Northern Ireland

Mary McAleese recalls how smears made her think twice about presidential campaign

Former Irish President Mary McAleese
Former Irish President Mary McAleese Former Irish President Mary McAleese

MARY McAleese has revealed how she almost withdrew her presidential candidacy in the face of smears that labelled her a republican sympathiser.

But the Belfast-born former president, who subsequently topped the poll in the 1997 election and went on to serve two terms in Áras an Uachtaráin, tells how support from clergy and politicians of all hues convinced her to persevere.

Dr McAleese’s new book also reveals for the first time how she and Jim Fitzpatrick, chairman of The Irish News, were instrumental in convincing elements within the nationalist and republican communities about the merits of the Hume-Adams talks process.

She recalls how in the aftermath of the 1996 Canary Wharf bomb attack that broke the IRA’s first ceasefire “trust was in short supply”.

The then Queen’s University pro-vice-chancellor and Mr Fitzpatrick were enlisted by Clonard-based Redemptorist priest Fr Alec Reid, whose health was “in as parlous state as the peace process”.

“Our task was to help the Hume-Adams process find favour among as many influential people as possible on the nationalist-republican side in the hope that the IRA could be persuaded to resume its ceasefire, and create the conditions in which Sinn Féin could be admitted to peace talks,” she writes in Here’s the Story.

She tells how scepticism was rife within both the SDLP and Sinn Féin about their respective leaders’ joint endeavour. There was also criticism from some sections of the Republic's media.

“The Irish Independent group of newspapers in particular conducted relentless attacks on Hume, often authored by columnists with no appreciable experience of Northern Ireland but with strong views on it,” she writes.

Dr McAleese recalls deep despondency at the criticism aimed at John Hume but remembers how others, such as former SDLP MPs Joe Hendron and Eddie McGrady, were “big picture men for whom peace trumped party and tribe”.

She recalls how during her presidential campaign she became the focus of a smear campaign in the southern press which sought to cast her as an IRA sympathiser.

“The years of ecumenical, inter-Church, anti-violence campaigning did not figure much in the coverage,” she writes

“The Sunday Independent, which I had successfully sued for libel ten years earlier, published an article by Eoghan Harris in which he described me as a ‘tribal timebomb’.”

Harris was an adviser to rival presidential candidate Derek Nally and while the author notes that the journalist was “later man enough to admit he had been wrong about me”, she describes him as being “gratuitously vitriolic” during the campaign.

The press also published a leaked memo from the Department of Foreign Affairs which was “purporting to describe my political beliefs” that led Nally “to attack me and insinuate I was a closet Sinn Féin supporter”.

The media campaign against Dr McAleese prompted concerns about her family’s safety and the potential for attacks on her home in Rostrevor, Co Down, a matter of miles from “loyalist paramilitary stronghold” of Kilkeel.

After a series of public clashes between the two presidential candidates, Nally conceded days later that his allegations were unfounded. However, a further leaked memo was published in the midst of the campaign with quotes from the SDLP’s Brid Rodgers “which included serious allegations about Jim Fitzpatrick and myself”.

Dr McAleese recalls that the only way she could properly respond to the allegations of being a republican sympathiser was to disclose her work with the Redemptorist Peace Mission, which she was not prepared to do “because the Hume-Adams talks were both confidential and still ongoing”.

“They were too important to jeopardise and much more important than me and my candidacy,” she writes.

“That Sunday, with the affair now entering its second week, I made up my mind that I would withdraw my candidacy rather than reveal the existence of the talks and my role in the process.”

Mary McAleese's installation
Mary McAleese's installation Mary McAleese's installation

The following morning, however, Dr McAleese’s husband Martin turned on the radio: “… and there was head of the Redemptorists, Fr Brendan Callanan, disclosing my honest-broker role in the peace ministry.”

She notes how the “noble” Jim Fitzpatrick also had his say.

“This was a genuine and sincere initiative, and it is both hurtful and malicious to suggest any subversive motivation by any of the individuals involved,” the chairman of The Irish News wrote at the time.

“Professor McAleese is an honourable and trusting individual who is totally committed to peace.”

The comments led to a tide of support for the presidential hopeful, with John Hume, Seamus Mallon and Brid Rodgers all eager to refute any suggestion that Dr McAleese was sympathetic to Sinn Féin.

In the book she also recalls a column in The Irish News by Tom Kelly which noted bluntly: “Never has Mary McAleese espoused violence”.

There was also support from Protestant ministers and Ulster Unionist deputy leader John Taylor who “declared firmly that I was an able person with whom he had worked easily and I was no supporter of violence”.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern (far left) Dana (2md left) Mary McAleese (centre) Mary Banotti (right) and former Prime MInister John Brunton (far right) in Dublin Castle tonight (Friday). Ms McAleese is the Irish Republic's first president from Northern Ireland. PHOTO OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern (far left) Dana (2md left) Mary McAleese (centre) Mary Banotti (right) and former Prime MInister John Brunton (far right) in Dublin Castle tonight (Friday). Ms McAleese is the Irish Republic's first president from Norther Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern (far left) Dana (2md left) Mary McAleese (centre) Mary Banotti (right) and former Prime MInister John Brunton (far right) in Dublin Castle tonight (Friday). Ms McAleese is the Irish Republic's first president from Northern Ireland. PHOTO OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA.

“Ghastly and hurtful as the clamour of accusation had been, the supportive response from those who knew me over many years was healing beyond measure,” she writes.

“It opened the door that allowed me to play my part in Ireland’s future.”

:: Mary McAleese Here's the Story is published by Penguin-Sandycove