McAleese pays tribute to women who helped to bring lasting peace

The role played by women in winning the peace in Northern Ireland has been celebrated by Irish president Mary McAleese.

It was no coincidence the political process was built at a time when women were becoming more involved in civic society, she told delegates at a special conference yesterday highlighting female contribution to Belfast life.

But the president said women in the city of her birth still had to overcome some historic barriers before being treated as equals.

“The real seed-bedding of the peace process, a process designed to restore to daily prominence the most decent of human virtues — tolerance, forgiveness, respect, equality, fairness — was done by a massive volunteer army whose quiet, unseen work in their homes, streets and communities, changed the thinking and changed the future,” she told an audience at the Belfast Harbour Commissioner’s office. “Women have been central to that work. They still are. They deserve to be celebrated.”

She singled out peace campaigners and Nobel Laureates Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams for particular praise.

She also outlined the problems she faced entering the male-dominated legal profession four decades ago. “In this city I first said out loud that I wanted to become a lawyer,” she recalled.

“The next words I heard were ‘You can’t — you are a woman.’ No-one hears those words today in Belfast. They hear them in many other parts of the world but not here and never again here.

“All over this island, where women’s life chances were reduced by a culture of misogynistic bias for generations, we flew on one wing.

“Now we have the chance to fly on two wings and to get the velocity, altitude and focused direction which will reveal to the coming generations what this city and this island could be like when its people work with each other as partners and as equals, men and women, in the fullest freedom and in this miraculous peace.”

She added: “Let’s celebrate the women who got us to this point and encourage those who will complete the journey to the best Belfast ever.”

The reception — entitled ‘Celebrate the Role of Women in Belfast’ — was hosted by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Tom Hartley.

“Women are the backbone of family life and the cornerstone of society — participating at every level,” the Sinn Fein man said.

“Every one of you is making a valuable contribution to the life of our great city.”

Earlier, the president met pupils at Victoria College, Belfast, as part of the school’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

Belfast Telegraph