RTÉ journalist Tommie Gorman has won the 2001 European of the Year award.
He received the award for his work as RTÉ's Europe editor for 12 years.
The President, Mrs McAleese, presented Mr Gorman with the award at a ceremony in Dublin yesterday, organised by the European Movement and Aer Rianta. She paid tribute to him and said he conveyed the European news with crisp authority.
"He has done an outstanding job in translating the complex into the understandable," the President said.
The President also described Mr Gorman's programme on his illness, a rare cancer, as his "own painful but very uplifting" story which had highlighted a little known EU service. It was a brave act of generosity, she said.
Receiving a special award this year was Mr Philip Hamell, the chairman of the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland, who was nominated for his own contribution and as a representative of all those who worked on the transition.
Mr Gorman, accepting the award, said Irish people were comfortable with being European and what he had learned as an Irishman based in Brussels was that the notion of being part of a wider community suited us. The Irish were an outward looking, inquisitive people.
He said he was amazed by the reaction to the programme he made about his illness, receiving 700 letters and three or four phone calls every day. It surprised him how much pain there was out there, he said.
The ceremony was attended by former winners of the award, over 40 diplomats, Ministers, former Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald, and people from all sectors of the European Movement.