{"id":177474,"date":"2025-11-12T23:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T23:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/177474\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T23:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T23:40:11","slug":"catherine-connolly-gets-warm-cead-mile-failte-at-dublin-gaelscoil-but-leaves-keepie-uppies-to-pupils-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/177474\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly gets warm c\u00e9ad m\u00edle f\u00e1ilte at Dublin Gaelscoil, but leaves keepie-uppies to pupils \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In keeping with the big theme of her campaign, Catherine Connolly<\/a>\u2019s first official visit as the new President of Ireland was a visit to a Gaelscoil and a chance to have another keepie-uppies moment. <\/p>\n

During the President<\/a>\u2019s visit to Gaelscoil Inse Ch\u00f3r on Wednesday, a football was produced. We suspect at least some of her work over the next seven years will involve ball skills. <\/p>\n

The match report on that will come a little later. <\/p>\n

First, though, was the c\u00e9ad m\u00edle f\u00e1ilte from the 220 pupils, their teachers and dozens of proud parents. <\/p>\n

President Connolly, speaking during a visit to a Dublin gaelscoil, has vowed to advance the Irish language during her presidency. Video: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

The Gaelscoil is situated inside one of Dublin<\/a>\u2019s most beautiful oases, the National War Memorial Gardens, nestled on the banks of the Liffey. <\/p>\n

The school pulled out all the stops. Every pupil had painted their own tricolour which they waved furiously as they stood in line when the presidential car arrived. \u201cCatherine Conn-olly, Catherine Conn-olly\u201d, they chanted in a cacophony of noise which would not have been out of place at Croke Park. <\/p>\n

The President, dressed in a simple navy trouser-suit, took time to talk to as many of the children as she could. <\/p>\n

\u201cC\u00e9n aois a bhfuil t\u00fa anois?\u201d she asked one second-class girl. \u201cS\u00e9 ach t\u00e1 mo bhreithl\u00e1 ag teacht. Beidh m\u00e9 seacht.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBhuel, n\u00ed bheidh aon obair bhaile agat anocht.\u201d <\/p>\n

School principal Colm \u00d3 Nuall\u00e1in and his team arranged the visit thematically across the lovely school grounds. Ms Connolly and her husband, Brian McEnery, met Comhairle na nDalta\u00ed (the student council), An Coiste Glas (the green committee), an club fichille (the chess club), and na foirne peil, iom\u00e1na\u00edochta agus cam\u00f3gai (the football, hurling and camogie<\/a> teams). <\/p>\n

Each group performed a \u201cshow and tell\u201d for the President, including outdoor chess and five-a-side games. <\/p>\n

Talking to one of the camogie players, Ms Connolly recalled a time when she competed in a triathlon and realised she had no cycling helmet for the race. It meant she had to improvise.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Th\u00e1inig m\u00e9] ar chlogad iom\u00e1na\u00edochta agus d\u2019\u00fasaid me \u00e9 don rotha\u00edocht,\u201d she said. (\u201cI found a hurling helmet and I wore that for the cycling.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Inside, the President visited the Naione\u00e1n Mh\u00f3ra (senior infants) class where the kids were more absorbed in their projects (including an \u00c1ras made of building blocks) than with the enormous entourage, including media, that came into the room. <\/p>\n

In the school hall, singers and musicians gave a brilliant rendition of P\u00e1draig \u00d3 Conghaile\u2019s song Conamara (a staple for any teenager who spent three weeks in the Gaeltacht) and then there was Irish dancing. Mr \u00d3 Nuall\u00e1in introduced the President, saying the school was proud to be the location for her first engagement. <\/p>\n

Ms Connolly has made the promotion of Irish<\/a> one of her key projects, along with disability rights and young people. It was no accident that she chose a visit to a Gaelscoil as her first official duty. <\/p>\n

Her short address, delivered in Irish, chimed closely with her inauguration speech. <\/p>\n

She said the language had, for many years, been regarded as an \u201cafterthought\u201d. Irish, she said, was an advantage, a gift. <\/p>\n

\u201cBa mhaith liom Gaeilge a chur i l\u00e1r an aonaigh.\u201d (\u201cI would like to put Irish in the middle of the fair.\u201d)<\/p>\n

She praised Gaelscoil Inse Ch\u00f3r for its approach of using immersive education in Irish for the first two years, with English-language learning being introduced only in first class. <\/p>\n

She said she liked the slogan on the school wall about climate change: \u201cEvery small step answers the big question.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the keepie-uppies? <\/p>\n

Four transition-year students from Col\u00e1iste an Phiarsaigh in Rathfarnham (all former pupils) were there to help coach the pupils. The four lined up to meet the President. <\/p>\n

Ms Connolly did not reprise her viral moment but left it to the four to do their best. In a pressurised situation, they each did about 10, but Tadhg Mac Fiachra got bonus points because his included a bit of Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> flair. <\/p>\n

Sadly, as yet, a phrase in Irish for \u201ckeepie-uppie\u201d has not yet been coined. The slightly prosaic \u201ccoinnigh suas \u00ed\u201d is the only thing that comes to mind.<\/p>\n

Just a few metres down the road is St John of God\u2019s School, which caters for students with learning disabilities. About 20 students and their teachers lined the road to wave at the President as the motorcade passed. She stopped her car and got out to greet each of them. <\/p>\n

The huge welcome for the President in Inchicore was genuine and reflected an election victory that has the potential to be a pivotal moment in the country\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

For now, there is an enormous feelgood factor surrounding the President. The big question is whether or not the combined left can keepie-uppie that momentum into the next election cycle?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In keeping with the big theme of her campaign, Catherine Connolly\u2019s first official visit as the new President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-177474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115539373395797021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177474","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=177474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}