| Mary McAleese | |
|---|---|
| 8th President of Ireland | |
| In office 11 November 1997 – 10 November 2011 |
|
| Preceded by | Mary Robinson |
| Succeeded by | Michael D. Higgins |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 June 1951 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Political party | Fianna Fáil (1997–2011) |
| Spouse(s) | Martin McAleese (m. 1976) |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Queen's University Belfast Trinity College, Dublin |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Signature | |
Mary Patricia McAleese ( /mækəˈliːs/; née Leneghan; Irish: Máire Pádraigín Bean Mhic Ghiolla Íosa[1] born 27 June 1951) served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president.[2] She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in office in 2004.[3] McAleese is the first President of Ireland to have come from either Northern Ireland or Ulster.[4]
McAleese graduated in Law from Queen's University Belfast. In 1975, she was appointed Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College, Dublin and in 1987, she returned to her Alma Mater, Queen's, to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. In 1994, she became the first female Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queen's University of Belfast.[5] She worked as a barrister and also worked as a journalist with RTÉ.[6]
McAleese has used her time in office to address issues concerning justice, social equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation. She has described the theme of her Presidency as "Building Bridges".[7] This bridge-building materialised in her attempts to reach out to the unionist community in Northern Ireland. These steps included celebrating the Twelfth of July at Áras an Uachtaráin and she even incurred criticism from some of the Irish Catholic hierarchy by taking communion in an Anglican Cathedral in Dublin.[8] Despite being a practicing Roman Catholic, she holds liberal views regarding homosexuality[9] and women priests.[10] She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders and was ranked the 64th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.[11] In spite of some minor controversies,[12] McAleese remained popular and her Presidency is regarded as successful.[13][14][15]
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Born Mary Patricia Leneghan (Irish: Máire Pádraigín Ní Lionnacháin) in Ardoyne, north Belfast, McAleese was the eldest of nine children.[16] She is a Roman Catholic.[17] Her family was forced to leave the area by loyalists when The Troubles broke out.[18] Educated at St Dominic's High School, she also spent some time when younger with the Poor Clares, Queen's University Belfast (from which she graduated in 1973), and Trinity College, Dublin. She was called to the Northern Irish Bar in 1974, and remains a member of the Irish Bar. She opposes abortion and divorce.[17]
In 1976, she married Martin McAleese, an accountant and dentist by profession.[16][19] He has assisted his wife with some of her initiatives as president.[20][21][22] They have three children: Emma, born 1982, graduated as an engineer from University College Dublin and is a dentistry student at Trinity College, Dublin; twins: Justin, an accountant with a master's degree from University College Dublin, and SaraMai, who obtained a master's degree in biochemistry at the University of Oxford[23] were born in 1985.
In 1975, she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity College,[24] succeeding Mary Robinson.[25]
During the same decade she was legal advisor to and a founding member of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform. She left this position in 1979 to join RTÉ as a journalist and presenter during one period as a reporter and presenter for their Today Tonight programme. However, in RTÉ she and Alex White (then TV producer and now Labour Party TD) were attacked and criticised by a group led by Eoghan Harris associated with the Workers' Party over what they perceived as her bias towards Republican groups in the North. McAleese was critical of the Provisional IRA but believed it was important to hear their side of the story; she opposed the Harris faction's support for Section 31 which she believed was an attack on free speech.[26] In 1981, she returned to the Reid Professorship, but continued to work part-time for RTÉ for a further four years. In 1987, she returned to Queen's University to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. In the same year, she stood, unsuccessfully, as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the Dublin South East constituency at the general election, receiving 2,243 votes (5.9%).
McAleese was a member of the Catholic Church Episcopal Delegation to the New Ireland Forum in 1984, and a member of the Catholic Church delegation to the Northern Ireland Commission on Contentious Parades in 1996. She was also a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Trade and Investment in Ireland and to the subsequent Pittsburgh Conference in 1996. She became the Pro-Vice Chancellor of The Queen's University of Belfast.[17] Prior to becoming president in 1997, McAleese had also held the following positions: Director of Channel 4 Television, Director, Northern Ireland Electricity, Director, Royal Group of Hospitals Trust and Founding member of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas.[16]
McAleese is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.[27]
In 1997, McAleese defeated former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds in an internal party election held to determine the Fianna Fáil nomination for the Irish presidency.
Her opponents in the 1997 presidential election were Mary Banotti of Fine Gael, Adi Roche (the Labour Party candidate) and two independents: Dana Rosemary Scallon and Derek Nally.
