{"id":296221,"date":"2026-01-21T18:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/296221\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:25:07","slug":"address-by-president-catherine-connolly-cancelled-after-husband-falls-ill-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/296221\/","title":{"rendered":"Address by President Catherine Connolly cancelled after husband falls ill \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An address due to be delivered to diplomats by President Catherine Connolly<\/a> at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in on Wednesday was cancelled after her husband, Brian McEnery<\/a>, took ill.<\/p>\n

The President was due to address ambassadors and consular representatives of countries that have diplomatic relations with Ireland.<\/p>\n

It is understood Mr McEnery began to feel unwell while he and Ms Connolly were nearing the end of a receiving line of the diplomats.<\/p>\n

The President had been due to address them following the receiving line, but her speech was instead circulated to attendees.<\/p>\n

Attendees of the reception included Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee, Palestinian ambassador Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, UK ambassador Kara Owen and Ukrainian ambassador Larysa Gerasko.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Who will be Ireland\u2019s \u2018first gentleman\u2019? The man behind Catherine ConnollyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In her speech circulated to diplomats, Ms Connolly said the consequence of \u201cmight is right\u201d was now \u201ccrystal clear before our eyes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCountries can be invaded at will, or threatened with invasion, and the UN organisations doing invaluable work in extremely dangerous locations can be demolished on a whim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this becomes the logic of international relations, language no longer protects the vulnerable; it simply records their fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

She acknowledged the \u201cimportant work\u201d attendees undertook \u201cadvocating on behalf of citizens and state, and building bridges across cultures\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added there was \u201cmore conflict now\u201d than at any time since the second World War in places as \u201cdisparate as Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan, as well as less-publicised conflicts in the Sahel, Myanmar and the Great Lakes regions of Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

The President also referenced the \u201cappalling humanitarian situation in Gaza<\/a>, where there is not enough food, adequate shelter or sufficient healthcare access\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u2019s highly restrictive controls continue to obstruct an effective humanitarian response. We must end the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza through the rapid, safe and unhindered delivery of principled humanitarian aid. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe must chart a political path forward that can lead to two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An address due to be delivered to diplomats by President Catherine Connolly at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,1921,13,14,3761,6,14370,2265,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-296221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-gaza-strip","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-helen-mcentee","16":"tag-larysa-gerasko","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115934496303378041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296221","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=296221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}