THE President, Mrs Robinson, yesterday called for Protestants in Scotland and Ireland to share in celebration of the two nations' Celtic heritage.
She was delivering a lecture on St Columba's Day at Scotland's only Scottish Gaelic language college, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, on the Isle of Skye, in which she stressed the strengths of a shared Scottish and Irish island culture.
The first question at a press conference in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, where she was opening an exhibition on the life of St Columba, was asked in Gaelic, and the President replied in Irish.
Her Hebridean journey took place on the 1,400th anniversary of the death of St Columba as the British government announced a plan, to be known as the Columba Initiative, for improved contacts between Gaelic and Irish speakers.
In Mrs Robinson's lecture, she called for what she described as an island space, similar to common ground, to celebrate what Scotland and Ireland share. "This may enable people of both traditions in Northern Ireland to reclaim parts of their inheritance which have been denied them."
"Too often, in an Irish context, Celtic or Gaelic culture has been identified with Catholicism and nationalism, which has had the effect of inhibiting those of the Protestant and unionist tradition from claiming part of their inheritance. It is surely time to insist that our past and our culture is rich, varied and complex, that it cannot be resolved into narrow, sectarian compartments and that it is open to each of us to claim what is rightfully ours."
The two islands the President was visiting yesterday have an overwhelming Presbyterian tradition, but are at the heart of the current Gaelic revival.
The local paper, the West Highland Free Press, has made much of how this could contribute to improved links between the communities in Northern Ireland.
Mrs Robinson said she was following in the footsteps of Land League campaigner Michael Davitt who received a rapturous welcome on Skye 110 years ago, when island crofters were in conflict with landlords.
She said both Ireland and Scotland had seen their island cultures marginalised, but that Ireland's cultural revival had been led by islanders' literary works earlier this century. Although there had been a tension between tradition and modernity, she said, young people in Ireland are now comfortable combining both and are confident about their culture.
She said the most important factor behind this was membership of the European Union. Although she is not commenting on this visit on the sensitive issue of Scottish home rule, her comments in a Scottish context will be seen as being very favourable towards it: "The experience of interaction with other European states on the basis of equality helped our national self confidence and heightened our awareness of the value of our distinctive contribution to European culture and civilisation," she said.
"The European Union has altered our sense of where our centre lies, allowing us to redefine not only in a healthy way our relationship with our larger neighbour, but to see the worth of what lies at the margin."
She added that no two western European countries are as close as Ireland and Scotland, both in their pasts and in what they share today.
The announcement of the Columba Initiative was made by Mr Brian Wilson, Scottish Office Minister with special responsibility for Gaelic.
He said: "St Columba's journey from Ireland to Scotland stands as a symbol of deep cultural affinities between the two countries. It is fitting as we mark the 1,400th anniversary of Columba's death to recognise and take steps to strengthen these historic links."
Scottish Office officials are to enter talks with their Dublin counterparts to set up an exchange programme as a foundation for improving links and cooperation.