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Séamus Coleman and Orla Kiely receive presidential awards in Áras an Uachtaráin ceremony

FOOTBALLER Séamus Coleman and fashion designer Orla Kiely were among a select group invited to Áras an Uachtaráin by President Michael D Higgins.

They were within a group of 10 people who received Presidential Distinguished Service Awards for the Irish Abroad at a ceremony held at the President’s Dublin residence.

President Higgins, wife Sabina, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris with the Distinguished Service Awards recipients

Rosalind Scanlon, the Artistic Director of the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, was the third British-based recipient of the coveted award, which ‘recognises the service given to this country or to Irish communities abroad by those who live outside Ireland'.

Three further recipients are based in the US while the remainder are based in Nigeria, Italy, Sierra Leone and Australia.

President Higgins presents a Distinguished Service Award to Rosalind Scanlon, who is the founding Artistic Director of the Irish Culteral Centre in Hammersmith

“The Presidential Distinguished Service Awards enable us, as a nation, to recognise those members of our global family who have contributed, in their different ways, so significantly to Ireland’s reputation on the international stage as a country that understands the migratory experience, its challenges, responsibilities and the part that transience plays in all of our shared lives,” President Higgins said during the ceremony.

“This evening’s awardees follow in the footsteps of all those others, heralded or unheralded, feted or forgotten, whose quiet determination to make a contribution beyond the self makes us all proud of them and whom we also remember here today,” he added.

Séamus Coleman, who is captain for both the Irish football team and Everton, receives his award

“That spirit of generosity, and those qualities of an inward being and an inclusive outward gaze which so exemplify the best of our Irishness, have been practically and magnificently demonstrated by our honoured guests through their lives, their work, and their contribution of distinguished service to Ireland and to Irish communities abroad.

"Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, may I thank you deeply for representing Ireland so well, and for your personal efforts, service, sacrifices, and contribution to the achievement of excellence in your various fields. Mo bhuíochas libh uilig.”