The President, Mrs McAleese, found herself on home territory yesterday when she visited St Gabriel's Secondary School in the Ardoyne district of north Belfast.
The President and her husband, Mr Martin McAleese, are on a two-day visit to the North and earlier visited the Sisters of Mercy Primary School on the Crumlin Road.
Praising the commitment of the staff and the Passionist Fathers, she said: "Nobody would have liked to write the script of what this place has endured over the last 30 years. To educate a child to find his potential and give him confidence in himself is no easy thing. To do that work in normal times is hard enough, to do it against a daily litany of hurts, that called for very special people indeed."