The President, Mrs McAleese, has spoken of the "outrageous" Birmingham bombings in 1974 and the subsequent trials of the Birmingham Six as part of the "indivisible story" of Ireland and Britain on the journey to the "more collegial" relationships emerging within these islands.
Mrs McAleese made the link on Saturday when she became the first President of Ireland to address the Federation of Irish Societies annual congress dinner in Birmingham. She drew a clear analogy between the experience of Irish emigrants to the west midlands of England and the peace process building "its painstaking causeway to a new and more humane future".
Referring to Birmingham's industrial boom and economic decline since the post-war period, when emigration from Ireland was at its peak, the President said: "Your people have had to face all those truths, all those difficulties which civic society cannot run away from when different groups, with different religions, ethnicities, identities, languages and looks, live side by side, cheek by jowl.
"Somehow they each need to be given their respectful place and space and somehow they have to be melded into a caring and sharing community."
Now, Ireland had reversed the tide of emigration. "It is a country of enormous cultural energy and self-belief . . . and this generation has in its own hands the tools to end poverty and bring about the fullest social inclusion our people have known," she said.
Speaking of the events of 1974, Mrs McAleese said: "This city has its own grim story to tell - part of the story of Ireland and Britain, an indivisible story of a people who experienced an outrageous bombing . . . with all the gratuitous loss of life and hope for so many lovely human beings and their families. And then the awful aftermath for the Birmingham Six and their families, and the chilling realisation of the extent of institutional as well as human frailty."
Mrs McAleese said: "The old vexed relationships within Ireland and between Ireland and Great Britain are losing their once-sharp, jarring edges. A new mature, softer and more collegial set of relationships is growing right under our noses . . . This is metamorphosis for all of us."