Flag Ceremony 2016 : Rev. Michael Cavanagh Speech

Let me begin with a welcome and a thank you on behalf of the Thomas Francis Meagher Foundation. A thank you to all those who have helped put this event together, and a welcome to our VIP guests – yourselves.

You might be wondering why you’re here. Not for a day out - although we hope you enjoy the day. Not just for a memory and a story to tell your friends and family – although we hope you will. Not just to receive a flag on behalf of your school – although we hope you will fly it with pride in a prominent place. Your presence today actually has a much more important purpose.

As well as being here to receive a flag, you are also being given an important responsibility and a significant opportunity – the responsibility to communicate the flag’s message, not just by telling people what it is, but to have the opportunity of putting that message into practice.

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Flag Ceremony 2016 : Actor Speech

Below you can see a transcript of the speech delivered by the actor that played Thomas F. Meagher during the Flag Presentation Ceremony that took place on the 7th March, 2016.

My name is Thomas Francis Meagher

My father was born in Canada and returned to Ireland, where I was born, here in Waterford, in what is now the Granville Hotel.

In 1848 during the great famine, I visited France and the French people presented me with a Tricolour Flag.

‘The white in the centre signified a lasting truce between Orange and Green. I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Catholic and the Irish Protestant may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.'

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Speech by President Michael D. Higgins at the National Flag Presentation Ceremony

Please see the link below to view the speech given by President Michael D. Higgins at the National Flag Presentation Ceremony at Croagh Park Stadium on the 7th of March 2016.

Click the button below to view the President's speech in full at www.president.ie.

Read the President's speech...