PRESIDENT MARY McAleese was awarded an honorary professorship yesterday by a Transylvanian university which offers a masters degree in Irish studies.
In the final day of her three-day visit to Romania, the President described the course at Babes-Bolyai university in the city of Cluj as a showcase of "that curiosity about otherness that transcends all artificial and natural barriers".
"Long before political leaders sat down at a table it was poets and writers who kept us in each other's orbit," Mrs McAleese said after she received the award.
Giving this title was a "form of gratitude" to Mrs McAleese for her role in supporting the creation of the Irish studies course at the university, dean of the faculty of letters, Prof Corin Braga, said yesterday.
Mrs McAleese's interest in the course dates back to her time as pro-vice chancellor of Queen's University Belfast, when she was introduced to Romania by her colleague John Farley who had "a vision for bring the story of Ireland to Romania," she said.
In 1999 Mrs McAleese hosted the five academics behind the programme at Áras an Uachtaráin, just before the first Irish studies course began.
The programme ranges from works of 20th century Irish writers such as Joyce and Yeats to Irish history, Irish language, theatre and film.
It is located in multi-ethnic region of Transylvania and the university teaches in the region's three official languages: Romanian, Hungarian and German.
While Samuel Beckett and Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco were "from opposite sides in Europe" they were both architects of the avant garde "theatre of the absurd" in Paris and both authors "had much in common," Mrs McAleese remarked.
The President also met Irish studies students yesterday and described the graduates and exchange students with Irish universities as "torchbearers".
"Ireland and Romania are still only at the beginning of knowing each other . . . our children and grandchildren will know a different Europe," she told a gathering of students and academics yesterday.
Andy Irvine, former member of legendary Irish folk band Planxty, was among the musicians and dancers who performed a concert yesterday afternoon at the office of the mayor of Cluj-Napoca.
Irvine sang and played the bouzouki and was joined on stage by founding member of Stockton's Wing Kieran Hanrahan on banjo as well as fiddlers Oisin Mac Diarmada and Conor McEvoy and harpist Michelle Mulcahy.
The set drew on music from all parts of Ireland and was accompanied by dancers Marcus Maloney and Nicola Byrne who have both performed in Riverdance.
The President arrived back at Baldonnel airport yesterday evening where she was met by Lieut Gen Dermot Earley, Minister of State for Food Trevor Sargent, and a guard of honour. The President's next State visit will take place in Norway next month.