It is said of the Recoleta cemetery that it costs more to be buried there than to live in Buenos Aires, writes Renagh Holohan in Buenos Aires.
Yesterday the President, Mrs McAleese, came here to lay flowers at the tomb of Mayo- born Admiral William Brown, founder of the Argentine navy, who died in 1857.
She also viewed the impressive tomb of Galway-born Father Anthony Fahy (1804-1871), who is regarded as the patriarch of the Argentine-Irish community, and the more modest tomb of Eva Peron. Familias Duarte it says over the door, and prayers and photos are pinned to the rails. The former ruler, Gen Juan Peron, is buried in less exclusive surroundings elsewhere.
The President started the day at an Enterprise Ireland business breakfast aimed at increasing the low volume of trade between the two countries.
She told the packed gathering that she understood the financial problems Argentina was beginning to emerge from, and now was the opportunity to move both countries into a new era. Trade and commerce, she said, brought hope, opportunity and fulfilled lives.
Answering questions from the floor, the President said one of the reasons she had learnt Spanish was that she had some remote Spanish ancestry. Asked why she was so popular at home, she said she hoped it was because people believed she was doing a reasonably good job. This was very gratifying but it was for others to say, not her.
Representatives of ten Irish organisations attended yesterday's breakfast. Among them was Barry O'Brien, of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, who, as part of his promotion, brought along one of his students, the Argentine rugby international Felipe Contepomi.
Later yesterday the President visited Holy Cross Church in the southern suburbs. Built by the Irish community in the 1890s, and run by Passionist priests, it is the principal church for the Irish in Buenos Aires. She was greeted by 88-year-old Father Ambrose Geoghegan and 92-year-old Father Peter Richards, the Argentine-born descendants of Irish emigrants. Both speak English with pronounced Irish accents.
The church was the scene of a dramatic raid by the military in December 1977 during the dictatorship when 10 people were taken into custody and Holy Cross was viewed at the time as a centre of dissent.