McAleese won the Presidency with 45.2% of first preference votes. In the second and final count against Banotti, she won 58.7% of preferences. On 11 November 1997, she was inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland. Within weeks of this she made her first official overseas trip to Lebanon.[28]
McAleese described the theme of her presidency as "building bridges". The first individual born in Northern Ireland to become President of Ireland, President McAleese was a regular visitor to Northern Ireland throughout her presidency, where she was on the whole warmly welcomed by both communities, confounding critics who had believed she would be a divisive figure. People from Northern Ireland, indeed people from right across the nine-county Province of Ulster, were regular and recurring visitors to Áras an Uachtaráin while she was there.[19] She is also an admirer of Queen Elizabeth II, whom she came to know when she was Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queen's. In March 1998, President McAleese announced that she would officially celebrate the Twelfth of July as well as Saint Patrick's Day, recognising the day's importance among Ulster Protestants.
She also incurred some criticism from some of the Irish Catholic hierarchy by taking communion in an Anglican (Church of Ireland) Cathedral in Dublin on 7 December 1997, although 78 percent of Irish people approved of her action in a following opinion poll. While Cardinal Desmond Connell called her action a "sham" and a "deception", Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said it was ironic that "the Church was condemning an act of reconciliation and bridge-building between the denominations."[29]
McAleese's initial seven year term of office ended in November 2004, but she had announced on 14 September that she would stand for a second term in the 2004 presidential election. Following the failure of any other candidate to secure the necessary support for nomination, the incumbent president stood unopposed, with no political party affiliation, and was declared elected on 1 October. She was re-inaugurated at the commencement of her second seven year term on 11 November. McAleese's very approval ratings were widely seen as the reason for her re-election, with no opposition party willing to bear the cost (financial or political) of competing in an election that would prove difficult to win.[30]
On 27 January 2005, following her attendance at the ceremony commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp, she created friction by referring to the way some Protestant children in Northern Ireland had been raised to hate Catholics, just as European children "for generations, for centuries" were encouraged to hate Jews.[31][32][33] These remarks provoked outrage among unionist politicians. McAleese later apologised,[34] conceding that her comments had been unbalanced because she had criticised only the sectarianism found on one side of the community.
She was the Commencement Speaker at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, on 22 May 2005. The visit prompted protests by conservatives because of the President's professing heterodox Roman Catholic views on homosexuality and women in priesthood. She was the commencement speaker at the University of Notre Dame on 21 May 2006. In her commencement address, among other topics, she spoke of her pride at Notre Dame's Irish heritage, including the nickname the "Fighting Irish".
She attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II on 8 April 2005 and the Papal Inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI on 24 April.
McAleese attended the canonization by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome of Charles of Mount Argus on 3 June 2007.[35] She was accompanied by her husband, Martin, Cardinal Desmond Connell, Mary Hanafin, the Minister for Education and Science, together with bishops and other pilgrims.[36] She later met the Pope and embarked on other official duties, including a trip to St. Isidore's College, a talk at the Pontifical Irish College and a Mass said especially for the Irish Embassy at Villa Spada chapel.[37]
In August 2007, she spoke out against homophobia at the International Association of Suicide Prevention 24th Biennial Conference.[38]
She paid a seven-day visit to Hollywood in December 2008 alongside Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Film Board on a mission to promote the Irish film and television industry.[39] A reception held in her honour was attended by Ed Begley, Jr. and Fionnula Flanagan.[39] She later met the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.[39]
On 21 January 2009, she signed into law the Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Act 2009 at a ceremony in Áras an Uachtaráin, facilitating the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank.[40] Forbes named her among the hundred most powerful women in the world later that year.[41] In November, she signed into law the National Asset Management Agency.[42]
McAleese undertook an official two-day visit to London on 28–29 February 2010, where she visited the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics and was guest of honour at the Madejski Stadium for a rugby union match between London Irish and Harlequin F.C.[43] On 13 May 2010, she attended the Balmoral Show at the Balmoral Showgrounds, which includes the King's Hall, in south Belfast. Northern Irish Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Northern Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew gave her breakfast and walked around with her during the day.[44]
She began an official visit to New York for several days, on 16 May 2010. She began by appearing at an Irish Voice event in honour of life science.[45] She then addressed business leaders at the New York Stock Exchange to say Irish people were "as mad as hell" over the Irish banking crisis,[46] and opened the An Gorta Mór (Great Famine) exhibition with a speech promising that Ireland's foreign policy focussed on global hunger.[45] She was also present at St. Patrick's Cathedral for a Famine mass and went to the Battery Park's Irish Hunger Memorial to see the official New York commemoration of the 19th century Irish Famine.[45] On 22 May 2010, she delivered the keynote address at Fordham University's 165th Commencement.
