McAleeses conferred with honorary doctorates at DCU
President Mary McAleese and her husband Dr Martin McAleese have been jointly conferred with honorary doctorates from Dublin City University.
The honour has been awarded in recognition of their role in peace-building in Ireland.
Speaking at the ceremony, President McAleese described the Good Friday Agreement as a common vision which promotes good, neighbourly partnerships.
DCU president Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski praised the Ulster-born Catholics for tireless efforts to build bridges with the Protestant loyalist community in the North.
“They have devoted themselves to forging friendships among historic foes, and over the last 10 years they have made their Áras an Uachtarain residence a welcoming house where these new friendships could develop and prosper,” Prof von Prondzynski said.
Prof Prondzynski spoke of the last year’s 12th of July commemoration at Aras an Uachtarain on the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, which is celebrated by unionists and loyalists.
“This event was is in itself an historic and symbolic development of the process of peace and reconciliation,” he explained.
Mrs McAleese urged DCU’s graduating students to apply their talents to help heal the “sometimes-savage” world.
“This is the teamwork that needs your skills, talents, hearts and hands to make things better, to heal what history wounded, to consolidate the peace, renew and refresh the prosperity, to make Ireland the best it can be and to generate in our ill-divided and sometimes savage world a relentless momentum for the full social, political and economic inclusion of each human being.”
Dr Martin McAleese said his Catholic family was forced out of East Belfast when he was 20 and his childhood memories were tinged by an atmosphere of fear, intimidation and sectarianism.
“I am honoured today but this honour is much more than about me. It is as much about all those courageous men and women from communities in Northern Ireland from whom Mary and I and our nationalist community were estranged from for so long.
“Men and women who took a chance on us and whom we are now able to regard as friends,” he added.
He told students: “A vitally important part of this phase will be your ability to form and sustain good relationships with a whole host of people in a whole range of circumstances.
“Good relationships are the bread and butter of a good life.”
