The presidential candidate Prof Mary McAleese set out last night to counter suggestions that her election could have a divisive effect on the peace process. In a major speech in Dublin, she sought to explain her vision as President and how someone so apparently identified with one section of the community in Northern Ireland could hope to help in Building Bridges, the slogan of her campaign.
"Unionism is a legitimate political allegiance," she said. "I will never be part of any futile or self-deluding attempt to politically sublimate the unionist community, who need peace and space to consider how their long-term interests are best served by an equitable and harmonious relationship with their neighbours.
"As President of Ireland it would be my role to welcome members of the unionist community and listen to their point of view. It is a mistake to believe that one can build bridges from mid-stream to no man's land. Nationalists need to make peace and build confidence with unionists, and vice versa.
"I do not accept that it is necessarily an advantage to belong to no side, to have no strongly held belief or convictions of one's own. The notion that one has to abandon one's own beliefs to make peace with unionism or that to be a nationalist or a Catholic is by definition to be divisive is a philosophy I cannot accept."
The Ulster Unionist MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said last night that Prof McAleese's remarks lacked credibility. "If Mary McAleese had practised what she has been preaching during her time at Queen's University, there might be some credibility to these remarks, but I'm afraid that her past actions have portrayed a rather different story.
"Therefore I think most unionists would regard her as someone who would not be capable of building bridges to the unionist community in Northern Ireland."
Mr Peter Weir, a member of the UUP talks team at Stormont, said it would "take more than a few sound bites and a new hairstyle for Mary McAleese to make herself acceptable to unionists". Her image was "tarnished beyond redemption" in the eyes of unionists and she "will not be welcome in unionist areas", he said.
However, a spokesman for the Ulster Democratic Party said that while Prof McAleese would find it hard to build bridges with unionists, the fact that she was willing to try, if elected, had to be a positive sign.
In her speech, Prof McAleese also said the Ireland she wanted to see develop over the seven years of the next Presidency was one "firmly rooted in peace and prosperity", both of which she said were within our grasp. The speech was delivered to the Justice and Peace Group of All Hallows College in Drumcondra, a Catholic institution founded as a seminary but now a college mainly for BA and MA students of theology and philosophy.
Noting that Building Bridges was the slogan of her campaign, she said she knew where the bridges needed to be built and believed the President had a role to play.
"This role must be a facilitating one," she said. The peace process was all about people and already there were people in Northern Ireland - community and voluntary organisations - working across the sectarian divide.
"They are the invisible peacemakers. Every day, these people are building their own small bridges across a divided community . . . As President, and mindful of constitutional limitations, I am determined to facilitate this invaluable work."
She offered "as a practical gesture" an open invitation to these groups, for the seven years of her hoped-for term, to come to Aras an Uachtarain. She offered what she called "the open unflinching hand of friendship".
Echoing Senator George Mitchell's comment that Northern Ireland needed decommissioning of mind-sets, Prof McAleese said the "greatest barriers of all are in our own minds".
"Change and reform are never easy. They can cause turbulence and distress. But what is the alternative? Inaction only allows bitterness and distrust to take even deeper root."
As regards society in the Republic, she said it was imperative that as economic progress continued and unemployment fell, "we remain conscious of those whose boat is not lifted by the rising tide". Ireland in the 21st century needed to be "a fully pluralist society".
She wanted an Ireland of "lasting peace and of a renaissance in social concern," she said.
Three Protestant churchmen in Belfast have defended the Redemptorist Peace Mission of which Prof McAleese was a part. In all of their dealings with the Redemptorists they had never detected "a desire to promote any political agenda", they said in a statement.