DURING THE 14 years of Mary McAleese’s presidency, almost every form of official authority in Ireland has been greatly diminished in stature and respect. That her own is emphatically not among them is the ultimate tribute to her dignity, eloquence, perseverance and warmth. She dealt with the aftermath of a bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and the last years of her presidency were a time of great anger south of the Border. Yet she leaves office with the affection and admiration of every community on the island. There could be no better embodiment of the ideal of the presidency – that it should transcend political divisions and articulate a shared sense of belonging.
Mrs McAleese’s achievement is all the more remarkable when one considers that two of the major institutions with which she was closely associated before taking office suffered catastrophic declines during her presidency. Fianna Fáil, which nominated her in 1997, lost its place at the heart of Irish public life. The Catholic hierarchy, to which she was once close (she was a member of the bishops’ delegation to the New Ireland Forum in 1984), also squandered its store of public trust. For someone with ties to both of those venerable institutions to avoid their fate might suggest a deftness of touch. But for someone in that position actually to see her standing enhanced while they imploded suggests something much more resonant than a mere talent for survival.
It may be, indeed, that there is a strong connection between Mrs McAleese’s strength as President on the one hand and the troubles that beset Fianna Fáil and the bishops on the other. The last decade has been a confusing and often distressing one for middle-of-the-road Irish Catholics. Mrs McAleese was able to offer them a calm, comforting presence with which to identify. Her deep religious faith and her passionate commitment to Ireland radiated a reassurance that some of the old values still had a place.
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TO PROVIDE comfort in a time of change is a worthy achievement in itself, but Mrs McAleese did a great deal more. Her self-confidence as a Catholic and a nationalist allowed her to reach boldly beyond those confines. She saw her own strand of Irish identity not as an embattled territory to be defended, but as solid ground from which to move outwards.
In her inaugural address 14 years ago, she quoted one of her predecessors, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, to the effect that a president cannot have politics but “a president can have a theme”. President McAleese’s theme – “Building Bridges” – had the rather pat feel of the election slogan it in fact was. Séamus Heaney, in his introduction to a new collection of the President’s speeches, calls it, politely, “a decent metaphor and a pious aspiration”. But Mrs McAleese was eloquent, clear-minded and determined enough to turn that pious aspiration into real change.
There is no doubt that the historic achievements of her presidency all lie in the area of what came to be called the “totality of relationships” on this island and between Ireland and Britain. She broke with the Catholic hierarchy very quickly when, at the end of her first month in office, she took communion at a Church of Ireland service in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin – a deeply personal expression of her commitment to transcend tribal identities.
She followed this gesture on the first anniversary of her inauguration, which is also Armistice Day, with a deeply resonant joint ceremony, in the company of Queen Elizabeth, to open the Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messines in honour of all the Irish dead of the first World War.
Her words that day set the keynote for her tireless efforts to honour the Protestant and British strands of Irish identity: “None of us has the power to change what is past but we do have the power to use today well to shape a better future.”
These efforts culminated, of course, with the moving visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland, an occasion made much more comfortable for most Irish people by the way Mrs McAleese herself showed, in her manner and deportment, that an elected head of state can match a monarch in dignity and gravitas.
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THE SHEER symbolic resonance of this main theme of her presidency made it inevitable that Mrs McAleese would be less forceful a presence on the other social and economic issues that were shaping Irish society during her presidency. It is not quite true to say that she was a cheerleader for the Celtic Tiger.
A speech in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2003 asked some surprisingly raw questions about those left “marooned on the beach” while “the uplifted boats are sailing over the horizon”, and the way new money was feeding self-indulgent excess. In retrospect, it seems a pity that such provocative interventions were not made a little more frequently. The balance between selling the country abroad and telling home truths is not an easy one to strike and the President did not always get it right.
Yet, she leaves to her successor an office that has been greatly enhanced in the eyes of citizens. She filled it with geniality and with intellectual acuteness, with unfailing professionalism and with personal charm, with a fluent eloquence that was as expressive as it was impressive. She gave everything she has to the service of Ireland.
If more of her contemporaries in public life could say as much, Ireland would be a better place today.