When was mary mcaleese born

After leaving office in she spent the following year living in a student community in Rome The Lay Centre sharing everyday life with Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox, Catholic Eastern Rite and Catholic students. She is chair of the Von Hugel Institute at St. Search for:. Leadership Dr. 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 mobilise the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.

McAleese won the Presidency with In the second and final count against Banotti, she won On 11 November , she was inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland. Within weeks of this she made her first official overseas trip to Lebanon. 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.

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 , 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.

In an interview in she said that Law told her he was "sorry for Catholic Ireland to have you as President" and went on to insult a junior minister who was accompanying the then president. At this point, a heated argument ensued between the two, according to McAleese. McAleese's initial seven-year term of office ended in November , but she had announced on 14 September that she would stand for a second term in the 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 high 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.

On 27 January , 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.

These remarks provoked outrage among unionist politicians. McAleese later apologised, conceding that her comments had been unbalanced because she had criticised only the sectarianism found on one side of the community. 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 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 later met the Pope and embarked on other official duties, including a trip to St. She paid a seven-day visit to Hollywood in December alongside Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Film Board on a mission to promote the Irish film and television industry.

A reception held in her honour was attended by Ed Begley, Jr. She later met the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Forbes named her among the hundred most powerful women in the world later that year. McAleese undertook an official two-day visit to London on 28—29 February , where she visited the site of the Summer Olympics and was guest of honour at the Madejski Stadium for a rugby union match between London Irish and Harlequin F.

She began an official visit to New York City for several days, on 16 May She began by appearing at an Irish Voice event in honour of life science. She was also present at St. On 22 May , she delivered the keynote address at Fordham University's th Commencement. She opened the Bloom Festival, Ireland's largest gardening show, on 3 June , acknowledging an improved interest in gardening in Ireland, particularly among younger people.

McAleese was born on June 27, , in Belfast and is the first president to come from Northern Ireland. The eldest of nine children, McAleese grew up in Northern Ireland through the violent times that have come to be known as The Troubles. She graduated in law from the Queen's University of Belfast in and was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in In , she became the first female pro-vice chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast.

She has a longstanding interest in many issues concerned with justice, equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation. Prior to being elected as president, McAleese worked as a director of Channel 4 Television, the director of Northern Ireland Electricity, and as a delegate to the White House Conference on Trade and Investment in Ireland and its follow-up Pittsburg conference in All Speakers Speeches Political ads.

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