THE PRESIDENT, Mrs Robinson, may have gained one of the most fulsome, perhaps surprising, international tributes of her seven year Presidency with her visit last week, to the Vatican, where had a private audience with Pope John Paul.
The senior Vatican spokesman, Dr Joaquin Navarro Vals, described the atmosphere at the audience as "extremely cordial", while this week a senior Curia figure told The Irish Times that the Pope and Vatican heavyweights, Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, had all been much impressed by the President's "intellectual standing" and "humanism".
That same Vatican source also conceded that the President had made a much better impression than expected, agreeing that she and the Pope had indeed, as Mrs Robinson herself said last Saturday, been "on the same wavelength" regarding many major moral and developing world issues, concluding:
"The Vatican would consider her more than capable of taking up any United Nations type job she might apply for in the future, if that is what she intends to do, of course."
In Italy it sell, a country where Mediterranean prejudices against women have by no means been wiped out by 50 years of remarkable post war socio economic progress, the President was undoubtedly seen as an expression of the "New Ireland".
No Italian woman has yet held the office of prime minister or state president and Mrs Robinson's electoral victory earned her a visibility and approval rating that contrasted sharply with her predecessor, Dr Patrick Hillery, a figure totally unknown to Italian public opinion.
That a woman with a track record of social commitment and solidarity and involvement in women's rights issues should become President sounded a clear signal to Italians.
Ireland was no longer Catholic, conservative, backward and dull. Ireland was now the bright new land of U2, Neil Jordan, The Commitments, Jack Charlton's football team and an elegant, intelligent woman for President.