With the rain drumming down steadily in Coatbridge, President Catherine Connolly told the assembled crowd at St Patrick’s Parish Hall she felt as if she was home in Galway.
Even without the familiar weather, Connolly could be forgiven for thinking so. At the hall, musicians with fiddles, uilleann pipes and tin whistles were launching into reels, members of the St Patrick’s Day committee and local GAA club were sipping on soft drinks and cups of tea.
Coatbridge, a 20-minute drive from Glasgow, saw large-scale immigration from Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine. They came from Ulster, particularly Donegal, searching for work in local coal mines and ironworks. They continued to travel here well into the 20th century, earning the town the moniker ‘Little Ireland’.
Citing this history, Connolly, on the second day of her official visit to Scotland, pointed to the richness immigrants can bring to new communities when she took to the lectern in the hall.
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“The positive, lasting impact made by the Irish community here in Coatbridge, and indeed, throughout Scotland, shines a light on the many ways in which immigrant communities can add to their new homes,” the President said.
“At a time when the dominant narrative seeks to impose distinctions on the basis of ‘them’ and ‘us’, restricting and impoverishing our language and thought process, the brave immigrants who arrived all those years ago are a powerful example to us. They have left a legacy which honours the nuances of their Irish and Scottish identities, while recognising that these identities are interwoven on so many levels.”
Joe Bradley, wearing a Coatbridge Davitts GFC tracksuit, was among those in the room listening to the President. Earlier, he had led children at St Patrick’s Primary School in a display of Gaelic football drills for her.
Before they launched into hand passes and solos, Bradley asked the children – kitted out in GAA-branded jerseys – where their grandparents and great-grandparents were from. Donegal, Derry, Donegal, Cork, was the chorus. Behind them, Tricolours and the Scottish Saltire hung from the stage in PE hall.
Back in Glasgow, Connolly was on a tour of the marbled headquarters of the city council when she happened on a group of schoolchildren speaking about threats faced by immigrant communities in Scotland and beyond.
Crystal Brakao Asante (15), from Hillpark Secondary School in the city, told the President they were discussing antiracism, and how best to educate others not to discriminate based on background or culture.
Leah Caldwell (14), sitting across from her schoolmate, said communities in Britain and Ireland “are witnessing a definite change in ways that people are treating each other, in a negative way”.
Caldwell told the President they wanted to focus on the positives too. “We’re young people, we will be the future ... we have each other’s backs,” she said.
“We need to cherish diversity in all its forms,” the President told the young people. “Thank you for your leadership”.
Earlier, Connolly told reporters that US president Donald Trump had asked her if the question of Irish unity would be “resolved” in her lifetime during a meeting at Áras an Uachtaráin last weekend.
“He asked me my thoughts on the North, and I referred back to the Good Friday agreement in 1998 and [the issue of] consensus ... He asked me specifically, ‘Would it be resolved during my lifetime?’ And I said I hoped it would,” she said.
The 1998 Belfast Agreement stipulates that Irish unity must be agreed to by a majority of people in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
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Connolly said that during the 20-minute meeting, she spoke about her role under the Constitution before Trump raised the question of unity. His public remarks on the question caused significant political reaction during his visit to Ireland.
The President will continue her official visit to Scotland on Friday, when she will travel to Inverness in advance of a trip to the Isle of Skye.
Asked about her conversation with Trump on Israel’s actions in Gaza, and whether she described it as a genocide, she said: “We discussed genocide. We discussed that we will never accept genocide, and we can never accept the normalisation of war, absolutely we discussed it.”
She also addressed the prospect of a European Union “security council” raised by the bloc’s leader Ursula von der Leyen this week.
“I would have concern that the language in relation to war is intensifying, and the absence of diplomatic measures to stop war and to bring peace is of deep concern to me, and I’d say the majority of people in Ireland,” the President said, while stressing she had not read in detail about von der Leyen’s comments.
On Wednesday evening, Connolly attended a private dinner hosted by Britain’s king Charles. She is attending further engagements in Glasgow and Coatbridge on Thursday.
