Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly speaks at Paris Celebration Event at the SSE Arena
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly congratulated Northern Ireland athletes for their achievements at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.
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00:00You'll be really pleased to know that this is the last of the political speeches for tonight, but I wanted to add my words to say how incredibly honoured I am to be here in the midst of so many of you absolutely fantastic athletes.
00:14And get the opportunity to say personally to all of you, what an incredibly wonderful job that you did and how proud we are of you right throughout Northern Ireland.
00:25Throughout the summer so many of us, I think all of us were absolutely glued to our screens and we were so so proud of what was being achieved.
00:34I think many people just couldn't believe it day in and day out there was a success for Northern Ireland athletes no matter what team that people were representing and everybody was really proud.
00:46I had the opportunity just at the end of the summer to go to some of the homecoming events, I didn't get all of them unfortunately but I got to some of them and it was fantastic to be there.
00:55But not only to recognise your incredible success but to see the joy on people's faces, the pride on people's faces, communities coming out because they were so so proud of you and so joyful and so happy about what was being achieved.
01:10And that is very much what we want to celebrate tonight.
01:13As far as it's going to be an absolutely fantastic event, I know Gordon is very much the host of tonight so thank you for the opportunity to be here.
01:20But it's just such a good example as well of how sport can bring us all together.
01:26I have no doubt that across Northern Ireland there were many many young people glued to those screens as well and completely inspired by what you did.
01:36And there will be young people trying new sports that they probably never even heard of before and hopefully that will start building on the Olympic champions for the future as well.
01:46So a huge congratulations to all our Olympic and Paralympic competitors and the medalists, we are really really proud of you.
01:53Well done, enjoy your night, this is very much your night tonight so have a great time.
01:57Thank you very much.