“I want to acknowledge our large and growing diaspora.

There is hardly a family on this island that does not have a personal experience of migration.

On every continent our emigrants have 

put their ingenuity and hard work at 

the service of new homelands. Yet they 

have kept their love of Ireland and its 

culture deep in their hearts.”

2026 Ireland Diaspora Strategy

President Catherine Connolly 

Inaugural Speech  

Dublin Castle, 11 November 2025