The city of Rio de Janeiro, like much of Brazil, is a place of huge contrasts and the President, Mrs McAleese, saw both sides during her weekend visit to one of the most spectacular cities in the world.
Mrs McAleese attended Mass yesterday at a community centre run by Irish priests in the poor outlying suburb of Magalhaes Bastos. Her motorcade sped past some of Rio's 661 favelas or shanty towns. On Saturday she toured the city, visited the famous Cristo Redentor monument which looks down on the seven million people below and observed beach life from her hotel.
At the Paroquia Sao Jose the President was greeted by Father John Cribben, an Oblate priest from Limerick, who has spent 40 years helping the poor in Brazil. Dozens of children waved Irish flags and a recording of The Mountains of Mourne was played.
While Father Cribben's Portuguese passed over the heads of many of the Irish delegation, the congregation sang joyously. His work, which helps women learn crafts and healthcare and assists prisoners, has received €100,000 in Irish aid.
After opening a new unit, Mrs McAleese said Father Cribben and his Irish missionary colleagues had made a huge personal commitment to some of the most disadvantaged in Brazil. They were at the cutting edge of community development work and supported local initiative rather than supplying solutions from outside. Their success was evident in the sense of self-sufficiency in such communities.
Father Cribben spoke of the 60 million poor people in Brazil, a country devastated and disfigured by enormous injustices. President Lula, he said, aimed to have every Brazilian family eat three square meals a day and, "God willing, Ireland and the EU will assume with him this mission".