PRESIDENT MARY McAleese has told the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg that minority groups such as Roma “must not experience a resurgence of the populist prejudice”.
Mrs McAleese said it was regrettable that tensions and distrust persisted between ethnic groups in Europe. “Beset as we virtually all are by the most deep-seated economic problems for many years, it is essential that particular groups of people like immigrants, Roma and Travellers, and other minorities do not experience a resurgence of the populist prejudice and unfair blame which has blighted their lives in so many generations,” she said.
Speaking after delivering her address to the council, Mrs McAleese referred to recent events in Belfast, where members of the Roma community have been attacked. She said it had been very distressing to watch, although the response of government, social services and neighbours had been encouraging.
“Part of the problem of course is how children are reared to hate, to despise the otherness of others,” she said. “It’s a problem not just for Belfast, it’s a problem for all of Europe, and we really do have to bend our backs to how we stop our little children from being turned into wrecking balls as teenagers and adults through learning hatred.”
Mrs McAleese had earlier told the council of developments in Ireland since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. She said there were better relationships within Northern Ireland, between both parts of Ireland and between Ireland and Britain.
“All three sets of relationships had been twisted by the forces of history. They have been straightened by the forces of democracy and human rights.”
She also referred to the Ryan report “on abuse of children in residential care who have now grown to damaged and chaotic adulthoods as a result of damage inflicted on them by so-called care agencies and, in most cases, Christian agencies”.
She said the publication of the report had provoked painful debate which would benefit society in the long run.
After Mrs McAleese had delivered her address, Polish senator Ryszard Bender asked if there would be a third referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if the Irish people voted No again. He also asked if countries that have accepted the treaty should be encouraged to “hold second votes”.
Mrs McAleese said her constitutional position did not permit her to comment on the treaty. “All I can say is that our Government, in the wake of the first referendum response, the No response, analysed the reasons for the No, consulted with our European partners [and] received a number of guarantees . . . The Government has now indicated that it is in a position to hold a second referendum.”
A Danish representative, Pernille Frahm, asked if the President thought it was “okay” that “the Irish negotiators have been trying to weaken the right for all women in the European Union to have legal and safe abortion”.
Mrs McAleese said Ireland has its own constitutional provision in relation to abortion. “And I think quite rightly since we sit around the European table as equals and we each bring our identity and are very anxious to protect our identity around that table, it is entirely right that our Government would protect our own constitutional provision which people in Ireland feel very strongly about.”