The President, Mrs McAleese, paid tribute to her rival in the presidential election, Ms Mary Banotti, as a great European and a great Irishwoman, when she announced yesterday that the MEP had won Ireland's 1997 European of the Year Award.
Ms Banotti, who has been nominated for the award several times, replied: "It is enormously emotional for me. I've been the bridesmaid here so many times, it's great to be the bride!"
The event was introduced by Mr Alan Dukes TD, chairman of the European Movement, at a lunch in Dublin attended by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Lord Mayor, Mr John Stafford, Ministers, ambassadors, other members of the diplomatic corps, and MEPs including Mr John Hume.
Ms Banotti said that a large part of the warmth she felt on winning the award was on behalf of the European Parliament itself. When she was a candidate for the Presidency, she got the impression from her colleagues in the Parliament that she was their candidate.
Her vision of Europe was one which kept power at the lowest appropriate level possible and referred to a higher level only when it could be shown to be necessary.
She saw no difficulty for all the countries and ancient civilisations of Europe maintaining their diversity within a European Union. "There is no threat to our diversity," she stressed.
They were on the threshold of an exciting step in the life of Europe. Integration did not mean loss of identity, it meant working together on elements of our lives which we chose to deal with on a continent-wide basis.
Ms Banotti ended by saying it was the second proudest day of her life, as she had said when she was nominated for the Presidency that that was her proudest day.
The President, announcing the award, said the winner was a person particularly well known to her, from a particularly arduous period. She described Ms Banotti as a remarkable representative for Ireland in the European Parliament, who had brought Europe to Ireland and Ireland to Europe.
She recalled that "Mary has taken some historic stands, many well documented, others less so, but worth being reminded of."
Some would remember the threat to that great "essential", the naggin of whiskey. "Just as it was about to be metricated by some Eurocrats who obviously have no appreciation for the finer things in life - Mary stepped in and saved the day."
She owed a great debt to Ms Banotti, she said, for her great work in saving chocolate from extinction when, again, some Europedant with a fixation on chemical elements was about to give it an unrecognisable, if not a seriously unpalatable, name.