This article is from page 4 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 4 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made by Clare County Council to host a Civic Reception in his honour, more than three months after the invitation was originally made.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 indi- cate 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 County 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.
It was confirmed last week that President Higgins will become only the third free citizen of Galway City, joining Ireland’s first president, Douglas Hyde, and Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. While no official date has been set for this ceremony to take place, it is understood that it will happen before the end of April this year.
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.
“I have no doubt that he will come and see us in his own good time. It has been a very busy few months for him and I am not disappointed that he has not been in touch [with Clare County Council]. I am very optimistic that he will make it down to Clare for the reception.”