Prof Mary McAleese Discusses Ireland and Irish Life at the 'Modern Ireland's Changing Face' Event at London City Hall

Mary McAleese Professor of Irish Studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham was interviewed last night (Thursday 10th March 2016 ) at London’s City Hall by Mr Brian O’Connell, former London Editor for RTE and now Consultant Director with the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce. The theme of the event was ‘Modern Ireland’s Changing Faces’ and was arranged and hosted by the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith, whose General Manager is Colette Machin, a St Mary’s graduate. In his formal welcome Ambassador Mulhall praised the achievement of Prof McAleese in her role as President and her current presence in London, giving of her “wisdom” as part of the “global greening” of the capital in the lead up to the St Patrick’s Day’s celebration. In a well-attended Lord Mayor’s Chamber, Prof McAleese discussed many topics from her Presidency, HM the Queen and Britain’s position in the EU, to considering her country’s past and to more contemporary topics in Ireland and Irish life. Prof McAleese was candid on the darker moments from her own childhood in Ulster recounting a neighborhood shooting incident on the day of her wedding that marks her memory to this day. Prof McAleese continued to reflect on her past, highlighting her son’s comments about losing his friends to emigration in the wake of the financial crisis, and how today’s politicians might regain public trust: “public service is what they do”, she said and “moving out of long-maintained silos of tradition”. Prof McAleese spoke of Ireland’s mature sense of having become a first world country with a third world memory saying: “we never severed the umbilical cord to caring”, and developed her point by adding: “we outreached to those who were even poorer…Ireland has long had a missionary endeavor… across the Christian religions of the island…their stories were brought home to us. We identified with those poor people, their poverty was ours once, their desire to do better, to be better, was ours”. On a lighter note, speaking of the 1990’s Peace Process and the human friendship between Albert Reynolds and John Major, she compared their interactions with former Taoiseachs and Prime Ministers in the 1980’s: “The music they created was more danceable to than Haughey and Thatcher”, she quipped. In bringing the event to a close Prof McAleese was asked questions from the audience about the refugee crisis, the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland, voting in the UK referenda on EU membership, whom she most admired and felt inspired by and if she would live to see non-denominational schooling in Northern Ireland in her lifetime. Further details of the MA in Irish Studies programme can be found on the St Mary’s website, the Centre for Irish Studies Twitter account and on the Centre’s Facebook Page