A 20-year-old Cavan man recently received the top President's Award by Michael D Higgins at Aras an Uachtarain. Conor Gannon from Ballytrust in Ballinagh is a former pupil of St Patrick's College, where he earned the Gaisce Gold Award in recognition of the work he done within the community back in 2021.
According to the Cavan man, it was important for him to "give back" to his local community, particularly in terms of engaging with the younger generation.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Conor said his role as regional officer for the second level students union gave him an opportunity to encourage younger people to use their voice and opinions on things that impact them. He added that it was important for him to act as a "role model" and "set a good example."
On the day, Conor also presented President Michael D Higgins with a poem which he had written, as something for the President to remember him by.
"I had intended before hand to bring something with me that I could give to the President because I feel he has spent his whole life doing fantastic work and it would be nice to give him something to acknowledge that," explained the Ballinagh native.
"I knew he was big into poetry and I write the odd poem myself just for my own enjoyment, I don't normally show them to anyone but I gave him one that I thought he would find interesting and he thanked me for that.
"The poem was called 'A Thousand Welcomes' and I didn't really write it with the intention of giving it to anybody, it was just the one I had picked when I was looking at what I could give to President Higgins" said Conor. "I actually wrote it on my lunch break at work when it was in my head, there was a demonstration in Cavan about some sort of Ireland for the Irish thing against immigrants and I was upset over that. I found it distasteful and it's something I wouldn't agree with so I wanted to get my thoughts down onto a page about it."
