To move from contempt to trust is a long and hard road, the President has said, in a striking description of the differing preconceptions on decommissioning.
In a speech to members of the political committee of the Reform Club in London last night on the first day of a two-day visit to Britain Mrs McAleese said: "For some what is at stake is a crucial test of the good faith of paramilitaries. But the paramilitaries themselves have taken the view that to initiate disarmament under the wrong conditions would be to accept a false characterisation of their struggle, a lop-sided historical analysis, and to take on more than their own share of responsibility for the past."
There was a longing for an end to violence in the North, and she paid tribute to the efforts of the Irish and British governments and politicians in the North in building "a culture of consensus out of the ruins of a culture of conflict".
Referring to the "friendly ghosts" of the Reform Club, including the Irish leader, Daniel O'Connell, who was one of its founders, Mrs McAleese said that while Ireland had successfully emerged from the dominant orthodoxy of its past, people must guard against developing "a new complacency of our own".
Earlier, Mrs McAleese co-hosted a lunch at St James's Palace with Prince Edward for supporters of the President's Award, Gaisce, and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme. Both schemes will host the next World Conference of the International Award Association in Northern Ireland later this year. The President also met members of the Irish Elders Forum yesterday.
Later today she will address a meeting of the Women's Irish Network at a lunch in the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel. Launched in January, it provides a forum for Irish women in Britain to network and develop business relationships and also raises funds for the Irish Youth Foundation in Britain.
After the launch, the President will return to Dublin.