McAleese Presidential decision in summer

Mary McAleese will decide this summer whether to seek re-election as the President of Ireland, she confirmed tonight.

The Belfast-born President said during a visit to an over 50s club in a loyalist area of Bangor in Northern Ireland there was still some time left before she would decide whether to seek another seven years in office.

“I have had loads of advice, not just today but many other days.

“My husband Martin and I will decide that in the summer time.

“There is no big urgency about making that decision.

“Some time in the summer we will sit down and put it all together.”

Mrs McAleese was elected President in 1997 and ran as a candidate for Fianna Fáil.

She has enjoyed high approval ratings throughout her presidency and in an opinion poll published last Saturday it was claimed that she would secure three quarters of the vote if the Labour Party were to run former Art Minister Michael D Higgins against her.

Speculation has been mounting but she will seek re-election later this year but the President was not giving anything away during her visit to Northern Ireland.

“I am not being coy,” she insisted.

“My mother once said to me while you are planning, God is planning. Or to put it another way, while you are planning, God is laughing.

“I do not want to give him too much to laugh at just for the time being or to hold too much hostage to fortune.

“We will make the decision, please goodness, in the summer time and that will be time enough.”

President McAleese and her husband Martin, who is also from Belfast, paid several visits to protestant and catholic communities during their one day visit today to Northern Ireland.

She attended a short prayer service at High Street Presbyterian Church in Holywood, County Down.

She also visited St Patrick’s School in the town and Ashfield Boys High School in loyalist east Belfast.

She was greeted there by the Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine, a former loyalist paramilitary prisoner who is now an Assembly member for east Belfast.

President McAleese and her husband also attended a display of kick-boxing in an east Belfast gym used by young people for both the protestant and catholic communities.

Her visit to Kilcooley Community Centre in Bangor followed up a visit made by the local over 50s club to her official residence in Dublin’s Phoenix Park last year.

The President said tonight her visit to loyalist areas such as Kilcooley in Bangor and Dundela in east Belfast was in recognition of the efforts to achieve reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

“It is about friendship building,” she said.

“It would be an insult to everybody’s intelligence if we were here with political agendas.

“In the past history has got in the way and politics got in the way of building friendships.

“If we are to have the seabed of a decent future it is important that these friendships are not just with people who agree with you politically or on the constitution.

“I am not coming here to turn people into Irish nationalists any more than the people from this area were trying to turn me into a unionist when they visited us last year.

“It is about people accepting who they are, that I am who I am. It is important that we have a day of good, shared and happy memories.”