The President, Mrs McAleese, has expressed confidence that May 22nd will be "the first day of a new Northern Ireland, comfortable and friendly with its successful and dynamic neighbour with whom it shares the beautiful island of Ireland".
She told the Brehon Law Society of Philadelphia that "there is good news to bring, not just news of hope but of hopes turned into reality as the people of the island of Ireland make a conscious and collective shift of history's trajectory".
She said "the new future planned for Northern Ireland demands a police force drawn from all sides, trusted by all sides, working in partnership on behalf of the entire society".
While many people had lost loved ones and found it hard to get over their loss and hurt, "the package of proposals put forward by the Patten Commission on Policing have the potential to bring about a police service that is professional, effective, accountable, representative and widely accepted by both the unionist and nationalist communities.
"The peacemakers and all who want peace know in their hearts that such a police force is one of the basic building blocks on which this new successful Northern Ireland will sit," the President said.
Earlier she met leading senators on Capitol Hill in Washington. These included the Republican majority leader, Trent Lott; and senators Edward Kennedy, Chris Dodd and Joseph Biden. She discussed the situation in Northern Ireland before taking the train to Philadelphia, where she will conclude her five-day visit to the US.
She reminded her legal audience of "your fellow practitioners, Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, both of whom were brutally murdered as a direct result of their efforts to achieve justice for their clients".
"In their deaths and indeed their lives, we see something of the heroism, the commitment, the dedication to truth, the absence of comfort, the focus on others rather than self, the faith in the future which infuses the being of the architects of our peace."
President McAleese also paid courtesy calls on the Mayor of Philadelphia, Mr John Street, and the Governor of Pennsylvania, Mr Thomas Ridge, who is being mentioned as a possible Republican running mate for Governor George W. Bush in this year's presidential election.