President Higgins on official visit to Liverpool and Manchester
Date: Tue 20th Nov, 2012 | 15:14
President Michael D Higgins will make an official visit to Liverpool and Manchester next week from Wednesday 21st to Friday 23rd November 2012. The President, who will be accompanied by Sabina Higgins, will be met on arrival in Manchester by the Irish Ambassador, H.E. Mr Bobby McDonagh and Mrs Mary McDonagh.
On Wednesday the President will deliver the John Kennedy Lecture, ‘Liverpool and its Irish Migrants’ at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool. He will also meet with senior figures in Liverpool Town Hall and subsequently lay a wreath at the Great Hunger Memorial in memory of those who died in the Irish famine.
On Thursday morning the President will visit St Michael’s Irish Centre, Liverpool, where he will meet and address members of the Irish Community, based in Liverpool. He will also attend a reception for ‘The Gathering’ on board the L.E. Eithne.
Later on Thursday the President will visit the University of Manchester, where he studied in the late 1960’s and give a lecture, at the invitation of the President of the university, to an audience of staff and students. The lecture is entitled ‘Thinking of Manchester and its Irish Connection’. The President will then meet with senior figures in Manchester Town Hall, and attend an Irish Community Reception hosted by Ambassador McDonagh.
On Friday President Higgins will participate in a business breakfast hosted by Enterprise Ireland.
Later in the day he will visit the Irish World Heritage Centre to which he has an association dating back to his time as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in the 1990’s. He will have an opportunity there to meet and address those supporting the centre, including its Chairman, Mr Michael Forde.
The President and Sabina Higgins will depart for Dublin later on Friday.