The President, Mrs McAleese, has urged students and graduates of her alma mater, Queen's University, Belfast, to be the "doers" rather than the cynics in society. It was the "doers" who were responsible for the Belfast Agreement, she said yesterday.
Mrs McAleese was at Queen's University to receive an honorary Doctor of Law degree. She told several hundred graduating students that this year of the Belfast Agreement has been a momentous period in the history of the island of Ireland.
"It has taken the doers, the people who had the vision and confidence to see a new future, and who had the courage to break out of the old moulds, to bring us on a journey to peace and partnership," the President added.
"Out of the mess and the chaos of a culture of conflict, with its awful raw wounds, its hatred and passion, we now have opportunities in abundance - and challenges that require fresh mind-sets and fresh perspectives," she continued.
"We now have a chance to build a new culture of consensus - a place where there is space and respect for difference and where people work in partnership for the good of all. That new culture will be built by the doers and it will take every pair of hands, every brain to build it."
Mrs McAleese said the 1,000 students graduating yesterday and today at Queen's must spurn the example of the cynics who, while offering amusement, drained people's energy. "Used well, our lives can help create the gateway to a new order of civilisation without the baggage of intolerance, scorn and negativity that are the stock-in-trade of the cynic. Your presence here today shows you are already very capable doers," she told the graduates.
Prof John Fulton, a former provice-chancellor at Queen's, said it was no surprise to her former colleagues at the university that Mrs McAleese was elected President. "Indeed, it was remarked that her election campaign was a bit like herself - energetic, committed, intelligent, stylish and successful," he said.
He praised her for making bridge-building a core task of her presidency, and said her recent attendance at the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Belgium was fitting testimony to the sincerity of her commitment. "In the last year she has given us a number of examples, none clearer than in Belgium recently, to encourage us to try to understand the past with humility and construct the future with hope," said Prof Fulton.
The President also visited the Mater Hospital, Belfast yesterday afternoon. She has a number of further engagements in the Belfast area today.
