This article is from page 1 of the 2012-02-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
THE President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, has failed to accept an offer made by Clare County Council to host a Civic Reception in his honour, more than three months after the invitation was originally made.
President Higgins, who spent many of his formative years living in Newmarket-on-Fergus, was invited to be honoured by the local authority on November 14 last, but has yet to indicate whether he will be interested in receiving the honour or not.
This apparent snub comes after President Higgins topped the poll in Clare during last Octobers election, receiving 20,828 first-preference votes.
A spokesperson from Clare Coun- ty Council confirmed to The Clare People yesterday that no response, beyond the standard acknowledgment letter for all correspondence, has yet been received from Áras an Uachtarán.
The invitation to the Civic Reception was suggested by former Labour councillor Christy Curtin (IND) who yesterday said that he understand that President Higgins has had a very busy couple of months.
“I am very confident that he will come to Clare. He has been a regular visitor to Clare over the years and has visited the Willie Clancy Week up here in Miltown on a number of occasions,” said Cllr Curtin.