Áras is no ‘retirement home’

IF we need a head of state, with all the material and other rewards that accrue to this office, we need a person who is dignified, measured in speech and sound in judgment.

Although I did not envisage it at the time of her election, Mary McAleese has fulfilled all those requirements to an admirable extent and her theme of “bridge-building” between communities in her native province of Ulster has made her, perhaps, the finest President we have ever had.

She did not inflame the nation’s wounds but poured balm on them, whenever she could, with her carefully-chosen words which represented the wishes of the majority of people in the Republic and also those in the North who had wearied of atavistic tribalism. In all of this, Martin McAleese has been her stalwart and discreet supporter.