The visit by the Dalai Lama gave encouragement to peacemakers at a time when hope was being rekindled in Northern Ireland, the President, Mrs McAleese, told a conference on Saturday in Belfast's City Hall.
Addressing the Dalai Lama and delegates at the final day of the Way of Peace conference, organised by the World Community for Christian Meditation, Mrs McAleese said the task remained difficult. "But that's all that it is, just difficult, it's not impossible."
Mrs McAleese thanked the Dalai Lama for the "joyful curiosity and compassion" he displayed during his three-day visit to Northern Ireland. Jokingly, she said she hoped the spiritual leader of Tibet had not been asked whether he was a Catholic Buddhist or a Protestant Buddhist during his visit to the city.
Many things had changed for the better since the Belfast Agreement, delegates were told. "Above all there has been a dwindling away of violence and a growing from seed of the culture of consensus; we celebrate those changes as proof of how far we have all come on this way of peace," she said.
"Too many conflicts arise because we simply lose sight of the basic humanity of the other, the humanity that binds us together as a human family".
The Yes vote in the referendums had been "the beginning of trust". "We are rediscovering our suppressed shared heritage, of which there is a lot," she said.
People in Northern Ireland possessed the capacity to transcend anger, hurt and vengeance.
The Dalai Lama responded to Mrs McAleese's speech by saying with a smile, "whatever she has said is definitely true and I endorse it".
He said he found it incredible that people of two Christian faiths should have such deep divisions.
"I think it's very foolish . . . If somebody said Buddhism and Christianity, then we have to think there are big differences, but not between Protestant and Catholic.
"While we are pursuing the path of peace we are bound to encounter difficulties, challenges and obstacles but we should never lose hope," he said.
"The final outcome really lies in the hands of the people of Northern Ireland themselves."