PRESIDENT MARY McAleese has been presented with two hurleys at a ceremony where she was awarded the freedom of Kilkenny city.
The honour was conferred on the President at a specially convened meeting of the city’s borough council in Kilkenny Castle yesterday.
Mayor of Kilkenny Pat Crotty said the honour of freeman was the “greatest tribute of respect” the people could bestow on those who received it.
Mrs McAleese, accompanied by her husband Dr Martin McAleese, said she was “very thrilled” to receive the honour.
Hurling legend Brian Cody and former ceann comhairle Séamus Pattison, who were awarded the freedom last November, are the only two other living recipients of the honour.
“It’s a great privilege to be made a freewoman of Kilkenny city and to be in the company of two such distinguished citizens as Brian Cody and Séamus Pattison,” said Mrs McAleese.
She said she already had a piece of Kilkenny in her study in the form of a hurley and sliothar signed by DJ Carey.
Mr Crotty described Mrs McAleese as an “extraordinary person” who has lived and is living a “life of service to others”. He said the President had set about her task of building bridges between communities from the very beginning of her time at the Áras.
Town clerk Brian Tyrell presented Mrs McAleese with two hurleys, saying they were the “tools necessary” to properly represent Kilkenny.
The conferring of freeman on a citizen of Kilkenny dates back to a 13th century charter of the city and entitles the freeman to “drive his sheep or cattle through the main street”.
It also entitles the freeman the right to be put in a cab and taken home if he is found drunk on the street by a policeman.