Independent senator wins European of the Year award

It could be argued that, in Europe, Ireland found itself as a nation, the winner of the European of the Year award, Independent Senator Maurice Hayes, said in Dublin yesterday.

Sponsored by Aer Rianta, the award was presented by the President, Mrs McAleese, on behalf of the European Movement - Ireland.

"There is a generation of young people who do not remember what it was like not to be in Europe - what it was like to be poor," said Mr Hayes, who chairs the National Forum on Europe. For those who survived the second World War, the new Europe was "a prize well worth the pooling of sovereignty, the submergence of competing national interests in a greater good".

He added: "The trouble is that the number of those who have had those experiences is diminishing annually. There is a young generation in Europe which does not have a memory of war, for whom the EU is the actuality, the dull, boring, uneventful, therefore unexciting, reality."

The other finalists included two MEPs, Mr Brian Crowley and Mr John Cushnahan; chief executive of the 2003 Special Olympics, Ms Mary Davis; Dr Miriam Hederman O'Brien; and Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche.

Describing Mr Hayes as a "great Ulsterman" with a distinguished public service career, the President paid special tribute to his behind-the-scenes role with the Down football team which won the Sam Maguire cup in the 1960s "bringing an awakening sense of pride and purpose to a community suffering the brunt end of a then very sadly dysfunctional Northern Ireland".