The transition from a culture of conflict to that of peace and prosperity was closer than ever before in the history of Ireland, President McAleese said yesterday.
The current generation was being offered "a mosaic of quite amazing opportunities", she said in an address to the Ulster Society of Chartered Accountants in Belfast.
She said there was "an evolving peace process, the prospect of long-term comfortable inter-communal relationships, collegial and genial cross-Border relationships, mature, consensus-orientated inter-island relationships".
Mrs McAleese said there was a chance to put the shared island on the map for inward investors and tourists, "to create synergies between our respective indigent business sectors, to send fleets of consumer goods both ways across the Border, to spread the benign embrace of jobs and prosperity widely as never before".
The President added: "The transition from a culture of conflict with all its wastefulness and woundedness to a culture of peace, prosperity and consensus is unfolding little by little.
"The surge of energy we set out with at the start of the journey is not easy to sustain at Good Friday levels. But one thing we can say with certainty is that we are closer to that destination than ever before in our shared histories".