Speech by President Connolly at Leeds Irish Centre
Leeds, 20 May 2026
Ambassador and Mrs. Fraser, a chairde, it is a wonderful pleasure to be with you in Leeds this afternoon as I conclude my first official visit to Great Britain as the tenth President of Ireland. I am very pleased to be following in the footsteps of former Presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese who also visited the Centre I understand in 1996 and 1998 respectively. I understand that Michael D. Higgins was to follow up on that but unfortunately COVID changed all our lives and prevented his visit so I am here today and Michael D.’s spirit is also with us. I am so pleased to be visiting at a time when relations between our countries are so positive, with annual summits taking place, focussed on meaningful cooperation between our countries.
Is cúis áthais dom a bheith anseo ag am atá caidreamh chomh dearfach idir ár dtíortha, agus cruinnithe mullaigh ag tarlú go bliantúil dírithe ar chomhoibriú tuisceanach agus fiúntach eadrainn.
Is aoibhinn liom go bhfuil an méid sin ionadaithe ó phobail na hÉireann ó Thuaisceart Sasana chomh maith leo siúd a tháinig anseo as Albain inár gcomhluadar inniu.
I am delighted to be joined by so many Irish community representatives from across the North of England, as well as by those who have travelled from Scotland. I would like to pay particular tribute to Leeds Irish Health and Homes, who are marking their 30th anniversary this year, and who have been at the heart of the Irish community in Leeds supporting some of the most vulnerable members of society for the last three decades.
Last month I had the privilege of attending the Global Irish Civic Forum in Dublin’s Croke Park and I had the honour of meeting some of you there. The forum was an opportunity for me and for Irish society to recognise the many contributions that the Irish abroad have made, and the important role that the Irish diaspora has played, and indeed continues to play, in shaping the many facets of our Irish identity. It is a contribution that influences not only how we see the world, but also how the world sees us.
Tá tionchar ag ár muintir agus sliocht ár muintire, cibé áit ina gcuireann siad fúthu, ar an mbealach a fheiceann muid an domhan agus ar an mbealach a thuigtear muid mar náisiún.
This is particularly true of the Irish diaspora in Britain. Our ties are so deep and intertwined. They rest on the generations of Irish people, who came here not just after the Famine and the nineteenth century, but continue to come here, and who made places like Leeds home. This is reflected in our history. I think of people like Michael Davitt, who is commemorated in this Centre. Davitt, who was four and a half years old when he and his family were evicted from their cottage in Mayo in 1850. That experience of eviction along with his subsequent life and work in Victorian England left an indelible mark on Davitt, (including losing his arm when he was an eleven year old worker in a cotton mill) leading him to become a political activist that literally changed the landscape and the mindscape in Ireland, and we’re all deeply indebted to that man.
The decolonisation of Ireland was not only about land and law. It was about the decolonisation of our minds as well, reclaiming confidence in our culture, our language, our identity, after centuries of being told that what was Irish was lesser. That process could not have happened without you, the contribution you have made in England and all over Great Britain. At the time when Irish music and culture was undervalued at home, you kept it alive, in this centre, in GAA clubs, in language groups, in homes, and after long days at work.
You do not have to travel very far in this city to see what Irish people built. The Leeds and Liverpool canal is here as you arrive by train, an enormous undertaking that relied on Irish labour. Canals, railways, motorways – Irish hands are in the fabric and the texture of this country. That contribution is real and documented, in historical documents, personal testimonies, films and in both Irish and English literature. I think in particular of the novel ‘Deoraíocht’ by Padraig Ó Conaire and also ‘Dialann Deoraí’, an autobiography by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh.
‘Dialann Deoraí’ is the diary of an immigrant and I can quote no better person than Donal McCann who referred to a second book Mac Amhlaigh wrote which was about his record as a soldier, he wasn’t a very good soldier, and he joined in Galway and wrote very lovingly and humorously of his lack of skills as a soldier and he subsequently then emigrated.
Donal McCann said of Mac Amhlaigh: “he sought to recover every pub, every dancehall, every sunset, every stone wall, every rainbow in his mind to pack in the suitcase so that she, the city, remained with him forever so that he could all at once hear her lost voice whenever he wanted to.” I think that really is a pen picture, it captures for me the experience of emigrants coming to this country.
It’s also worth mentioning Padraig Ó Conaire again, both writers capture something universal, in his book ‘Deoraíocht’ - it was the first modern book in Irish literature, he wrote it back in 1904 and published in 1910 – captured both Ireland and England and the emigrant caught between the two cultures and also the resilience and the humour and someone reviewing it referred to how “the book depicts the joys and tribulations of the down and out, the flotsam and jetsam of an uncaring society” and that was captured beautifully in Padraig Ó Conaire’s book ‘Deoraíocht’.
