nation with the long and cherished tradition of neutrality and an uninterrupted record of peacekeeping since 1958, Ireland is particularly well-placed to lead and articulate alternative diplomatic solutions to conflict and war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, our experience of colonisation and resistance of a catastrophic man-made famine and forced immigration gives us a lived understanding of dispossession, hunger and war and a mandate for Ireland to lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly said Ireland could take \u201creal pride in the success\u201d of the Good Friday Agreement as a \u201cmodel for the peaceful resolution of conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she looked forward to her \u201cfirst official visit to the north\u201d, as she referenced Article 3 of the constitution which sets out the firm wish of the Irish people for a united Ireland under consent.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin thanked former president Michael D Higgins for his \u201coutstanding contribution\u201d in office and said the country owed him and his wife Sabina a \u201ctremendous debt of gratitude\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Higgins, who ended his 14-year-term in office at midnight, received a warm round of applause as he arrived in the hall for the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Former Irish presidents Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson were also in attendance as well as former taoisigh Leo Varadkar and Brian Cowen.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill was in attendance, although deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly was unable to attend due to Remembrance Day commitments.<\/p>\n
Members of the judiciary, parliamentarians, staff and family members of Ms Connolly also attended the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly and her husband Brian McEnery held a lunch at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in after the inauguration ceremony, ahead of a state dinner at Dublin Castle marking the end of the presidential events.<\/p>\n
Among those who arrived for the state dinner were RT\u00c9 director-general Kevin Bakhurst and deputy director-general Adrian Lynch, former Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy, independent MEP Luke \u2018Ming\u2019 Flanagan and recently readmitted Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly was greeted by Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and his wife Mary as she arrived at Dublin Castle on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly takes over from Mr Higgins, a popular president and poet who is seen to have expanded the role to become more political \u2013 a feature Ms Connolly has said she will build on.<\/p>\n
She came through a turbulent election campaign to win 63pc of valid first preference votes cast on October 24.<\/p>\n
Her victory was hailed as a significant moment for the left in Ireland as opposition parties had united to back her to prevent the two major parties \u2013 Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, who are currently government partners \u2013 from winning the presidency.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly went head-to-head with former Fine Gael minister Heather Humphreys after ex-Dublin football manager Jim Gavin withdrew from campaigning following a 16-year-old dispute with an ex-tenant emerging.<\/p>\n
His withdrawal weeks before polling day intensified criticism that the election offered voters limited options.<\/p>\n
Another significant outcome of the presidential election was the record high number of votes deliberately spoiled: there were 213,738 invalid ballots, representing a tenfold increase in invalid ballots compared to the 2018 election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Galway politician set out her vision for the role as head of state through drawing on Ireland\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3656,61,60,977,43],"class_list":["post-134796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-d-higgins","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134796","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=134796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}