FOR A young teenager it was the sort of moment that could have become a source of embarrassment for years to come.
Chosen to sing Galway Bay to welcome President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina to the Hurling Club – the most vibrant of the Irish community’s institutions in Argentina – Megan Wade choked up before her distinguished audience, overcome with the emotion of the occasion.
But before she could run off the stage in tears, Mrs Higgins jumped up from her seat and gathered her in a warm hug. Then, in his address to the club, Mr Higgins suggested Megan sing again and, given a second chance, she delivered a stirring version of Molly Malone that brought the packed clubhouse to its feet.
It was a fitting end to a tour of Chile, Brazil and Argentina during which the warmth and unflagging enthusiasm of Ireland’s first couple throughout the 12 days will have helped undermine the South American stereotype of Europeans as colder and more formal than their Latin peers.
Earlier on Saturday, the last day of official engagements, the President was himself in an emotional embrace, with Fátima Rice, widow of Pat Rice, the former Irish priest turned human rights campaigner who was imprisoned and tortured by Argentina’s military dictatorship.
On trip the President has been welcomed back as an old “compañero” (comrade) from the human rights struggle during the dark decades when the region was ruled by right-wing dictatorships.
As well as Mrs Rice, the President met Isabel Allende, daughter of Salvador Allende, and Joan Turner Jara, widow of Chilean singer Víctor Jara. Salvador Allende and Víctor Jara were among the first victims of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
In several speeches on the tour Mr Higgins contrasted the region’s advances under democracy, especially in reducing poverty, with the crisis in the euro zone, saying a Europe in the grip of austerity had much to learn from South America’s recent progress.
Accompanied by Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello at the head of Ireland’s biggest trade mission to South America, the President emphasised a new official focus on the fast-growing region which he said Ireland had overlooked in the past.
The President and Mrs Higgins were due to leave for Ireland yesterday evening after some sightseeing in Buenos Aires.