She opened the Bloom Festival, Ireland's largest gardening show, on 3 June 2010, acknowledging an improved interest in gardening in Ireland, particularly among younger people.[47] On 13 June 2010, McAleese began an official visit to China. She met with Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and the pair spoke for 35 minutes over lunch.[48]
She made an official visit to the Russian Federation with Minister of State, Billy Kelleher, for four days in September 2010 and met with President Dmitry Medvedev.[49][50] She spoke kindly of Mikhail Gorbachev, officially invited Medvedev to Ireland, and addressed students at a university in Saint Petersburg.[51][52][53] On her state tour to Russia, highlighting the importance of competence, she launched an unprecedented attack on the Central Bank of Ireland for their role in the financial crisis which resulted in tens of thousands of people in mortgage arrears.[54][55]
The president turned down an invitation to be Grand Marshal at the 250th St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City planned for 2011. The parade organisers refuse to allow gay people to march under their banner, and there was media speculation that this was the reason for the refusal. A spokesperson for the President's office stated that, while honoured by the invitation, she could not attend because of "scheduling constraints".[56]
In March 2011, President McAleese invited Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom to make a state visit to the Republic of Ireland. The Queen accepted and the visit took place from 17–20 May 2011, the first state visit by a British monarch to the Republic of Ireland.[57] McAleese had been eager to have the Queen visit Ireland, and the event was widely welcomed as a historic success.[58][59][60]
In past media interviews, prior to the Queen's visit, President McAleese had stated on several occasions that the highlight of her presidency to date was the opening ceremony of the 2003 Special Olympics World Games which she describes as "a time when Ireland was at its superb best".[61] While opening the National Ploughing Championships in County Kildare in September 2011 she spoke of her sadness that she would soon no longer be President, saying: "I'm going to miss it terribly…I'll miss the people and the engagement with them."[62][63]
Mary McAleese made her final overseas visit as head of state to Lebanon in October 2011, the location of her very first official overseas visit in 1997.[64][65] While there she met with Lebanese president Michel Suleiman.[66] Before her trip to Lebanon she visited Derry on one of her last official engagements to Northern Ireland, becoming the inaugural speaker at the first Conversations Across Walls and Borders event in First Derry Presbyterian Church.[67] She voluntarily donated more than 60 gifts given to her over the 14 years, and worth about €100,000, to the Irish state.[68]
McAleese left office on 10 November 2011 and was succeeded by Michael D. Higgins who was elected in the presidential election held on 27 October 2011.[69]
On 10 November 2011, her last day in office, she thanked Ireland for her two terms in an article in The Irish Times.[70] She performed her last official public engagement at a hostel for homeless men in Dublin in the morning and spent the afternoon moving out of Áras an Uachtaráin.[71]
Mary McAleese along with her husband Martin were announced as winner of the Tipperary Peace Prize in January 2012. Past receipients include Nelson Mandela. [72]
| No. | Article | Reserve power | Subject | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1999 meeting | Address to the Oireachtas | The new millennium | Address given |
| 2. | 2000 meeting | Referral of bill to the Supreme Court | Planning and Development Bill, 1999 Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill, 1999 |
Sections of both bills referred (Both upheld) |
| 3. | 2002 meeting | Referral of bill to the Supreme Court | Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Bill, 2001 | Bill not referred |
| 4. | 2004 meeting | Referral of bill to the Supreme Court | Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2004 | Bill referred (Struck down) |
| 5. | 2009 meeting | Referral of bill to the Supreme Court | Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 Defamation Bill 2009 |
Bills not referred |
| 6. | 2010 meeting | Referral of bill to the Supreme Court | Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Bill 2010 | Signed without referral[73] |
First term
Second term
McAleese has received awards and honorary doctorates throughout her career. On 3 May 2007, she was awarded the The American Ireland Fund Humanitarian Award. On 31 October 2007, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Otago, New Zealand. On 19 May 2009, she became the third living person to be awarded the freedom of Kilkenny, succeeding Brian Cody and Séamus Pattison.[74] The ceremony, at which she was presented with two hurleys, took place at Kilkenny Castle.[74] On 24 May 2009, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. On 22 May 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from Fordham University, in the Bronx, New York, where she delivered the commencement speech to the class of 2010.[45]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Mary Robinson |
President of Ireland 1997–2011 |
Succeeded by Michael D. Higgins |
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