President feeling `great' after ski accident

The President, Mrs McAleese, has dismissed concerns for her health following her skiing accident in the French Alps just before Christmas.

Speaking in public for the first time since the December 20th accident, which resulted in her briefly being fitted with a neck support, Mrs McAleese told The Irish Times she had no continuing ill-effects.

She said she was "great - great, thank goodness". Asked if there were any ill-effects, she replied: "No, not one. No ill-effects at all, thank God."

The President was making a return visit to Temple Street Children's Hospital to visit seven-year-old Tina Sheridan, who has cystic fibrosis. Mrs McAleese first met Tina, from Ballymun in Dublin, on a visit to the hospital last November.

"We took a shine to each other," she said, in answer to reporters' questions after she had enjoyed some minutes in private with Tina, accompanied by her husband, Martin. Tina was accompanied by her mother, Ms Debbie Paget.

"And we wrote to one another, didn't we?" asked Mrs McAleese.

"Did you get my card?" asked Tina, who was relieved to hear the President say she "did indeed, and I got your letters - I got one from your mammy too".

"She hasn't smiled so much in weeks - she is a real poser," quipped Ms Paget as Tina smiled at the cameras and declared she felt "like a model".

Chatting to Mrs McAleese, Tina said she had been to a Boyzone concert since they last met and had been photographed with Ronan Keating.

"His hair was spiky, I didn't like it," she said.

Later, a spokeswoman for the President said there had never been any intention to keep the accident a secret. "It would have been different if she was hospitalised but the fact that she bumped into someone on the ski slope is not the sort of thing you send out a press release about."