MRS PRESIDENT Without real political power, she makes a difference in Ireland and elsewhere An interview with Mary Robinson
MacEoin, Gary
MRS. PRESIDENT An interview with Ireland's Mary Robinson Gary MacEoin I am of Ireland; come dance with me in Ireland. With those words Mary Teresa Winifred Robinson ended her inaugural address,...
...With ferries to Britain and the continent, as well as air travel, emigration isn't the cut-off it used to be...
...We are attracting high-tech computer software companies that provide jobs match-ing the improved educational qualities and skills we have...
...At the same time, I don't think we in Ireland have to follow slavishly what other countries have done...
...MacEOIN: And how do you see the role of emigration in these changes...
...MacEOIN: Ireland has just commemo-rated the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine...
...ROBINSON: I felt when I was elected that the most im-portant task on this island was to extend the hand of friendship right across the board to the people of Northern Ireland, to have the beginnings of a real peace process...
...I never have fewer than four or five books beside my bed at night...
...But most of all I welcomed the commemoration because it was a moment to look into our past and realize the courage and resilience of those who survived...
...People I admire have two qualities: a kind of simplicity, and generosity of spirit...
...The Constitution of Ireland provides that the president "shall take precedence over all other persons in the state...
...It was the very poorest of the poor, the small tenants and cottiers, who really suffered...
...ROBINSON: It is a period of our history that we need to know in great detail in order to understand its continuing impact on us as a people...
...ROBINSON: One of the hopes I had when I was elected was that the president of Ireland could reach out in humani-tarian concern to represent that part of the commitment of the Irish people...
...Our problem now is to create em-ployment, but to do it in ways that value our environment...
...ROBINSON: Thanks to the European Union, we have a much more open climate of discussion and debate, as you can see in the media...
...You understand that the presidency is an of-fice without political power and not involved in policymaking...
...When we look back 150 years and see that a million people were forced into exile and another million starved to death in this small island, we must remember that we're not just talking numbers or statis-tics...
...As regards Rwanda, where I was in October 1994,1 expressed my concern and my anguish at the United Nations, and I wrote to the heads of states of other countries urging the need to take seriously the commitment made in the Genocide Convention of 1948, because when a genocidal killing occurs, as happened in Rwanda, it is not just an internal domestic mat-ter...
...I thought it was outside what I had been involved in, mostly legal matters...
...ROBINSON: The first thing to recognize is how fortunate we are to be an island off the west coast of Europe, and there-fore helped by the prevailing winds to escape the effects of acid rain and other problems...
...MARY ROBINSON: When first urged to run for election, I wasn't very enthusiastic...
...Links are developing between local authorities, between chambers of commerce...
...It is a time when Irish women can link-as they are linking-through networks...
...What it can do is present the head of state as a witness, and I have welcomed opportunities to do that...
...Then I reflected that things in Ireland were changing, and that someone who in a broad sense personifies what was happening could help to shape the perceptions of the Irish people...
...What concerns me is that the situation has been deterio-rating and there has not been a harnessing of that kind of expertise nor a commitment to really honoring the human-rights pledges made in the Genocide Convention...
...I have been pleased with the opening of all kinds of links in recent years, especially in 1995, thanks to the peace proc-ess...
...MacEOIN: What leaders do you most ad-mire...
...Many people today in the developed countries are so far re-moved from poverty and suffering and starvation that they lack empathy for the sufferings of others...
...Most developed countries have a lot of re-sources in that area...
...Women are networking...
...After that, my priority would be to reach out in that broader humanitarian way at every opportunity that arises...
...I think that is the way to go...
...The Genocide Convention shows that the world cares enough to make a commit-ment to investigate, to bring to trial, to break the impunity of those who carry out such acts...
...Others were less affected...
...As I am not involved in policy, I have to speak rather indirectly on these issues...
...So, I suppose, there's plen-ty to do...
...And I understand that you have de-cided to go back to Rwanda a second time...
...Why is there such great reluctance in the Republic to become involved in the problems of the North...
...It means that we are a more question-ing society, perhaps more honestly prepared to address se-rious issues and problems, more open to the idea that different viewpoints should be heard and respected...
...And moral leadership comes from her person-ality, her history, and her interests...
...So they go abroad...
