Freedom of Galway city for First Citizen Catherine Connolly
Uachtarán na hÉireann Catherine Connolly will be awarded the Freedom of Galway City at a ceremony to be held in June.
Galway City Councillors unanimously agreed to bestow the award on the Shantalla native at their monthly meeting on Monday.
The press and public was excluded for a few minutes at the beginning of the meeting as Councillors deliberated in-camera on a proposal to award the honour to President Connolly.
When the meeting reopened to media, Mayor of Galway, Councillor Mike Cubbard (Ind) confirmed that elected members had agreed to bestow the honour on the former City Councillor and former Galway West TD.
Mayor Cubbard said Michael D Higgins was awarded the honour in 2012, six months after he was elected President for the first time, and a similar timeline would apply to President Connolly.
More than 30 people have been awarded Freedom of the City, the highest honour Galway City Council can bestow.
More than 30 people have been awarded Freedom of the City, the highest honour Galway City Council can bestow
The most recent recipient in 2024 was former Galway Bay fm broadcaster, Keith Finnegan, who now works as an international relations officer for Galway City Council.
The inaugural recipient of the Freedom of Galway was Ireland’s first President, Douglas Hyde, in 1939, followed by our second and third Presidents Eamonn De Valera and Seán T Ó Ceallaigh – although the latter served in Áras an Uachtaráin first.
Other recipients included US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963; Christy O’Connor Sr in 1970 – followed by Christy Junior in 2000 – as well as Pope John Paul II in 1979; Ronald Reagan in 1984; Hilary Clinton in 1999, and John Hume in 1999.
Other recipients include Billy Lawless, Garry Hynes, John Killeen, Mary Bennett, and the son of Connemara parents, the then-Mayor of Boston Martin Walsh in 2018.
When President Connolly’s sister Colette Connolly was Mayor of Galway in 2022, the Freedom of the City was awarded to Patricia Burke Brogan and posthumously to Ena McEntee.
Both of those women worked to protect and help residents of Galway’s former Magdalene Laundry.
The exact date of this latest ceremony to honour President Catherine Connolly will be announced following consultation with Áras an Uachtaráin.