PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins is set to open a memorial to the Irish Famine in Australia.
President Higgins, accompanied by his wife Sabina, will depart Ireland today to conduct the 16 day State Visit to Australia from October 7 to 23.
It is the first State Visit by an Irish President since 1998.
The visit will see President Higgins and Sabina travel to Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart, Brisbane and Sydney and meet with their respective Premiers as well as a meeting with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The President will have informal meetings in Perth before the official start of the State Visit, visiting Fremantle Prison and attending the Australasian GAA Championships Games.
The State Visit will formally begin on Monday, October 9, when the President will be welcomed at Government House in Perth, with a traditional “Welcome To Country” ceremony from aboriginal elders and a formal welcome by the Governor of Western Australia, H.E. Kerry Sanderson AC.
Later that day, the President will also unveil a Famine Memorial in Subiaco Park, Perth.
The @defenceforces Guard of Honour as President Higgins departs on a State Visit to Australia this morning at Áras an Uachtaráin. pic.twitter.com/vblRiYzL60
— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) October 4, 2017
The memorial will be a sculpture designed by Charlie Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith, originally from Waterford, and commemorates the Great Irish Famine.
In Sydney, the President will visit the Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine, in the company of the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian, Premier of New South Wales.
The monument commemorates the young Irish women who were sent to Australia under the ‘Earl Grey scheme.'
Following the ceremony, the President will visit Hyde Park Barracks, the first convict barracks in New South Wales, and the New South Wales State Library.
The President and Sabina will also travel to Hobart in Tasmania, where they will unveil statues by Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie commemorating thousands of female convicts transported to Tasmania.
The President will go on to visit Cascades Female Factory, a World Heritage Site dedicated to the memory of the thousands of women and children imprisoned there.
Throughout the visit, he will also meet with members of the Irish community in Australia and attend community events such as the Sense of Ireland concert in Perth.
President Higgins is also set to receive two honorary doctorates from two Australian universities, one from the University of Western Australia and a second from University of Melbourne.
At the latter, he will deliver a keynote address, entitled “The debate about economics and its Irish Australian dimensions," focusing on the teaching of economic theory, from the early debate on economics at the time of the Famine, its Australian contribution and the present influence of theory on policy.
This article was ammended on October 9, 2017 at 12.04 to reflect that a previous state visit took place to Australia in 1998.
