All 44 of Hong Kong's Special Olympics team shook hands with the President, Mrs Mary McAleese, here yesterday as she told them of Ireland's huge disappointment that only 22 of them were able to travel to Dublin for the June games because of the SARS outbreak.
The team, in their yellow uniforms, gathered at the Grand Hyatt Hotel to meet her and the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey. The President praised those with medals and commiserated with those who had been unable to travel because of the compulsory 10-day quarantine. They, and their officials, were delighted when told those left behind had been missed. The chairman of the Hong Kong Special Olympics Mr David S W Ip said some of the local media had been angry at the Irish decision and wanted a total boycott of the Dublin games. But his committee understood how terrifying SARS had been to people elsewhere. Mrs McAleese praised Hong Kong's response to the epidemic.
Hong Kong has been a two-day semi-private stopover for the President in preparation for her state visit to mainland China which starts in Beijing today and involves 23 separate engagements. Yesterday, she went to the Stanley market on Hong Kong Island, where she bought some souvenir crafts and silks, and then to Government House. She and Mr Tung Chee Hwa the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region discussed the role of education in Ireland's economic success and the possibility of Hong Kong becoming the gateway into the vast market of mainland China, just as Ireland had been a way into Europe.
In what is called the "one country, two systems" administration, Mr Tung has replaced governors appointed under British rule from 1842-1897 and the region's political and economic freedoms are broadly protected until 2047. He was elected chief executive by a committee of business and professional leaders and re-elected last year.
Yesterday at Government House, official residence to 25 of the former colony's 28 governors, including the last one, Mr Chris Patton, the President, Mr Dempsey and Mr Tung started their 40-minute meeting with discussions on the EU. Ireland, Mrs McAleese said, was one of the poorest countries ever to join the EU, but now it was the success story and an example to others.
Last night the President told a 500-strong reception for the Irish community and friends that the links binding Ireland to one of the great cities of the world had been well-established since the 19th century. Several governors between 1840 and 1880, with names such as Pottinger, Robinson, Kennedy and Hennessy, were Irish or of Irish origin and Ireland's contribution to Hong Kong was there for all to see in the street names.
The foreign earnings potential for Ireland of markets in the Asian region was due to the positive input of Irish expatriates and they were owed a debt of gratitude.
They were unpaid ambassadors, she told them.