McAleese visits Belfast

President Mary McAleese was today making her first official visit to Belfast since apologising for controversial comments about anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland.

The Belfast-born President had to pull plans to visit a primary school on the loyalist Shankill Road after she compared the prejudice of Nazis against the Jews with those who raised their children to hate Catholics in Northern Ireland.

The comments, made as ceremonies marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, angered unionists who claimed they were clearly directed at the Protestant community.

Mrs McAleese later said she regretted the comments she made in a radio interview and realised sectarianism was a shared problem.

The President is due to visit Belfast City Hospital, a community centre in Hannahstown on the outskirts of west Belfast and St Malachy’s College in the north of the city today.

She had hoped to go to Edenbrooke Primary School on the Shankill Road but earlier this week changed her plan amid fears that her presence might spark protests.

The decision was welcomed by Ulster Unionist councillor Chris McGimpsey who believed she would eventually be able to visit the area.

He said: “I think it would not have been sensible for her to come right now because I don’t feel it would have helped the cause of reconciliation.

“The time is not right just now but when the thing has resolved a little, that would be the time to reissue an invitation.”

President McAleese and her husband Martin have reached out to loyalist communities in recent years, inviting local leaders to their official residence in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

Last February, she met Assembly member David Ervine, the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party which is linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando during a visit to east Belfast.

The President has also met the political representatives of the Ulster Defence Association.

During last February’s visit she also attended a Presbyterian church service in Holywood, Co Down, and met pensioners in a loyalist community in Bangor.