Uachtarán na hÉireann, President Michael D. Higgins this presented this year’s Presidential Distinguished Service Awards for the Irish Abroad at a ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin. The MC for the event was Doireann Ní Bhriain. This year’s ten recipients are: Séamus Coleman, Republic of Ireland international football captain Patrick Leahy, Former United States Senator Aduke Gomez, Irish-Nigerian scholar Rosalind Scanlon, Artistic Director of Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, London Professor Enrico Terrinoni, translator of Irish literature into Italian Orla Kiely, fashion designer Sr Teresa McKeon, missionary and educator in Sierra Leone (in absentia) Mary O’Neill, legal advocate in Los Angeles Pam O’Mahony, Irish community supporter in Australia Stella O’Leary, Observer to the International Fund for Ireland The Presidential Distinguished Service Awards for the Irish Abroad recognise the service given to this country or to Irish communities abroad by those who live outside Ireland. The Awards were established by the Government following the 2011 Global Irish Economic Forum as a means to recognise the contribution of members of the Irish diaspora and were first awarded in 2012. To date, 120 people have been conferred with the award. Speaking at the ceremony, President Higgins said: “The Presidential Distinguished Service Awards enable us, as a nation, to recognise those members of our global family who have contributed, in their different ways, so significantly to Ireland’s reputation on the international stage as a country that understands the migratory experience, its challenges, responsibilities and the part that transience plays in all of our shared lives. This evening’s awardees follow in the footsteps of all those others, heralded or unheralded, feted or forgotten, whose quiet determination to make a contribution beyond the self makes us all proud of them and whom we also remember here today. That spirit of generosity, and those qualities of an inward being and an inclusive outward gaze which so exemplify the best of our Irishness, have been practically and magnificently demonstrated by our honoured guests through their lives, their work, and their contribution of distinguished service to Ireland and to Irish communities abroad. Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, may I thank you deeply for representing Ireland so well, and for your personal efforts, service, sacrifices, and contribution to the achievement of excellence in your various fields. Mo bhuíochas libh uilig.”
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