This relationship was further strengthened by a visit from the President of Ireland Mary McAleese between 14 and 16 June 2006 on her speech about the long standing relationship with Lesotho and shared history between both nations.

While earlier presidents were exceptionally cautious in delivering speeches and on almost every occasion submitted them for vetting, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese have made much more use of their right to speak without government approval, with Mary McAleese doing many live radio and television interviews.

McAleese won the Presidency with 45. 2 % of first preference votes.

McAleese meets with President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.

He was honoured with a state funeral which was attended by the President of Ireland Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, former Taoisigh John Bruton, Albert Reynolds and Charles Haughey, and various political persons from all parties.

However, Reynolds was still interested in being a candidate for the presidency, along with two other candidates, Michael O ' Kennedy and Mary McAleese.

Although Renyolds won the first round of voting with a comfortable margin, supporters of O ' Kennedy backed McAleese.

She came third with 13. 8 % of the first-preference vote, ahead of the Labour Party candidate, but well behind Fine Gael and the victorious Fianna Fáil nominee, Mary McAleese.

In the second round, McAleese won, with 62 votes to Reynolds's 48.

However, nominations closed at noon on 1 October and the incumbent president, Mary McAleese, who had nominated herself in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, was the only person nominated.

Thomas McAleese ( alias Dean Ford ) was the lead singer of The Marmalade who had a U. K. number one single in 1969 with a cover of The Beatles ' ' Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da '.

On 21 October 1998, President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, visited the school and met with pupils.

While his wife served as President of Ireland, McAleese initiated a series of meetings with senior loyalist paramilitary leaders to pursue peace negotiations.

* 12 December – Bill Clinton, President of the United States, arrives in Dublin beginning what will be his last international trip as President and meets with President McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and gives a speech in Dundalk.

* 2004: Travel to Argentina and Chile with the President of Ireland Mary McAleese.

However that claim was disputed by among others Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland, in their accounts of meetings with him in 2003.

Anthony Trollope was further remembered in the village with the launch of the Historic Trollope Trail by President Mary McAleese in September 2008.

Crawley's major set-piece interviews with leading cultural figures before live audiences include: the Nobel laureates Seamus Heaney and Amartya Sen, the political activist Noam Chomsky, the last Irish President Mary McAleese, her predecessor Mary Robinson, politicians Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, the writers John Banville, Edna O ' Brien, Alexander McCall Smith, Michael Longley and Ian Rankin, the film-maker Ken Russell, former hostage and writer Brian Keenan, musicians Phil Coulter and Brian Kennedy, the historian Roy Foster, and the rugby legend Jack Kyle.

Visitors to Omagh have included Queen Elizabeth II, Charles, Prince of Wales, former US president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, Irish president Mary McAleese, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

President Mary McAleese | McAleese greets US President Barack Obama | Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at Áras an Uachtaráin on 23 May 2011.

Honorary degrees have been received by many famed individuals including former President of the United States Bill Clinton, former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, poet Seamus Heaney, writers Seamus Deane, Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness and Colm Tóibín, activists May Blood and Aung San Suu Kyi, actors Amanda Burton and Ewan McGregor, racehorse trainer Vincent O ' Brien, bishops Seán Brady, Robin Eames, James Mehaffey, Edward Daly and Desmond Tutu, singers Enya, Van Morrison and Tommy Makem, politician John Hume, biotechnologist Charles Hamner, politicians and writers Garrett Fitzgerald and Conor Cruise O ' Brien, US lawyer John Connorton, US diplomat Jim Lyons, Gaelic football player Peter Canavan, rugby player David Humphreys, golfers Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell, last governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten and triple jumper Jonathan Edwards.

In 2004, Fine Gael supported the re-election of President Mary McAleese.

Between 1990 and 2010, both Robinson and her successor President McAleese ( 1997 – 2011 ) visited the Palace on numerous occasions, while senior royals-the Prince of Wales, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh all visited both Presidents of Ireland at Áras an Uachtaráin.

President McAleese, who is herself the first President of Ireland to have been born in Northern Ireland, continued on from President Robinson in this regard.

* November 11 – Mary McAleese is elected the 8th President of Ireland in succession to Mary Robinson, the first time in the world that one woman has succeeded another as elected head of state.

** Mary McAleese, 8th President of Ireland

The Dublin games were also the first to have their own opening and closing ceremonies broadcast live, performed by President of Ireland Mary McAleese.

The opening ceremony of the 2003 Games has been described by President of Ireland Mary McAleese as " a time when Ireland was at its superb best ".

The project was launched by President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, in Lifford and involves the restoration of of canal and two locks to working order.

The Chancellor is former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and there are five Pro-Chancellors: Dr Patrick J Molloy, and Professors Dermot McAleese, John Scattergood, David Spearman and Petros Florides.

In tributes, President Mary McAleese said " He was involved in every facet of policy-making that paved the way to a new, modern Ireland.

