The President Mrs McAleese gave a ringing endorsement to Irish membership of the EU when she addressed the Polish Institute for International Affairs here yesterday.
While refraining from advising the Poles on how to vote in their referendum this weekend, she said she hoped 25 EU members, among them 10 new countries,would turn up for the accession party in Dublin next May, the biggest historical event in Europe since the foundation of the EU.
"We hope it will be a full party - that matter lies in the hands, of course, of the Polish people in coming days."
Her host, President Aleksander Kwasniewski, replied: "If the Irish people talk about a party and big party it is necessary for the people to go. It is a very important invitation."
Indications suggest that the Polish government's pro-Europe campaign will succeed but there is doubt on whether the necessary 50 per cent turnout will be achieved.
On the first day of her state visit to Poland, Mrs McAleese, at a press conference, urged the Poles to "Go out and vote, no matter how you vote". There was a wonderful exciting decision about to be made by Poland but it was not her function to advise on it, she said. It would be presumptuous of her to do so but she knew the Irish people wanted the best for Poland and the decision lay with its people.
Having fought so hard for their democracy and to showcase their identity it would be tragic, she said, if many stayed away on referendum day and forgot the price that had been paid. It would be a huge slap in the face for the people who sacrificed their lives.
President McAleese told the Polish Institute: "We are planning a huge party in Dublin on May 1st. It is a party not to be missed." In the Royal Castle, which has only recently been fully restored after being razed to the ground by the Nazis, along with 85 per cent of the city of Warsaw, she said Ireland was proud to be part of the EU.
"There is a strong consensus in favour of this enlargement, together with a feeling of empathy with the accession countries. The Union has been good for Ireland and we believe that the candidate countries are entitled to the same opportunities we were given."
Ireland's membership, Mrs McAleese said, was a stimulus for economic group and development of society; it underpinned Irish independence and Ireland was not disappointed in its belief that it would gain more effective control over its destiny than by standing alone and on the margins.
"The EU has been a powerful engine for economic and social progress in Ireland. Without access to European markets and assistance from Europe, without the framework offered by European Union membership, our remarkable progress in recent years would have been unimaginable. An Ireland outside the European Union would have been the old Ireland of high unemployment and emigration."
Mrs McAleese addressed the Polish fear of losing national identity and cultural distinctiveness. Thirty years on, Ireland's cultural confidence and identity had never been stronger. Ireland, she told the Poles, was a good example of what could be achieved.
President McAleese earlier inspected a guard of honour drawn from the Polish army, navy and air force and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which contains soil from Poland's many battlegrounds.
She also visited the Parliament and the Senate and the completely rebuilt Old Town where she was surrounded by tourists, among them some Irish. She received a courtesy call at her hotel from the Prime Minister Mr Leczek Miller and last night she and Dr Martin McAleese were guests of honour at a state dinner in the Presidential Palace.