IRELAND: The international community must continue to support the millions of people devastated by the Asian tsunami for many years to come, the President, Mrs McAleese, said yesterday. The President commended the public's generosity, saying she was "proud" to live in a country which had given unprecedented levels of practical and financial aid.
"It is clear that the international community must assist both now and in the difficult months, even years ahead," Mrs McAleese said, as she addressed the diplomatic corps in Áras an Uachtaráin.
The Irish Ambassador to Malaysia and Thailand, Mr Dan Mulhall, and his embassy staff were singled out for praise. "No ambassador is trained to trek from mortuary to mortuary in search of missing countrymen and women, or to cope with the aftermath of something so unique in human history."
Turning to the diplomatic corps, she said: "Many of you represent countries which have been directly affected by the catastrophe, and I hope that amidst the trauma and the sea of sorrow there is some comfort and reassurance in the kindness of strangers of all nationalities, all creeds, all united in their goodness and their grief."