Women’s contributions deserve particular acknowledgement. It is often overlooked that, with the exception of two short periods, in the 1960s and 1980s, women have always outnumbered men in Ireland’s emigration figures to Britain, and it hasn’t really been captured in our literature. ‘Dialann Deoraí’ captures perfectly the hard work of the navvy working all over England, but women’s experience hasn’t been captured in the same light. Many were obliged to leave a country that defined morality in narrow, self-serving terms and offered little room for dissent or independent thought. Amongst a range of different jobs and positions, many of these same women became doctors and nurses, and by the 1960s alone roughly 30,000 Irish-born nurses were working in the NHS – one in eight of the entire nursing workforce. They held that health service together in its early years. Ireland is very proud of you all.
Of course, Irish people have made their mark in every area of life here, in business, the arts, sport and in civic and political life. In football, Johnny Giles joined Leeds United in 1963, a very special year as it was the year that President Kennedy visited Ireland, and was at the heart of the club’s greatest years, one of the finest midfielders of his generation. And of course who can forget Jack Charlton, who became an Irish citizen and managed the Republic of Ireland football team for a decade, gave a generation of Irish people some of their most joyful sporting memories, also gave them hope and that was something very important. I also understand he was a regular visitor to this centre. May I pay particular tribute to the strength and success of women and girls soccer here , as represented by Leeds United Women and other women’s teams at regional and national level – we share this pride at home in Ireland too.
This city, of course, is synonymous with the Bronte family, one of the most celebrated literary families in Yorkshire with Irish roots. Patrick Bronte was born in Co. Down in 1777, the son of a farming family. He came to Yorkshire, and it was here in Leeds, at Kiekstall Abbey, that he proposed to Marie Branwell in 1812. I’m informed that he bought twelve wooden soldiers in Leeds that his children turned them into characters and stories, the creative seeds of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Above all, Irish people enriched the communities in which they settled and the society in which they made their homes, and often in very very difficult circumstances. They brought something special: a love of Ireland and Irish culture. Like emigrants all over the world, they brought Ireland with them, as Donal McCann has captured when he described Domnall Mac Amhlaigh’s work.
That love of Ireland, that desire to keep alive the link with home, has found expression in this wonderful centre which has served the community here for over 50 years. It has been a place where people could walk in and find something familiar – a face, a voice, a game on the television, a music session on a Friday evening. For people who arrived here with very little physical possessions, that mattered enormously. And it continues to matter. Places like yours are sustained by people who show up, year after year, day after day.
The same is true for so many other Irish Centres across Britain. I was delighted to meet with representatives of some of these organisations earlier in my visit this week. They have served as hubs for the Irish community, spaces for Irish people and people of Irish heritage to connect, to support each other and to celebrate Irish music, culture and creativity.
Chuir muintir na hÉireann le chuile ghné den saol anseo sa Bhreatain Mhór agus níos tábhachtaí fós shaibhrigh siad na pobail lena bhaineadar. Bhí tréithe ar leith á n-iompar leo agus iad ag cur fúthu ina mbailte nua, go hard ina measc na dtréithe sin bhí an grá dá dtír dúchais agus an grá dá gcultúr.
Tá mé fior-shásta go bhfuil grúpaí inár measc inniu atá de mhian agus de chuspóir acu an Ghaeilge agus ceol na hÉireann ní amháin a choinneáil beo ach a athnuachan agus a thabhairt ar aghaidh go fonnmhar chuig an chéad ghlúin eile.
Indeed, the Irish community across Britain played such an important role in keeping Irish music and Irish culture alive – in pubs, in centres like this and in homes, and I think it is important to repeat after long hard working days they still gave back to society. I am particularly pleased to note that today we have groups with us who are dedicated to breathing new life into our language and our music.
This cultural connection of course is not one way, it’s reciprocal. In the same way that generations of emigrants brought Ireland with them, enriching so many aspects of life here in England and Great Britain, they have also shaped our identity and enriched our republic. Indeed, your contribution have often forced us to grow up and become a more inclusive society and to belatedly recognise how important our diaspora is, in this country and throughout the world.
The desire to sustain connections with home also finds reflection in sport, and in particular in Gaelic games. I know the GAA counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire are represented here this afternoon and I wish to acknowledge the powerful role the GAA has played and continues to play, in Britain and indeed globally, as a support structure and as a community.
I would also like to acknowledge the role of the many organisations whose trustees, staff and volunteers embody values of inclusiveness, kindness, compassion that have never been more important. Through their hard work and commitment, they have made a profound and positive impact on the more vulnerable and marginalised members of our community, including those who left Ireland, often in crisis.
Our community is not, of course, an island, it is an integral part of the fabric of life here. In the same way that cities like Coventry, Liverpool, Manchester or Leeds are part of our story, Ireland has become part of theirs. Irish people continue to contribute positively to every aspect of British society. They bring our islands and our people closer together.
Tá mé ag tnúth go mór le casadh libh tráthnóna inniu, agus sna blianta amach romhainn agus mé ar chuairteanna chuig ár gcomharsa béal dorais áit ina gcónaíonn go leor de mhuintir agus de shliocht na hÉireann.
I look forward to meeting with you here this afternoon, and hopefully during many visits in the years ahead. You are our nearest neighbour, you are our people, and I think we can only learn from each other.
As President, I would like to thank you, we are indebted to your work and what you have done over the years in very difficult times and in good times and we are indebted to you as a country and I look forward to meeting with you and to learning from you.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.