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Tag Archives: Martin McAleese


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Mary McAleese Meets Bill Clinton in the Oval Office

On June 23, 1998, Irish president Mary McAleese pays a courtesy call on President Bill Clinton at the White House before he leaves for China. This is one of the highlights of her six-day visit to Washington, D.C. and New York.

As this is not a state visit, there is no formal welcome for President McAleese or official functions at the White House as there was for President Mary Robinson‘s state visit two years earlier. McAleese arrives the previous day by government jet, accompanied by her husband, Dr. Martin McAleese, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews, and his wife. The McAleese’s son, thirteen-year-old Justin McAleese, travels to the United States separately and joined his parents in Washington, D.C..

Within hours of her arrival, McAleese attends a reception in the Four Seasons Hotel mainly for the Irish American community and hosted by the Irish ambassador, Sean O Huiginn, and his wife. In her remarks to the several hundred guests, President McAleese praises the role of President Clinton in the Northern Ireland peace process and of former Senator George Mitchell. She says Clinton’s contribution has been “remarkable.” She says, “He was prepared to take risks for peace: without his courage and leadership we could not have made the progress we have.”

McAleese says many of those present “have descended from some of the first settlers of the early colonies – some of whom, like myself, come from the northern part of the island of Ireland. I am deeply honoured that all of you have retained such a close bond and pride in your Irish heritage and that you demonstrated your affection by the strength of the many vibrant organisations in this area.”

McAleese says when our forebears crossed the Atlantic Ocean they retained a yearning that someday the Ireland they left would be a better place. “Regrettably, they did not live to see a new Ireland but it is now a reality in the economic, cultural and social progress of the last number of years.” Arranging the meeting at the White House is a problem for U.S. and Irish officials because of Clinton’s extremely busy schedule, as he prepares for his China visit. But the fact that he makes time for it is an indication of the importance he attaches to U.S.-Irish relations.

Later in the day, McAleese has lunch at the U.S. Supreme Court with Chief Justice William Rehnquist. This is followed by a speech at Georgetown University, mainly dealing with Northern Ireland.

In the evening, McAleese attends a dinner in her honour at the Irish Embassy residence, to which leading political and administration figures are invited. On June 24, following a press conference at the National Press Club and a lunch on Capitol Hill with members of Congress, she flies to New York. There she pays a courtesy visit on the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and later attends a trade show organised by the Irish Business Organisation. In the evening she attends the “Dreamer of Dreams” awards ceremony organised by the Irish Voice newspaper.

On Thursday, June 25, McAleese has more engagements and prior to her return to Ireland on Friday, June 26.

(From: “McAleese for courtesy call on Clinton today” by Joe Carroll, The IrishTimes, http://www.irishtimes.com, July 23, 1998)


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President McAleese Visits Brakey Orange Hall

mcaleese-at-brakey-orange-hallPresident Mary McAleese makes the first official visit by an Irish head of state to an Orange Order hall when she visits Brakey Orange Hall, just outside Bailieborough, County Cavan on November 28, 2008.

Brakey Orange Hall had been destroyed in an arson attack on July 13, 2000, but had since been rebuilt and reopened in 2004. Further extensions and improvements have been made since, with the latest recently completed in time for the occasion.

Approximately 50 local people, many of the men in their orange lapels and other regalia, pack the little hall to honour their guest. Placing the visit in a wider context, McAleese says the “journey of peace-building and peace-making” since the signing of the Belfast Agreement ten years earlier must continue, and calls for a new culture of tolerance and acceptance in both parts of Ireland.

McAleese is welcomed by Cavan County Grand Master Henry Latimer, who praises the financial support for Orange halls in Border counties provided by the Government. He outlines to the President and her husband, Dr. Martin McAleese, the close bond between local communities and Orange halls and the facilities provided for meetings, classes and social events. “Given the widespread nature of such activity, it demonstrates why when halls are damaged, attacked, destroyed or [placed] beyond use for periods of time, the community activity of its related hinterland suffers and is curtailed,” he adds.

McAleese hails the occasion as an example of fresh understanding in relationships between different traditions. “We have taken the first important steps towards ending the bitter culture of ‘either-or,’ of them versus us,” she says. She calls on Irish people everywhere “to build a new culture . . . each accepting that there are different perspectives and practices.”

McAleese praises Latimer as a good Cavan man, a good Irishman and a good Orangeman. The burning of Orange halls, she says, are “intemperate acts of vandalism” which are “a throw-back to another time.”

Appealing for an end to attacks on Orange halls and GAA clubs by arsonists McAleese adds, “I invite them all to stop and think how wonderfully transformed all our lives would be if we were all made as welcome in each other’s homes as I have been made welcome here.”

McAleese receives a bouquet of flowers and a piece of Cavan crystal to mark her visit. She later attends other engagements throughout Cavan.

(From: “President makes first official visit by Irish head of state to an Orange hall” by Dan Keenan, The Irish Times, November 28, 2008)


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Inauguration of Mary McAleese as 8th President of Ireland

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Mary Patricia McAleese (née Leneghan) is inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland on November 11, 1997. She succeeds Mary Robinson, making her the second female president of Ireland and the first woman in the world to succeed another woman as president. She is the first president to come from Northern Ireland.

Leneghan is born into a Roman Catholic family on June 27, 1951, in Ardoyne, north Belfast. The eldest of nine children, she grows up in Northern Ireland through the violent times that have come to be known as “The Troubles.” She is educated at St. Dominic’s High School, Queen’s University Belfast, from which she graduates in 1973, and Trinity College Dublin. She is called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1974 and remains a member of the Bar Council of Ireland. In 1975, she is appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin.

Leneghan marries Martin McAleese, an accountant and dentist in 1976. They have three children, Emma, born 1982, and twins Justin and SaraMai, born in 1985.

In 1987, McAleese returns to her Alma Mater, Queen’s University Belfast, to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. In 1994, she becomes the first female Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university.

McAleese defeats former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds in an internal party election in 1997, held to determine the Fianna Fáil nomination for the Irish presidency. Her opponents in the 1997 presidential election are Mary Banotti of Fine Gael, Adi Roche of the Labour Party and two Independents, Dana Rosemary Scallon and Derek Nally.

McAleese wins the presidency with 45.2% of first preference votes. In the second and final count against Banotti, McAleese wins 55.6% of preferences. Within weeks of her November 1997 inauguration, she makes her first official overseas trip to Lebanon.

McAleese describes the theme of her presidency as “building bridges.” The first individual born in Northern Ireland to become President of Ireland, McAleese is a regular visitor to Northern Ireland throughout her presidency, where she is on the whole warmly welcomed by both communities, confounding critics who had believed she would be a divisive figure. While on an official visit to the United States in 1998, Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Bernard Francis Law tells her he is “sorry for Catholic Ireland to have you as President.” She tells the cardinal that she is the “President of Ireland and not just of Catholic Ireland.”

McAleese’s initial seven-year term of office ends in November 2004, but she stands for a second term in the 2004 presidential election. She is re-elected on October 1, 2004, being the only validly nominated candidate.

McAleese is an experienced broadcaster, having worked as a current affairs journalist and presenter in radio and television with Radio Telefís Éireann. She has a longstanding interest in many issues concerned with justice, equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation.