Tom Bates, mayor of Berkeley, far left, stands with his wife, state Sen.
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Michael Higgins, the president of Ireland, Wednesday, October 28, …
The president will visit Berkeley on Wednesday to plant a tree for the victims of the balcony collapse, on the second leg of his eight-day official visit to the West Coast with his wife Sabina.
At a reception at Hotel Shattuck, President Higgins personally thanked first responders.
Following the gathering, Higgins and Bates each ceremoniously planted an arbutus sapling in Martin Luther King Jr. “All of you shared this tragedy with us”.
Flaws in the balcony’s construction have come under scrutiny since the accident, prompting the Berkeley City Council to adopt amended building codes to prevent similar accidents.
Bates’ office said the type of evergreen tree selected for the planting ceremony was picked because it is native to both Ireland and California.
“This event is not going to go unnoticed, it’s not going to go down as a footnote in history”, Bates said.
Five Irish students working in the San Francisco Bay area for the summer and the Irish-American cousin of one of them died after the balcony crowded with celebrating young people collapsed during a birthday party.
Students Ashley Donohoe, Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster, Lorcán Miller and Eimear Walsh were all killed when the balcony at the Library Gardens apartment complex they were standing on gave way. Since then, the city has received a large number of reports of wood rot and other damage.
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“I see gathered here the custodians of that light and the keepers of that beacon – the police, the firefighters, the medical teams, the volunteers, the people of Berkeley and their neighbors”.
