![\"Catherine](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2.82151252.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEmma Little-Pengelly said she had received an invitation for the event but added that she had other commitments for Remembrance Day.<\/p>\n
First minister Michelle O\u2019Neill will attend the inauguration at Dublin Castle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Catherine Connolly will be inaugurated as president on Tuesday. Photo: PA<\/p>\n
However, the DUP\u2019s Ms Little-Pengelly has said it will not be possible for her to attend due to other engagements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have received an invitation for the inauguration events for the Irish president on Tuesday, but it will not be possible for me to accept due to a number of other commitments in Belfast and Windsor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTuesday marks Remembrance Day, an important day for so many.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am scheduled to attend a service and to participate in an Act of Remembrance in Parliament Buildings before travelling to Windsor Castle at the invitation of their majesties the king and queen for a special reception to commemorate VJ Day 80th anniversary to honour veterans of World War II, and in particular of the Pacific on this day of remembrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is therefore not possible to also attend the inauguration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish Catherine Connolly well as she takes up office, recognising that this is undoubtedly a significant personal honour for her, and I hope to speak with her personally in the next number of days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly had previously said that she would like her first official visit as president to be to the North.<\/p>\n
She said she would use her voice \u201cin every way possible\u201d to try to secure Irish unity during her term, a move at odds with the DUP\u2019s unionist stance. She said she viewed Ireland uniting as \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to see a united Ireland in my term as president. I will use my voice in every way possible for that vision to be a reality,\u201d Ms Connolly said during her campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it has to be done by consensus with respect for all communities and all traditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I would love to see it in my tenure as president.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the firm will of the Irish people to have a united Ireland, I will voice at all levels to bring that about by peaceful means, by consent, and it\u2019s something I look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Little-Pengelly said she had received an invitation for the event but added that she had other commitments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,31778,18,78965,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,6019,5,59,47,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-169416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-democratic-unionist-party","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-emma-little-pengelly","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-michelle-oneill","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-presidential-election","26":"tag-sinn-fein","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115513106359839101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}