{"id":284216,"date":"2026-02-06T17:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/284216\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:14:09","slug":"president-listens-to-northern-irelands-youth-on-final-day-of-official-visit-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/284216\/","title":{"rendered":"President listens to Northern Ireland\u2019s youth on final day of official visit \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As President Catherine Connolly <\/a>arrived at St Columb\u2019s Park House in Derry<\/a> on Friday, Kieran McHugh had his best Irish ready. <\/p>\n

\u201cConas at\u00e1 t\u00fa? I\u2019m afraid that\u2019s as far as it goes,\u201d he said, extending his hand to welcome Connolly<\/a> to the peace and reconciliation centre in the city\u2019s Waterside. <\/p>\n

McHugh later said it was \u201coverwhelming\u201d to meet the President, an experience he would \u201cnever forget\u201d, pointing out 16-year-old James Logue beside him. <\/p>\n

The teenager played the whistle and Irish flute as Connolly entered and chatted away to her as Gaeilge. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking about how long I\u2019d been playing music for. She\u2019d been up at my school [Gaelchol\u00e1iste Dhoire] too, and she was saying it\u2019s a big school, and there\u2019s a lot to do in it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Catherine Connolly is greeted by Martin McMullan of Youth Action NI at St Columb’s Park House Peace and Reconciliation Centre in Derry. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/PA <\/p>\n

Logue was \u201cproud\u201d that Connolly\u2019s first official visit included Derry. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just mad that she came up here and I got to play for her and meet her. It\u2019s not many people get to do that in their lifetime.\u201d <\/p>\n

The focus of Friday morning\u2019s activities, the final stop on her three-day official visit to Northern Ireland<\/a>, was young people. She met teenagers involved with Youth Action NI projects on both sides of the Border. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t want any speeches, stuff like that,\u201d said Dominic Bonner from Youth Action NI. \u201cHer main request was that she wanted to sit down and engage with young people, with youth workers in the city, and she wanted to hear the stories of the work that\u2019s been done in the city around the peace process and how we can build stronger relationships, and with our Border counties as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those with whom the President engaged were teenagers from cross-community youth organisation Reach Across, Donegal Youth Services, the Royal and Prior School in Raphoe, Co Donegal, and the North West Islamic Association. <\/p>\n

\u201cI asked her what role young people have to shape Ireland\u2019s future and I loved her take on it,\u201d said 15-year-old Zena Abdelrahman. \u201cShe said she likes how young activists are taking over and talking about climate change.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"ZenaZena Abdulrahman (left) and Cadi Abousamra. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/PA <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a huge fan,\u201d said Abdelrahman\u2019s 15-year-old friend, Cadi Abousamra. <\/p>\n

Originally Egyptian, Abousamra came to the North from Saudi Arabia in 2018. She questioned the President on her right to apply for an Irish passport rather than a British one and on what Ireland was doing to ensure the voices of minority groups and communities were heard. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe had good answers … she said she\u2019s worked in the Indian community and is starting to work with asylum seekers. It\u2019s good [that] the President is actually coming forward and listening to the youth.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As President Catherine Connolly arrived at St Columb\u2019s Park House in Derry on Friday, Kieran McHugh had his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3656,7726,61,60,43,2443],"class_list":["post-284216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-derry","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284216","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=284216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}