Rousing cheers for the Irish again echoed around the Melbourne Cricket Club yesterday as the President, Mrs McAleese, followed in the footsteps of Olympic medal winner Ronnie Delaney. The President received the noisiest welcome of her Australian state visit so far when she took to the pitch, before a preliminary final of the Australian Football League, on the site of the 1956 Olympic Games.
It was also a day when a 21-gun salute and royal guard of honour greeted her in the capital, Canberra. She also attended Mass and heard a message from the Archbishop of Melbourne about the role of the Irish defending multicultural Australia. But the popular highlight of day six of the visit occurred when Mrs McAleese, who was guest of honour at the match, accepted an impromptu invitation to visit the players in their changing rooms.
The self-confessed sports fan, who called Australian rules football the first cousin of Gaelic football, was cheered wildly as she crossed the pitch after visiting the West Coast Eagles.
Unfortunately, she didn't bring them any luck as they were beaten by the home team, the Western Bulldogs, by 70 points. She didn't speak at the event but it was typical of the positive reception she has received around Australia. The day began more quietly at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne for the special Mass to celebrate the Irish contribution to Australia and unveil a plaque to a restored statue to Daniel O'Connell.
In his homily, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr George Pell, gave a passionate defence of the politically-sensitive issue of multiculturalism and how the Irish should support it. He said Irish convicts and migrants in the 19th century were an often despised and feared enemy as they resisted the efforts of the English majority to build another Britain in the south. And he warned against the use of the term Anglo-Celt by many white Australians, as it could be used to exclude either Aborigines or Asian-Australians from feeling at home and fully belonging.
Afterwards the President said there were lessons for Ireland in how Australians had learned to live together, citing a Catholic secondary school in Melbourne with pupils from 100 nationalities as an example.
Over the weekend the President used both a visit to a Gaelic athletic club, where she turned a sod for new dressing rooms, and an Irish-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry ball, to thank the scattered Irish family for their cultural and financial gifts. At the Gaelic Park club on the outskirts of Melbourne, where she was met by a pipe band, she stirred up some homesick emotions by saying its members could take pride in what they had achieved.
Again, as she has in clubs and gatherings around Australia, she moved people to tears with her talk of the pain of migration and the renaissance of "the old country".
At the gala ball the effect was the same as she thanked the mainly prosperous audience for those who, over the years, had sent back their hard-earned dollars to help Ireland grow.
Prof Jarlath Ronayne, vicechancellor of Victoria University, who conferred an honorary degree on the President on Friday, said she had been getting a marvellous welcome.
He quoted a senior politician who had told him: "If we could get someone to be our President and go and bang the drum for Australia the way she has for Ireland, we'd be doing very well."