President McAleese will today lay a wreath at ground zero in memory of the 2,830 people who died in the attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11th.
The President's visit comes at a poignant time for the rescue workers who have been sifting through the rubble searching for bodies for over six months.
The remains of 11 firefighters and two civilians were found in the last 24 hours as workers reached the lobby of the south tower. This area is one of the last to be excavated as it supported a temporary roadway for trucks into the site that has recently been replaced by a steel bridge.
Mrs McAleese will then visit the almost-completed Irish Famine Memorial two blocks away. The memorial, a recreation of a deserted Irish field and cottage, was scheduled for opening this week but work was delayed by the September 11th attacks and it will not now be ready until mid June, said architect Brian Tolle yesterday.
One million pounds of concrete from 86 trucks were to have been poured for the base of the memorial on September 12th, with planting shortly afterwards, but all work stopped for several weeks, Mr Tolle said. The field will now be planted later this month with indigenous grasses, gorse, blackthorn, heather, sedges, rushes, bluebells, poppies and many other varieties of Irish plant life.
The support structure for the sloping field will include fossilised limestone from Kilkenny and glass, behind which will be incorporated a significant design change, a non-permanent text which "can reflect changing attitudes towards hunger," Mr Tolle said.
On Saturday Mrs McAleese will attend the 241st New York St Patrick's Day Parade, marking the first time an Irish President has spent the national day outside the country. An exception was made this year to show Ireland's solidarity with New York in the wake of the attacks.
The parade will bring the uniformed masses of New York firemen and police onto the streets for the first time since September 11th - apart from funerals - and bigger crowds than ever are expected to turn out to show their support for bodies with traditional high levels of Irish and Irish-American membership.
Mrs McAleese will also attend a St Patrick's Day breakfast with Mayor Michael Bloomberg where officials are planning to present her with an Irish flag recovered from the ruins of ground zero.