Under leaden skies and in a landscape she said reminded her of home, the President, Mrs McAleese, laid flowers yesterday at the memorial to the 35 victims of the gun massacre in Tasmania on April 28th, 1996. Her visit to the historic Port Arthur penal site was to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Young Ireland Movement, some of whose leaders were transported to this desolate spot. However, as she passed the cross which bears the names of the victims of the atrocity - where a lone gunman, Martin Bryant, went berserk with high-powered rifles - she was reminded of the parallels with suffering in Ireland.
The President then abandoned her prepared speech and spoke to the group of dignitaries and locals, for whom the pain and torment of the massacre remain fresh.
She said the lonely waterside location of the infamous 18th-century jail was evocative of parts of Co Down. The hulk of the Broad Arrow Cafe, where most of the 35 lost their lives, reminded her of the Omagh bombing.
"The parallels between the two places strike me as very, very similar. Ordinary, everyday, good, decent people going about their business and then so devastatingly interrupted by the tragedy of violence.
"I know that has lodged deep in the psyche of this place, just as the violence in our own home place is lodged in our psyche."
Mrs McAleese said it was poignant to read the names of people on the memorial who must have been going about the most simple and innocent things in their lives.
Bryant is serving multiple life sentences for the murders and has never revealed his motive for the massacre.
Mrs McAleese said people might try to make sense of tragedies like Port Arthur but, like Omagh, they remained senseless.
There was a strong randomness about what happened in Port Arthur - but also a sense that never would, or could, such a thing happen again. "I, of course, come from Northern Ireland, where you could say we have been drip-fed 100, maybe more, massacres like that which you have endured here. But we are very clearly about to transcend that violence."
Day four of the President's 11day tour of Australia also saw her unveil a plaque to mark the 150th anniversary of the Young Ireland Movement. At Port Arthur, she was shown around the restored cottage of one of the movement's leaders, William Smith O'Brien, who was a parliamentarian and political prisoner sent to Van Diemen's Land, as Tasmania was then known, in 1849.
O'Brien led the poorly-planned 1848 uprising in Co Tipperary, and was transported, along with eight other agitators, to the penal colony which had a fearsome reputation for cruelty.
The President said the Young Irelanders were deeply linked to events in Ireland today, with their hope for the future and their frustrations at their country's past.
She said O'Brien, like many others, might not have seen progress in their lives but had invested in developing an Ireland she hoped her generation and the next would actually create.
"I hope that in a very short period of time - and I'd like to predict that in a few years - we will see the landscape of Ireland absolutely transformed as we do indeed build a peace on the very solid foundation of the Good Friday Agreement."
A possible protocol nightmare, following a still inconclusive state election last Saturday, was avoided when the President was greeted by two men claiming to be the rightful state premier.
The Liberal premier who has refused to concede defeat, Mr Tony Rundle, met her flight at Hobart Airport, with his apparent successor, the Labour leader, Mr Jim Bacon, on hand to take part in the formalities.
Mr Bacon, who is expected to take office within days, said he wanted to extend links between Tasmania and Ireland despite the 11,000 miles which separated them. Tasmania might not have the advantages of the EU but the state, whose symbol is the now extinct thylacine or Tasmanian tiger, is keen to emulate some of the success of the "Celtic tiger" economy.
"There are specific economic measures in Ireland and we are looking at how we can apply them here, bearing in mind we are not a nation, but a state within a nation," said Mr Bacon. "But I think island economies and island communities everywhere have things in common."
At a reception last night, much was made of the similarities between the two largely rural islands, whose people were said to be intensely proud, share a love of horses and love "a tipple". However, the President said the links between Tasmania and Ireland should be forged with the future in mind and not just rely on a common and colourful past.
She also returned to the comparisons between the Omagh and Port Arthur massacres, saying there were not many outside Ireland who could appreciate the long-term consequences and trauma of such violence. "You have a particular understanding of what Omagh faces in a way that few people can."
Today, the tour party returns to the mainland for a two-day stay in Melbourne which, like all other cities on the itinerary, is claiming to be the most Irish city.