There is understandable "jitteriness" about the Northern Ireland peace process given the rapid pace of change during the past year, the President said yesterday on the final day of her two-day visit to Liverpool.
Mrs McAleese said it was "perfectly normal and natural" that people felt nervousness and tentativeness about the peace process because no one could have predicted where it would be today.
But it was important there was very clear evidence that progress was being made.
Energy and determination would nudge the process forward "so I am not worried about that", Mrs McAleese said.
She said the British Prime Minister's visit to Dublin today, the commemoration in Messines of Irish men who were killed during the first World War and the newly erected memorial to Irish Famine victims in Liverpool were evidence of the progress in British-Irish relations.
The Irish and British governments were working to a common purpose and had established a "mature, collegial partnership", and what better vehicle to underline that progress than Mr Blair's address to the Oireachtas.
"There is an indication that we are creating a new territory and a new ground, and people are prepared to walk on it, and when walking on it we are not walking on air but solid ground, and it is exactly as it should be because we are crafting a new history," said the President.