SOUTH Africa's success in building national reconciliation against great odds struck a deep chord with all those who were striving for peace in Ireland, the President, Mrs Robinson, told the South African parliament in Cape Town yesterday.
The occasion attracted a large crowd of parliamentarians and visitors, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the veteran African National Congress leader, Mr Walter Sisulu, among those in the gallery.
Those seated in the house included President Nelson Mandela, the first deputy president, Mr Thabo Mbeki, the second deputy president and National Party leader, Mr F.W. de Klerk, and the Inkatha Freedom Party leader, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Mrs Robinson was introduced to the house by the Minister for Water Affairs and Forestry, Prof Kader Asmal, whom the speaker of parliament, Ms Frene Ginwala, had called to speak as "our Irish minister".
Prof Asmal described Mrs Robinson as a constitutional and human rights lawyer whose championing of women's issues and minority rights had won respect on the international stage, "where, if we are permitted to hope, she will win further greatness".
He went on to outline Ireland's role as a place of refuge and support for those who fought apartheid, including himself. Quoting Seamus Heaney, he told the parliament that the Penal Laws in Ireland had been "as scandalous in their day as the system of apartheid is in ours", and compared the policy of "to hell or Connacht to the failed homeland system of the National Party government.
Taking the podium to a standing ovation, Mrs Robinson told the parliamentarians that like South Africa, Ireland had endured a long struggle for freedom and justice.
"Our native language and the religion of the vast majority of our people were suppressed for long periods. During the darkest time from 1845 to 1850 we suffered what has become known as the Great Potato Famine, when a million of the poorest Irish died and over two million emigrated to survive. This story of colonisation, famine and dispersal of people is one mirrored in the story of many African peoples."
Ireland was a small country forming part of the European Union, she said, but its history and identity were closer in many ways to the African experience than to Europe.
It was against this background, the President said, that Ireland acquired one of the most vigorous anti apartheid movements in Europe, led by Prof Asmal and his wife Louise. Several ANC MPs and senators nodded appreciatively when Mrs Robinson referred to the Dunnes Stores strike of the 1980s, in which workers had refused to handle South African goods.
Ireland's sympathy for the African experience, Mrs Robinson said, was reflected in the large number of Irish missionaries and lay workers promoting development, and in her own visits to African countries. Ireland had been increasing the scale of its bilateral aid projects at a time when some larger developed countries were cutting back.
Mrs Robinson said she hoped trade worth £100 million to Ireland in 1994 would increase between the two countries. Referring to negotiations for a free trade deal between South Africa and the EU, the President said it was hoped that Ireland's forthcoming presidency of the European Union would help towards the signing of an agreement giving South Africa better access to European markets.