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AUST RALI A’ S I RI S H N E WS PA P E R October, 2017 | Volume 30 – Number 10
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Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove signs the visitor book at Áras an Uachtaráin on September 22, before a lunch with President of Ireland Michael D Higgins. Also pictured is Lady Cosgrove and Sabina Higgins.
MICHAEL D HIGGINS AND WIFE SABINA ON STATE VISIT TO AUSTRALIA THIS MONTH
President to visit Australia The President will meet Irish communities in Perth, Melbourne, Hobar t, Canber ra, Sydney and Brisbane, and will have meetings with leading figures in the worlds of business, tourism, sport, academia, culture and the arts. The Pr esident will meet the Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove – who visited Ireland last month – and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The President’s visit “will be an opportunity to celebrate the significant contribution of the Irish Australian community to Australia’s multicultural society”, the press release said. “Irish people have had a significant
influence in the political, social and cultural history of Australia and, in the 2016 Census, 2.5 million Australians, or 11 per cent of the population, indicated they had Irish ancestry.” Full details of President Higgins’ itinerary are not known as we go to press but the Irish Echo understands that he will attend functions with a range of Irish groups, including the Australia Ireland Fund and the Lansdowne Club. He will also receive an honorar y doctorate from the University of Melbourne. President Higgins becomes the four th Irish head of state to visit Australia since 1985.
President Mar y Robinson visited Australia within the first two years of her presidency in 1992. President Mar y McAleese came in 1998, less than a year after her election and returned again in 2003. President Patrick Hillery visited in 1985, during his second term. President Higgins, who is 76, has yet to decide if he will stay on for a second term. The Galway-man also has family connections in Australia and has direct relatives in Sydney. In 2005, while serving as a TD, Mr Higgins revealed: “I have had an interest in Australia for a long time because
an aunt and uncle of mine are buried there. My uncle was involved in building the railways and is buried in Toowoomba. His uncles and aunts in turn had emigrated from Clare to New South Wales and Queensland.” President Higgins will be accompanied by his wife Sabina on his visit.
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THE President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, will visit Australia this month. It will be his first official visit to the countr y since his inauguration in November 2011 and ends an 14-year gap since the last time an Irish head of state set foot on Australian soil. He will also visit New Zealand. The state visit to Australia will focus on “deepening and expanding Ireland’s long-standing bilateral ties with Australia, highlighting aspects of the two countries’ shared history and it is aimed at strengthening economic, tourism, cultural and political links between the two nations”, the official announcement said.