In her first Christmas address as Uachtarán na hÉireann, Catherine Connolly has said that “we must use our voices” to tackle issues that we are facing at home in Ireland, and across the world. Similar to her presidential campaign last autumn, President Connolly has listed the celebration of diversity, sustainable answers to climate change, and “peaceful resolutions to conflict and war” as some of the pressing issues that of our time. She referenced our own difficult history of oppression, poverty and mass emigration, which “gives us a lived understanding of the brutal realities of dispossession, hunger and war”. She asks the public to remember those who face a similar plight today, mentioning “the people of Palestine, Ukraine and Sudan” in particular. "We hold in our thoughts the millions of people worldwide who are enduring the devastating impacts of interconnected crises of climate change, war, conflict, and displacement, the many families this Christmas who will sadly experience fear, uncertainty, or profound loss,” President Connolly said.

Source: Irish Independent December 22, 2025 07:02 UTC