{"id":280602,"date":"2026-02-04T17:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280602\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:14:08","slug":"catherine-connolly-welcomed-at-start-of-first-official-visit-to-north-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280602\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly welcomed at start of first official visit to North \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Catherine Connolly<\/a> began three days of engagements in Northern Ireland<\/a> with a visit to Stormont Castle in Belfast on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The engagements this week are Connolly\u2019s first official visit to the North during her presidency.<\/p>\n

On arriving at Stormont Castle, she was welcomed by First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill<\/a> and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All three shook hands, and O\u2019Neill told Connolly: \u201cIt\u2019s great to have you here\u201d, showing her the front of the castle, which is the home of the Stormont Executive.<\/p>\n

The three also posed for pictures for gathered media before walking up the steps together.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists in nearby Parliament Buildings later, O\u2019Neill said she believes they are going to have a \u201cvery good relationship\u201d, adding that she has invited Connolly to attend the first Fleadh Cheoil na h\u00c9ireann in Belfast later this year.<\/p>\n

She said during their meeting they discussed the peace process, culture, arts, the Irish language and Ulster Scots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was absolutely delighted to welcome Uachtar\u00e1n na h\u00c9ireann Catherine Connolly to Belfast today. She\u2019s here for a packed visit over the next couple of days, many community events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my honour as First Minister to welcome her to Stormont Castle. She is very much fulfilling her pledge that she made to be a President for all, to make her first official visit to the North. It was just great to have her here today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that her whole campaign was about hope, about opportunity. It was about inclusion, it was about unity, it was about building for the future, and I think that we are going to enjoy a very good relationship with her throughout her tenure as Uachtar\u00e1n na h\u00c9ireann.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Catherine Connolly at PeacePlayers Northern Ireland, which works with young people to change perceptions and build peace through basketball. Photograph: Tony Maxwell\/ Max <\/p>\n

In her inaugural speech, Connolly said she looked forward to her \u201cfirst official visit to the North\u201d and referenced Article 3 of the Constitution, which sets out the firm wish of the Irish people for a united Ireland under consent.<\/p>\n

The President will deliver an address at the Ulster University campus in north Belfast at 1.30pm.<\/p>\n

Over the day she will also visit a number of community initiatives in Belfast.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s visit will continue on Thursday and Friday with engagements in Co Derry<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Catherine Connolly began three days of engagements in Northern Ireland with a visit to Stormont Castle in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3656,14063,57346,26896,42,3659,43,2443,3415,26190,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-280602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-dup-links","tag-emma-little-pengelly","tag-fleadh-cheoil-na-heireann","tag-headlines","tag-michelle-o-neill","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-sinn-fein","tag-stormont-assembly","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280602","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=280602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}