Mary Patricia McAleese (; née Leneghan ; ; born 27 June 1951 ) served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011.

McAleese is the first President of Ireland to have come from either Northern Ireland or Ulster.

The first individual born in Northern Ireland to become President of Ireland, President McAleese was a regular visitor to Northern Ireland throughout her presidency, where she was on the whole warmly welcomed by both communities, confounding critics who had believed she would be a divisive figure.

In March 1998, President McAleese announced that she would officially celebrate the Twelfth of July as well as Saint Patrick's Day, recognising the day's importance among Ulster Protestants.

In March 2011, President McAleese invited Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom to make a state visit to the Republic of Ireland.

In past media interviews, prior to the Queen's visit, President McAleese had stated on several occasions that the highlight of her presidency to date was the opening ceremony of the 2003 Special Olympics World Games which she describes as " a time when Ireland was at its superb best ".

An inspection of the Eastern Reserve Brigade Guard of Honour by President Mary McAleese on the 93rd anniversary of the Easter Rising on O ' Connell Street in Dublin

It was attended by President Mary McAleese, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, members of the Oireachtas, many from the world of politics, industry and business.

The hurley is often given as a gift to or between politicians, for example, Mary and Martin McAleese were given two when she was awarded the freedom of Kilkenny in 2009, and Barack Obama was given one by Enda Kenny on his visit to Ireland in 2011.

But in other instances, Mary McAleese has been criticised for certain comments, such as a reference to the way in which Protestant children in Northern Ireland had been brought up to hate Catholics just as German children had been encouraged to hate Jews under the Nazi regime, on 27 January 2005, following her attendance at the ceremony commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp .< ref >

Recent speakers at the LSE have included Kofi Annan, Hilary Benn, Ben Bernanke, Tony Blair, Hazel Blears, Cherie Booth, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Noam Chomsky, Bill Clinton, Alistair Darling, Niall Ferguson, Joschka Fischer, Vicente Fox, Milton Friedman, Muammar al-Gaddafi, John Lewis Gaddis, Alan Greenspan, Tenzin Gyatso, Will Hutton, Paul Krugman, Richard Lambert, Jens Lehmann, Lee Hsien Loong, John Major, Nelson Mandela, Mary McAleese, Dmitri Medvedev, John Atta Mills, Mario Monti, George Osborne, Robert Peston, Sebastián Piñera, Kevin Rudd, Jeffrey Sachs, Gerhard Schroeder, Carlos D. Mesa, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Costas Simitis, George Soros, Lord Stern, Jack Straw, Aung San Suu Kyi, Baroness Thatcher, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rowan Williams.

McAleese undertook an official two-day visit to London on 28 – 29 February 2010, where she visited the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics and was guest of honour at the Madejski Stadium for a rugby union match between London Irish and Harlequin F. C.

Its first legal advisor was Mary McAleese, Reid Professor of Law at Trinity College, Dublin, future President of Ireland ; she served as legal advisor from 1975 to 1979, when she left her professorial position to join RTÉ.

Dermot McAleese, emeritus professor of economics at Trinity College, Dublin, says that the emergence of the Progressive Democrats in 1985 may have had a more positive influence on the economy than some recognise.

The Irish general election of 2002 was held on Friday, 17 May 2002 just over three weeks after the dissolution of the 28th Dáil on Thursday 25 April by President Mary McAleese, at the request of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

In 2011, Maureen O ' Hara was formally inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame at an event in New Ross, County Wexford, receiving letters from Mary McAleese and Bill Clinton.

On 1 June 2003, she received her Warrant of Appointment as Irish Ombudsman and Information Commissioner from the then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, at Áras an Uachtaráin.

President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, arrives to unveil a statue depicting The Flight of the Earls at Rathmullan on 4 September 2007.

The President of Ireland Mary McAleese unveiled a statue depicting the Flight at Rathmullan.

Before his inauguration he and his family met his predecessor Mary McAleese and her husband Martin for lunch at Áras an Uachtaráin on 3 November.

Irish President Mary McAleese said Ronnie Drew had brought great pleasure to people at home and abroad and had re-energised and refreshened Ireland's unique musical heritage whilst the Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen described him as " iconic ".

President Mary McAleese said that the events were " an attack on the very foundations of human dignity " and left the people of Ireland " sad, shocked, sickened, grieving, disbelieving, outraged, frightened all at once.

President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern represent the Irish people at his funeral.

* 8 December – President Mary McAleese meets Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle.

It was used most recently at the 2004 inauguration of the eighth president of Ireland, Mary McAleese.

On 28 March 2006 Mary McAleese, President of Ireland since 1997, spoke at the school.

In 1998 he accepted the Directorship of the world's first Centre of advanced research in Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen ( the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies ), which was formally inaugurated by President Mary McAleese of Ireland on St Andrew's Day 1999.