In an emotional meeting with the Sisters of Mercy at Brisbane's Mater Hospital, the President, Mrs McAleese, has said any criticisms of the order's work should not outweigh its many achievements.
The President, who was educated by Mercy nuns in Belfast, used her visit to the hospital in Queensland's state capital yesterday to speak out for the deep debt she said she and many others owed the order.
"They were not all saints but there were saints among them. They lived hard lives, hard on themselves and sometimes hard on others," she said.
Mrs McAleese only alluded to "frailties and weaknesses" but said the dedication and sacrifice of the sisters from the Mater Hospital in Dublin and from elsewhere in Ireland, left a remarkable impression on Australian life.
The order, and the Christian Brothers, have come in for criticism and claims of sexual abuse in Australia following inquiries into the "stolen generation" of Aboriginal children removed from their families and the care of child migrants from the UK.
On the last day of her 11-day State visit to Australia, the President was invited to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital which was opened in 1906. Later she met and talked with the sisters. Sister Angela Mary, who left Co Clare 50 years ago to work in Australia, said there had been so much criticism of the order in the Irish press that it left many people disheartened, even in Brisbane.
"I think she [the President] made a point there for the thousands and thousands of people who have lived their lives, many of them 60 and 70 years, and doing good all the time. I think it's a pity that's not emphasised more. When she talks like that, it lets us see ourselves in perspective and say `Yes, the totality wasn't all 100 per cent but the bulk of it was'. "
Mrs McAleese was originally invited to Brisbane to attend the centenary dinner of the Queensland Irish Association last night but demands by various groups for a presidential visit expanded the itinerary into a state visit. Officials regard the tour as a great success with strengthened links between universities, the opening of an Irish studies centre, a renewed focus on business opportunities between the two countries and widened political and personal networks.
The President came with many messages to spread about the new Ireland but perhaps her greatest contribution was to talk about reconciliation, an issue which has dominated the big picture of Australian as well as Irish politics.
She told a briefing for the Irish media travelling with the official party that she had learned many lessons from the continuing reconciliation process between black and white Australians. She said when she heard about the plight of Aborigines and their poor health statistics she was reminded of the travelling people in Ireland and their marginalisation.
"When you start to unpack the solutions you begin to see, while they aren't exactly on all fours with each other, they are always the same shape and there is a core which is very transferable," she said.
The President also spoke out about the controversy surrounding refugees in Ireland which parallels the debate about immigration sparked by Independent Australian MP Ms Pauline Hanson during the current election campaign.
The President did not want to see racism get a hold in Ireland. "We are a country which sent out refugees to every single part of the globe, our people went out as political and social refugees," she said. "There should be no people on the face of the earth more understanding, more insightful and more measured in the response to the question of refugees than we are."
One of her final engagements at the Brisbane Town Hall involved an Aboriginal greeting dance. A warrior, Joshua Walker (27), recently found he had Irish blood through his mother. "I'm interested in the Irish and Scottish heritage because from what I believe the old Celtic traditions are very similar to our Aboriginal ways," he said.
At the event, attended by more than 1,000 people, the Queensland premier, Mr Peter Beattie, said: "If it wasn't for the Irish, this state, this country wouldn't be as great as it is."
Mr Noel Ryan, who left Limerick in 1978 and runs an Irish community radio show in Brisbane, said anti-Irish feelings had waned since his arrival and shows such as Riverdance have had a big influence. "When I first came a lot of Irish people were ashamed of their background. Now I think it's respectable to say you are Irish. It's even desirable," he said.
Today, the President's party, which includes her husband Martin and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, leaves for a short visit to New Zealand before returning to Dublin at the weekend.