The Buddhist way at the end
Perhaps one of the most telling testimonies to the Buddhist approach to living and dying - and the approach of the wider hospice movement to this most taboo of subjects - is evident in a passage from Peter Cornish's account of his beloved wife's death.
In a booklet that was published to commemorate President McAleese's visit, he describes how staff at the hospice had sought to facilitate their wishes.
"How sad and lonely and bereft we would have felt had Harriet died in a cold grey ward, had a sheet pulled quickly over her face and been wheeled away to the fridge," he writes.
He describes how staff came to visit at various intervals, some of them in tears and finding that they kept making excuses to visit, "and all of them saying that they couldn't believe the peace in that room".
"Even the doctors were moved. Perhaps I expected them to be case-hardened and taut," he continues.
"A slightly embarrassed woman doctor thanked me. She turned away and then came back. She put her hand on my shoulder and, with tears running down her cheeks, she said: 'Harriet has shown us that there is another way to die. It's as though I've been asleep all my life'."