Manchester's respect for diversity offered an important message to Northern Ireland "struggling to maintain" the impetus of the Belfast Agreement, the President, Mrs McAleese, said yesterday.
At the start of a two-day official visit to Manchester and Salford, Mrs McAleese acknowledged the "untold pain" caused to people's lives by the IRA's bombing of Manchester's commercial district in 1996.
Praising Manchester's response to the Irish community after the bombing, she said: "The whole issue of stereotyping, of blaming people who were quite blameless, was not allowed to happen here". Manchester's support for its many ethnic groups, including the Irish, was "synonymous with acceptance or respect for diversity".
This approach could offer an important message for Northern Ireland "which is still struggling with a very simple issue of diversity. It's not dealing with extraordinary diversity, but a very narrow form of diversity. It's also struggling to try and maintain the impetus derived from the Good Friday agreement."
At a reception in Manchester Town Hall last night, the President inaugurated the city's Irish Festival, the largest of its kind in Britain. Earlier, she visited the Irish World Heritage Centre where she launched a website, www.iwhc.com, for the centre's new £15 million Irish World Heritage Complex.
The President also introduced the centre's Irish Emigrant Book of Honour, which is intended as a personal record of the history of Irish emigrants. Mr Michael Forde, chairman of the Irish World Heritage Centre, said people would be invited to write their family's emigration history on one page of the book.
Mrs McAleese met members of the Irish Community Care Manchester Group. The voluntary organisation offers support for the elderly Irish community. It also runs educational and social services advice groups for the Travelling community and young Irish people.
The President also met the Ireland and Manchester United footballer, Denis Irwin, during her visit to the centre, before travelling to the £80 million Lowry complex, an exhibition and theatre venue in Salford.
Today she will receive an honorary doctorate of laws from Manchester Metropolitan University and attend a Chamber of Commerce lunch.