‘So much more to unite than divide us’ – Irish presidential candidate

Irish presidential candidate Heather Humphreys has said there is “much more that unites rather than divides” communities during a visit to a Belfast school.

Ms Humphreys, who remains in the race to succeed Michael D Higgins at Aras an Uachtarain along with Catherine Connolly, spent the day in the Northern Ireland capital after the number of candidates shrank to two following the withdrawal of former Dublin Gaelic football manager Jim Gavin.

She visited St Dominic’s Grammar School on the Falls Road in west Belfast, which counts former Irish president Mary McAleese among its former pupils.

In August Ms Connolly visited Belfast and was hosted by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll.

Speaking to media after her visit which saw her meet school staff and pupils at the all-girls school, Ms Humphreys said it had been really good to speak with the current pupils, young women who she said she hopes will be the next leaders of Ireland.

She learned about a shared education signature project which sees St Dominic’s work with Friends School in Lisburn to look at shared history.

Their focus was a collaborative approach to the teaching of events of 1916 around the Battle of the Somme, a key battle in the First World War which saw the sacrifice of large numbers of soldiers from Northern Ireland, and the Easter Rising in Dublin, a significant event in the Republic of Ireland’s journey to independence.

Ms Humphreys hailed a “most enjoyable morning”.

“I discussed co operation with other schools, and there is a cross community project going ahead on 2016 which is the commemorations of the 1916 Rising and also World War One, they’ve worked very closely together .. there is so much more to unite us than divide us,” she said.

Ms Humphreys, who is from a Protestant background and grew up in the border county of Monaghan, described herself as a person who wants to unify the country, bring people together, build bridges, and follow in the steps of Ms McAleese in “reaching out the hand of friendship”.

Despite residents in Northern Ireland not having a vote in the Irish presidential election, Ms Humphreys said she felt it was important to come.

“It’s important that I come here, and it’s important that I am in this school where Mary McAleese, the last Ulster woman who was president of Ireland, and in fact the first Ulster woman who was president of Ireland, (attended),” she said.

“As you know, I am an Ulster woman as well, and I will be very privileged and very honoured to be the second Ulster woman to be Uachtarain na hEireann.

“It is important to speak to young people because if our future is ever to be unified we must work with young people, and that’s something that I am very committed to doing, and if elected as president, I want to bring young people through a schools programme from Northern Ireland and from the Republic of Ireland together.”

She said she understands the sensitivities of the constitutional question, and said she knows many unionists who “also see the benefits of working together”.

“I only live six miles from the border, and I come from a minority tradition in Co Monaghan, and I feel I can speak to people, and I do understand the differences, and it’s only through conversations that we can deepen the understanding of communities and bring them together,” she added.

Ms Humphreys later went on to visit Ulster University and Queen’s University in Belfast and meet with community groups.

Catherine Connolly, the other remaining candidate in the race for Aras an Uachtarain visited Belfast on August 28, then hosted by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll.