Mary McAleese - President Mary McAleese: Building Bridges--Selected Speeches and Statements

by Seamus Heaney

Millennium Address to the Houses of the Oireachtas

December 1999

Remarks on the Occasion of September 11th

September 2001

The Irish America Top 100 Awards

Plaza Hotel, New York, USA, 14 March 2002

Re-Imagining Ireland

Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 7 May 2003

Day of Welcomes

ras an Uachtarin, 1 May 2004

UCD Ireland Diaspora Forum

Belfield, Dublin, 10 November 2008

Celebration of Fifty Years of UN Peacekeeping Duties

Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin, 28 November 2008

Institute of International and European Affairs Luncheon

Europe House, North Great Georges Street, Dublin, 26 April 2010

New York Stock Exchange

21 May 2010

Fordham University Commencement Ceremony

22 May 2010

Address to the Literary and Historical Society

University College Dublin, 11 February 2000

International Family Garden Party

ras an Uachtarin, 11 July 2005

Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year Awards

Westin Hotel, Dublin, 6 February 2007

Islamic Awareness Week

Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, Dublin, 26 February 2010

Immigrant Council of Ireland Conference

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 3 November 2010

Inaugural Amnesty International Annual Lecture

Queens University Belfast, 17 November 1998

Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award Dinner

5 May 1999

Launch of the Combat Poverty Report Women and Poverty in Ireland

27 May 1999

Millennium Lecture on the Marginalised Child

28 February 2000

Hopes for the New Millennium

St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin, 11 June 2000

Annual Trcaire Lecture

St Patricks College, Maynooth, 11 March 2002

Opening of the Serenity Garden at Aislinn Adolescent Treatment Centre

Ballyragget, County Kilkenny, 15 April 2003

Opening of the Cifin Conference

West County Hotel, Ennis, County Clare, 8 November 2005

Suicide Prevention Conference

Irish National Events Centre, Killarney, County Kerry, 31 August 2007

A Dialogue on Philanthropy Symposium

21 February 2008

Ombudsmen for Children Conference

3 September 2008

Forum on End of Life in Ireland

Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, 11 March 2009

Survivors of Institutional Abuse

ras an Uachtarin, 28 June 2009

CORIs 50th Anniversary Conference

Grand Hotel, Malahide, 17 April 2010

LGBT Diversity National Conference

Westbury Hotel, Dublin, 29 November 2010

Positive Mental Health for Young People Forum

ras an Uachtarin, 22 June 2011

Opening of the Special Olympics World Games

Croke Park, Dublin, 21 June 2003

21st Anniversary of Gaisce The Presidents Award and the 50th

Anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards

National Concert Hall, Dublin, 26 April 2006

GAA 125th Anniversary Garden Party

ras an Uachtarin, 6 July 2009

Civic Society Forum: Resilience in Tough Times

ras an Uachtarin, 29 January 2010

National Adult Literacy Agency 30th Anniversary

ras an Uachtarin, 28 April 2010

European Year of Volunteering

Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, 12 February 2011

Aosdna Garden Party

ras an Uachtarin, 24 June 2004

Sportspersons from Throughout Ireland Reception

ras an Uachtarin, 7 July 2004

Youth Forum A Vision of 2020

ras an Uachtarin, 27 February 2007

Dublin City University Honorary Doctorate

Dublin City University, 29 March 2008

Conference on Ireland and Europe

University College Cork, 22 January 2010

Business Leadership in Ireland of Today

Spencer Dock, Dublin, 4 March 2010

Annual Meeting of the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament

26 March 2010

Celebrating Positive Ageing Week

Georgian Museum, Dublin, 28 September 2010

2010 Newman Lecture: Re-imagining our Universities for the

Twenty-First Century

Newman House, St Stephens Green, Dublin, 19 October 2010

The Irish Book Awards

25 November 2010

International Womens Day

Burlington Hotel, Dublin, 8 March 2011

Designation of Dublin as UNESCO City of Literature

The Conference Centre, Dublin, 18 March 2011

Conference on Children: Their Lives, Their Learning

Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, 4 May 2011

Environmental Protection Agency

Johnstown Castle Estate, Wexford, 15 June 2011

Statement on Good Friday Agreement

10 April 1998

Statement on Omagh Bombing

15 August 1998

Inauguration of the Messines Peace Tower

Messines, Belgium, 11 November 1998

Reception for People from Omagh, Buncrana and Ballymoney

ras an Uachtarin, 25 November 1998

Statement on IRA Disarmament

26 September 2005

Statement on Stormont Agreement

26 March 2007

16th (Irish) Division Exhibition

Somme Heritage Centre, County Down, 10 September 2007

Statement on UDA Decommissioning

6 January 2010

Statement on the Hillsborough Castle Agreement

5 February 2010

St Patricks Day Lecture

19 March 2010

Statement on Devolution of Justice and Police Powers

9 March 2010

The Irish News, Opinion Piece

August 2010

Reception for Survivors of Bloody Sunday

ras an Uachtarin, 17 September 2010

The 1641 Depositions Exhibition, Ireland in Turmoil

Long Room, Trinity College Dublin, 22 October 2010

State Dinner in Honour of Queen Elizabeth II

Dublin Castle, 18 May 2011

Before Mary McAleeses first term as President of Ireland, before she was elected, even before she was nominated as the Fianna Fil candidate, she said, We have come to realise that the emotional reach of the Presidency is much, much greater than its Constitutional reach.

This may have been intended as a tribute to the then incumbent Mary Robinson, whose emotional reach to the Irish diaspora had been such an inspiring feature of her seven years in the Presidency. But it was also a foreshadowing of the seven years, indeed the twice seven years, that were to come.

Some months later, in her inaugural address, President McAleese referred to another of her predecessors in the office, the late Cearbhall Dlaigh, and quoted his observation that Presidents, under the Irish Constitution, dont have policies. But a President can have a theme.

And she went on to announce that her theme would be Building Bridges. At the time the phrase could have been taken as a decent metaphor and a pious aspiration, but fourteen years on it stands out as the expression of courageous resolve and a summary of historic achievement.

That inaugural address was given on 11 November 1997, Armistice Day in Britain and Northern Ireland, the day when Unionists in Mary McAleeses home province of Ulster remembered the dead of the Ulster Division who fell in the carnage at the Somme. Exactly a year later, in the company of Queen Elizabeth II, she built one of the many sturdy arches that would sustain the bridge work throughout her time in office. On Armistice Day 1998, President and monarch officiated at the opening of The Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messines in Belgium, a place dedicated to the memory of those First World War dead, Unionist and Nationalist, Catholic and Protestant, whether of the 36th Ulster Division or the 16th (Irish) Division.