QUEEN BEATRIX of the Netherlands has spoken of the worry and financial pressures weighing on ordinary Irish families as a result of the economic downturn.
The queen, addressing a lunch at Noordeinde Palace in honour of President Mary McAleese, also acknowledged how Irish people were showing their natural “resilience” and responding “admirably” to the crisis.
“Serious financial problems and an exceptional debt burden now weigh heavily on the relatively small Irish population,” Queen Beatrix told an audience of politicians, diplomats and business leaders after an hour-long private audience with Mrs McAleese.
“Most admirably, the Irish have faced up to this problem and decided to take all the measures necessary to come through this difficult period.
“People widely accept that sacrifices have to be made.”
However, the queen said she believed the hope that better times would return in Ireland was justified.
“In the years of prosperity, Ireland built up a sound economic infrastructure and made major investments in innovation and high-quality education.
“In this way, your country aims to offer continuing prospects to the younger generation,” Queen Beatrix – who paid a State visit to Ireland with her late husband, Prince Claus, in 1990 – said.
The President, in turn, thanked the queen and the Dutch people for having “the generosity of spirit to invest in us at this time”.
The relationship between the President and the queen was clearly a relaxed and convivial one.
Mrs McAleese commented that Dutch tulip bulbs which had been named after her last year had been thriving not only in the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin, but in the garden of her family home – which, she observed, was nothing less than a miracle.
She also referred to their common interest in the preservation of Irish peatlands.
Before meeting Queen Beatrix, the President and her husband, Dr Martin McAleese, accompanied by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, were given a guided tour of the royal picture collection by the director of the Mauritshuis Gallery, Dr Emilie Gordenker.
The Mauritshuis owns one of the most important collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings in the world – including Vermeer's masterpiece, Girl with a Pearl Earring, which the President described as "remarkable".
Later, Mrs McAleese visited the European Space Agency at Noordwijk, where she met Irish members of staff.
Before returning to Dublin last night she met members of the Irish community at a reception at the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Wassenaar, outside The Hague.
McALEESE'S MESSAGE: DISSIDENTS DISMISSED:
PRESIDENT MARY McAleese has described dissident republicans as “the tail-end of a very old, tired, failed culture of trying to solve political problems through paramilitarism”.
Asked at the end of her two-day official visit to the Netherlands about the threat posed by groups such as the Real IRA to Queen Elizabeth’s State visit to Ireland later this month, the President acknowledged that “regrettably they pose a threat not just to that visit – but more generally”.
Asked if she had a message for such groups, Mrs McAleese responded: “To those who are intent on the kind of violence that was visited on young Constable Ronan Kerr and others, please listen to the will of those who live around you, your neighbours and everyone in your community.
“Those who live around belong to the vast majority who want their problems solved in a humanly dignified and decent way – and that way is through political dialogue, not through bullying.”
Despite the security concerns, President McAleese said the Queen’s visit would be “a moment of celebration”.
“For me, it is a moment of huge achievement for the Irish people and for all those who have put their hearts and souls behind the peace process – including those in Britain, in Northern Ireland and in the United States.”
- PETER CLUSKEY