Two high-achieving Donegal people are among the recipients of this year’s Presidential Distinguished Service Awards.
Republic of Ireland international football captain Séamus Coleman and Rosalind Scanlon, Artistic Director of Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, London were among this year’s ten recipients.
Séamus and Rosalind both attended the ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris TD in attendance. The MC for the event was Doireann Ní Bhriain.
The Presidential Distinguished Service Awards for the Irish Abroad recognise the service given to this country or to Irish communities abroad by those who live outside Ireland.
Considered by many as a sporting role model, Killybegs native Coleman is Everton’s longest-serving Premier League player.
Rosalind ‘Ros’ Scanlon is the daughter of Donegal natives. Her father was the late Eddie Scanlon from Sallywood, Killygordon, and mother Peggy (née McGowan) was from Correfrin, Ballybofey.
The Irish Cultural Centre celebrated news of Rosalind’s award, sharing that it is in recognition of her 45-year commitment to the service and promotion of Irish arts and culture.
“As a playwright, director, producer, writer, and artistic director—amongst so many other roles—Rosalind has been a driving force behind the Irish Cultural Centre’s mission to keep the artistic spirit of Ireland alive in London,” they said.
Rosalind was also granted the Freedom of the City of London last year.
The 2024 Presidential Distinguished Service Award Recipients were presented with their award by President Higgins at a ceremony held 30 January 2025, in Áras an Uachtaráin.
The writer Aduke Gomez; Prof Enrico Terrinoni, an English literature academic; Sr Teresa McKeon, a Sierra Leone-based teacher; and Irish American Democrats founder Stella O’Leary were also honoured.
Mary O’Neil and Patrick Leahy in the US, and Pam O’Mahony in Australia, complete the list of ten recipients.
To date, 120 people have been conferred with the award.
Speaking at the ceremony, President Higgins said:
“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.
“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.
“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.”
