IT’S not often that Monklands gets a visit from a head of state - but this Friday Irish President Mary McAleese will be arriving in Coatbridge. She will be attending a function in the town to recognise the work that is done by the people who organise the week-long St Patrick’s Festival. The president will be at St Patrick’s Church to address members of the congregation, school pupils and local politicians about the contribution they make to celebrating Irish culture. Father Eamonn Sweeney of St Patrick’s said: “She was in Scotland for a visit anyway, and you know the St Patrick’s Festival that we have in the main street, it was really to meet them and acknowledge the work of the group who established that. “Also the Irish musicians, they’re called the Comhaltas, they’ve been 50 years in existence, she’s also going to meet the local branch. “She’s going to visit the tea room first for about an hour and meet some invited guests, then she’ll pay a visit to the church.” The 11.30am reception at St Patrick’s will also mark 50 years of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann in Britain - which is a traditional Irish music organisation. Joe Bradley is a member of the St Patrick’s Festival Committee, and said: “The presence of so many Catholic churches and schools in Coatbridge is but one legacy of high levels of Irish migration to the area, particularly from the time of the Great Famine in Ireland in the mid-19th century but also through to the period of the First World War and beyond. However, Irishness also manifests itself in many modern ways in Coatbridge. “The town contains a highly successful St Patrick’s branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Music and Musicians of Ireland), Gaelic League Irish language classes (Conradh na Gaeilge), at least six Irish Dance Schools and a Gaelic football club. “Not only are Irish family surnames such as Gallagher, O’Neill, Hughes, Donnelly, Brady, Bradley, Traynor, Reilly, Fagan, Murphy and Kelly predominant in Coatbridge, but having an Irish forename like Eileen, Ciara, Ciaran, Patrick, Sean, Aidan or Róisin is also found more frequently in Coatbridge than in any other part of Scotland. The focus of President McAleese’s visit to Coatbridge will be the parish hall and function suite of St Patrick’s Church - one of the oldest Catholic parishes in Scotland. It is considered a ‘Famine Parish’ as it was founded as a consequence of the huge numbers of Irish Famine refugees who came to Coatbridge in the 1800s. Those same poverty-stricken refugees built the original church and school while several decades later, their offspring and more newly arrived migrants from Ireland built the current church that stands in the town’s Main Street. Much of the focus for the visit of President McAleese to Coatbridge is intended to recognise the positive contribution to multi-cultural Scotland made to the area by those who plan, organise, perform and sponsor the annual St Patrick’s Week Festival, the only week long celebration of Irish culture, dance, music and art in Scotland which concludes each year with a town centre open-air carnival. | 
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