Former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, to Speak on “Ireland: Religion and Gender in Its Present and Future”
Mary McAleese, former president
of IrelandContact:
Gwen O’Brien
Director of Media Relations
Saint Mary’s College
(574) 284-4579
April 8, 2015 (Notre Dame, Ind.)— Saint Mary’s College is proud to host Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland, for a conversation titled “Ireland: Religion and Gender in Its Present and Future” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14 in Carroll Auditorium, Madeleva Hall. The event, sponsored by the College’s Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership (CWIL) and the Ireland Study Abroad Program, is free and open to the public. Karen Chambers, director of the Ireland Program and associate professor of psychology, will facilitate the conversation. Click for a campus map.
This spring, McAleese is part of the University of Notre Dame faculty as Distinguished Martin and Carmel Visiting Scholar in the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.
“I am delighted to host Mary McAleese on campus,” said Elaine Meyer-Lee, director of CWIL. “As the first women president in the world to succeed another woman president, and a trailblazer in many other ways, Professor McAleese is a great model of leadership for our students. She will share stories of using the moral authority of her position, awareness of the importance of symbols, and commitment to relationships to create positive influence, inclusion, and healing. These are lessons that are easily transferable to what it takes to make a difference effectively anywhere in today’s complex and interdependent world.”
McAleese served two terms as the eighth president of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. As a Catholic woman living in Northern Ireland, and the first Irish president born in Northern Ireland, she said she was a “double outsider.” In a country where religion, education, government, and politics often intersect, the theme of her 14-year presidency was building bridges across difficult cultural divides. Her moral compass was the Gospel message from Jesus to simply love one another.
“We must not always be captivated by the voices of the past, but listen to the voices of the future, our grandchildren asking, ‘what did you do to make things better?’ I try to listen to the voices of the future,” said McAleese, a prominent advocate of reconciliation and peace building in Northern Ireland.
Between the late 1960s and 1990s, violence afflicted Northern Ireland. In a time known as the Troubles, Catholic nationalists seeking independence from Britain clashed with Protestant unionists loyal to the crown. The conflict claimed more than 3,500 lives. The Good Friday Agreement, a peace deal struck in 1998 and during McAleese’s presidency, established a power-sharing government in Belfast, which included political forces on both sides of the conflict. The agreement spelled out the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and between Britain and the Republic of Ireland, as well as the status and system of government of Northern Ireland within Britain.
McAleese had a unique life experience and an ability to see all sides.
“I think the peace process had an immediacy and urgency for me given my background, coming from Belfast, from Ardoyne, a flashpoint area in the Troubles with the highest density of sectarian murders in all of Northern Ireland,” McAleese said. “I lived in the Protestant-loyalist working class and, later, the lower middle class part of Ardoyne, not the working class Catholic part of Ireland where my maternal grandparents lived. That gave me a broader experience than many of my contemporaries. So from early on, I had, unwittingly, access to the mindset of both sides. I think that was an enormous asset of insight and probably empathy,” McAleese explained.
McAleese may also talk about her personal views as a Catholic woman including her support of gay marriage and the ordination of women as well as her support of the rights of the unborn.
About Saint Mary’s College: Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., is a four-year, Catholic, residential, women’s liberal arts college offering five bachelor’s degrees and more than 30 major areas of study, such as business, nursing, art, chemistry, and social work. By the fall of 2015 Saint Mary’s College will offer two graduate degrees: a Master of Science and a Doctorate. All programs that fall under these degrees are co-educational and include a Master of Science in Data Science, a Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology, and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice. Founded in 1844 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Saint Mary’s College’s mission is to educate students, develop their talents, and prepare them to make a difference in the world. Saint Mary’s College ranks among the top 100 Best National Liberal Arts Colleges for 2015 published by U.S. News & World Report.