President Catherine Connolly said she has a responsibility to “always speak truth to power” as she accepted the Freedom of Galway City last Friday, while using her address to defend Irish neutrality and warn against the normalisation of war.
President Connolly received the honour from Galway City Council at a ceremony in the Hardiman Hotel, becoming the latest recipient of the city’s highest civic distinction.
The President used her acceptance speech to focus on international conflict, human rights and the role of Ireland in promoting peace and said the institutions established after the Second World War to uphold peace and international law were increasingly under pressure.
“Judges of the International Court of Justice are sanctioned for doing their work. UN rapporteurs are punished for telling the truth. Human rights organisations are designated as terrorist organisations. Countries are invaded at will,” she said.
“The structures built to prevent war are being undermined by some of the very states that built them. In place of ‘all are equal’, we are back to the language of ‘might is right’. War itself is being normalised.”
“We need to return to first principles, that all people are free, and all people are equal. We must reclaim the language of universal human rights, and we have to defend the structures that were set up to implement those rights.”
President Connolly also emphasised Ireland’s longstanding policy of military neutrality, in what is likely to be interpreted as a thinly veiled criticism of the Irish Government’s ongoing plans to scrap the “triple lock” system for the deployment of Defence Forces troops overseas.
“We see the consequences of ‘might is right’ before our eyes: genocide; famine, the displacement of approximately 118 million human beings from their homes, and the existential threat of climate change,” the President said.
“Ireland, given our history, is uniquely placed to call out what is happening and to show leadership. We are an independent, neutral republic. We are a country that knows famine, that knows emigration, and we know, on this island what it takes to move from armed conflict to peace; we have made that journey ourselves.”
“Our Constitution in Article 29 commits us to ‘the ideal of peace and friendly cooperation amongst nations founded on international justice and morality.’ That commitment places a duty on all of us. Moreover, I have seen that desire for peace everywhere I have travelled as President.”
The Freedom of Galway is the highest honour that can be bestowed by Galway City Council and is awarded only on rare occasions to individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the city or to public life.
President Connolly was recognised for a political career spanning decades, during which she served as a Galway city councillor, Mayor of Galway, TD for Galway West and now President of Ireland.
First elected to Galway City Council in 1999, she became Mayor in 2004 and later spent almost a decade representing Galway West in Dáil Éireann before her election to Áras an Uachtaráin.
The ceremony was attended by public representatives, invited guests and previous recipients of the Freedom of Galway, including former President Michael D Higgins, businesswoman Mary Bennett and broadcaster Keith Finnegan.
In her speech, the President reflected on the origins of the Freedom of Galway award and noted that the first recipient was Ireland’s first president, Douglas Hyde, in August 1939.
She observed that Hyde received the honour on the final day of peace in Europe before the outbreak of the Second World War, a conflict which ultimately led to the creation of the United Nations.
The President repeatedly returned to the importance of international cooperation and warned against the weakening of institutions established to uphold peace and human rights.
The Freedom of Galway has been awarded to just 33 people since its establishment in 1939, with previous recipients including former presidents, political leaders and prominent Galway figures.
Closing her address, President Connolly said that her office came with the responsibility to speak truth to power.
“We have freedom from torture as a fundamental human right, and the freedom not to be imprisoned illegally. But there’s also the freedom to be, the freedom to live our lives to our full potential,” she said.
“I am reflecting on that in my role as the 10th President of Ireland, and the absolute privilege bestowed on me today, but along with that, the responsibility to always speak truth to power.”
