Irish President Michael D. Higgins is in Boston this weekend leading the Famine commemoration and meeting Irish community leaders.

Higgins attended a ball for the Self Help Africa charity on Friday night in Boston and had earlier attended an Irish economic promotion luncheon.

Higgins is due to deliver the keynote lecture on the Irish Famine on Saturday morning at Faneuil Hall in Boston where he will also lay a wreath at the Famine Memorial nearby.

“We are greatly honoured and delighted that the president has chosen to come to Boston and lead the commemorations for the Great Irish Famine here in the capital of Irish America,” Consul General Michael Lonergan said on the consul’s website.

The Irish Famine memorial was unveiled in 1998 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine.