The problems of social exclusion and prejudice are getting worse, not better, despite Ireland's economic progress, according to the President.
Speaking at the introduction in Dublin of a video on the travelling community, Mrs McAleese said there was a growing intolerance in Irish society of ethnic diversity.
"The new-found prosperity that has been visited on us seems to have hardened attitudes to those who don't fit in with the popular model of society, who don't conform to some acceptable model of lifestyle which this affluence has a tendency to spawn."
Mrs McAleese expressed concern at the high mortality rates among travellers and the low level of participation in education.
She said the solution was not to force travellers to conform to a social norm, as it amounted to "exclusion by assimilation".
The video, The Light Within, highlights problems of discrimination and disadvantage suffered by the traveller community. Its introduction coincided with the official opening of the Parish of the Travelling People's offices in Phibsborough, which were blessed by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell.
He said there was a need to challenge "racist attitudes which are based on misinformation and prejudices". He quoted the words of Pope John Paul II who urged people to let travellers be known "as they really are and not as they are ungenerously imagined to be".
Narrated by actor Mick Lally, the video was produced by Mr John Cook with the help of members of the parish.
Father Frank Murphy said the video aimed to celebrate the distinct faith of the travelling community and to challenge the lack of faith which marks the attitude of some Irish Christians towards them.
He said that in all the hysteria over booming house prices, little attention had been paid to the 1,000 travellers living on the roadside "without basic facilities like water, toilets and electricity".
