The President, Mrs Robinson, has said she travels to Northern Ireland "in friendship" and would "regret" if her visits were misunderstood. She was responding to yesterday's report in The Irish Times that Ulster Unionist MPs had gone to the British Foreign Office to express their "concerns" about the nature of her engagements in the North.
Speaking in Manchester, on the third day of her working visit to Britain, Mrs Robinson said: "I get a lot of invitations [to the North]. I don't in fact accept them all. I measure the invitations it is appropriate to accept. When I go it is in friendship, to build on links. I get a very warm welcome whenever I go and I would regret if my visits were misunderstood."
Mrs Robinson was speaking after a briefing from the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Mr Derek Shaw, n plans for the redevelopment of the city centre after the massive IRA bomb attack last June in which more than 200 people were injured.
The President said she was deeply impressed by "the scale and vision of the overall planning for the area." She continued "They have the capacity now to go forward and to build what I hope will be a very exciting regeneration of the city of Manchester."
Last night the President was guest of honour at the annual dinner of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Before 560 guests she recalled her personal devastation at the IRA bombing on June 17th and her visit to the city two weeks later to show "solidarity and support" for the people of the city.
Mrs Robinson said she had found a great sense of the Irish integration in Manchester, and she believed "we have built on the strength of the real friendship" between Ireland and Dublin and "this beautiful and magnificent day". Manchester had not merely survived but was "going to triumph over that adversity."
The president of the Manchester Chamber, Mr Anthony Goldstone, said her visit cemented relationships between the two countries and the relationship between the two cities "is becoming very close". This was personified by the trade mission he would be taking to Dublin next week. Earlier Mrs Robinson attended a reception for the Irish community in Tameside, Manchester.