US First Lady to become the first free-woman of Galway next week

Nora Barnacle, Lady Gregory, Siobhan McKenna, Garry Hynes and a host of others may deserve it, but Hillary Clinton is due to become the first free-woman of Galway city on Wednesday morning.

Since Dr Douglas Hyde, the State's first President, was granted the key in 1939, the city burghers have chosen to honour men. The majority have been churchmen, like Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Paulo Evaristo of Brazil and, of course, the former Galway bishop, Dr Michael Browne, after whom the Taj Micheal, otherwise known as the cathedral, is named.

Some might say the Corporation has been shamed into it, as it was only after Mrs Clinton accepted NUI Galway's invitation to open the university's millennium lecture series (and receive an honorary degree) that the freedom charter was also confirmed. For security reasons, both engagements will take place on the campus, after which Mrs Clinton will leave for Belfast.

Given the international context, security arrangements are expected to be tight. At least one anti-war protest has been planned. The president of NUI Galway, Dr Patrick Fottrell, who issued the invitation long before Kosovo became a household word, accepts that the welcome will be tempered.

"We are a democracy. People have the right to voice their views," he said.

Only the week before last, a small silent protest was staged when the Galway campus hosted the travelling Vietnam war memorial. The ad-hoc local group was objecting to what it perceived to be the lack of recognition for the "forgotten" victims of the Vietnam conflict - ordinary citizens.

It was a 20-second conversation during her previous Irish visit that led to Mrs Clinton's decision to come to Galway - although the university's president also pays tribute to the influence of two leading US politicians - Senator Chris Dodd, a member of the US Foreign Relations Committee, who has a house in Roundstone, and is part of the Irish caucus in the US Senate, and the US Secretary of Education, Mr Richard Riley, who opened the new Irish Centre for Human Rights at the university during the Clinton's Limerick/Ballybunion visit last year.

Dr Fottrell has his own close ties with the US, both professionally and through members of his family, and maintains his research links with Harvard University in Boston. He says he has a "great personal admiration" for the Clintons and "for what they have been trying to do". He would compare their administration to that of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, particularly in the area of health care and social security.

"The health issue in the US is still major, with about a quarter of the population still uninsured. The Clintons tried to tackle it and lost, but there seems to be a rethink among the Republicans who originally opposed it now."

While acknowledging that the US has still not signed the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Dr Fottrell says that Mrs Clinton's own record on children's rights and human rights generally has been very impressive. Her speech criticising China's record at the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 was "courageous", he said. The US First Lady has also been a great admirer of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, he adds. In a speech to the UN in December, 1997, Mrs Clinton referred to "how lucky the UN" and "the world" was to have Mrs Robinson filling the post.

Mrs Clinton will speak next Wednesday at the university on the theme of peace, in a speech entitled: "Our obligations to each other - continuing the quest for peace." It is expected that the speech will also refer to Northern Ireland.

Three other prominent figures have also confirmed participation in the lecture series - Mrs Robinson, on May 20th; Senator, George Mitchell, on July 8th, and Seamus Heaney, on September 16th. The President, Mrs McAleese, will attend a gala banquet to mark the university's 150th anniversary on October 30th.