In July 2013, President Michael D Higgins visited Iona to mark the 1,450th anniversary of St Columba's arrival on the island.
The President and Sabina attended a service at Iona Abbeyand visited St Oran's Graveyard, which includes the grave of Macbeth, King of Scotland.
In his speech, the President reflected on the historic links between Iona, Scotland and Ireland, stating that the past holds many “fine and good lessons”, but it must not “be ransacked and abused” to create stereotypes “which obstruct us, which hurt us and deplete, or even poison our future”.
The full text of the President's speech is available here.