...He has also a great ability to touch people through his plays and to make them think and reflect...
...It has enabled Ireland to re-find its sense of par-ticipation-cultural, political, social-at the European level...
...It's not easy to balance...
...A herd of Charollais cattle grazed nearby...
...One indicator is the number of groups from Northern Ireland who come to visit me at Arus an Uachtarain...
...That's where this commemoration of the Great Famine helps the Irish people to link with and have a genuine sympathy for the suffering of the victims of contemporary famine and starvation and displacement...
...Reminiscent of the Irish tradition of a candle in the window on Christmas Eve to light Joseph and Mary to the inn, it is her way of inviting the Irish emigrant home...
...Every one of them was a human being with hopes and aspirations that were cut off...
...MacEOIN: What are Ireland's most serious ecological problems...
...I read serious books and I read airplane, forgettable books...
...MacEOIN: What books have been most helpful to you as a leader...
...We need more em-phasis on linking jobs and economic progress with environ-mental issues, and not allowing environmentally damaging industries to be brought into the country simply to provide employment...
...It was a great boost for the confidence of women...
...We must encourage energy conservation and sustainable de-velopment...
...And because the office of president is above and outside politics, it would be possible to do something different...
...In consequence, although I have no role in intergovernmental talks or polit-ical discussions, that would be my very top priority...
...That tradition is being translated today into community self-development...
...All of this has, of course, a bearing on the entire population, but it is an opportunity with special potential for women...
...It is amazing that he has managed to keep such a balance, that he came out of prison after such a long time as a round-ed, holistic person who could reach difficult accommoda-tions with generosity...
...It is a matter of creating enough quality jobs while preserving and protecting our en-vironment and the natural asset of an island free from a lot of industrial pollution...
...With those words Mary Teresa Winifred Robinson ended her inaugural address, December 3,1990, as seventh president and first woman president of Ireland...
...It is people who go through suffering that have an empathy for the suffering of others...
...I focused on the need to harness resources: the forensic scientists, the scientific evidence, the skills in prosecution, the skills of under-standing, the promotion of human rights...
...Irish aid agencies are working in the most difficult areas...
...But the na-ture of emigration has changed...
...In particular, what expanded role for Irish women...
...It seems to me that the more impressive people are in what they have done, the simpler they tend to be in how they talk to you, or in what they say or write...
...These are always worth hearing...
...Many want to come back, especially when they have children they would want to be raised in the Irish society and in the Irish educational system...
...So this is a modest witness of a humanitarian sort...
...MacEOIN: A recent report on sectarianism said that the depth of misunderstanding and lack of contact between the Republic and Northern Ireland is very large...
...And to look also, because of our history, at our links to the developing countries...
...Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic, would be another, partly be-cause of his ability to communicate very thoughtful comments on modern society...
...I have been great-ly influenced in the last twenty years by [Nelson] Mandela...
...She promised in that speech that the Ireland she repre-sented would be "open, tolerant, inclusive...
...Having been to the U.S...
...Young people are the ones who are most envi-ronmentally conscious in Ireland, so that to some extent they are educating their parents...
...ROBINSON: I think that was more true ten years ago...
...ROBINSON: I've touched on [Gandhi and Mandela...
...A profusion of flowers bordered neat lawns...
...It has therefore helped the maturing of a good bilateral relationship with Britain, lifting part of the burden of history...
...Embassy in Dublin, ringed with con-crete pillars to prevent car bomb attacks, and with metal detectors and handbag searchers inside, I was impressed that a single un-armed Garda checked visitors to Arus an Uachtarain (the presi-dential residence...
...They can do this through having an outward-looking attitude to what's happening to women in other countries, and by being affected by a broad-er debate...
...There are strong solidarity overtones...
...ROBINSON: I'm a very wide reader...
...The schools help, because they put a lot of stress on environmental awareness...
...Its causes were complex...
...MacEOIN: How is Irish membership of the European Union affecting social policy on such issues as homosexu-ality, divorce, abortion...
...I was influenced at an early age by Gandhi, and I have read many biographies of him...
...We were also lucky not to have had the same kind of industrial revolution and industry as some other countries...
...All this is creating more understanding on both sides of the border, as well as between the communi-ties in Northern Ireland...
...MacEOIN: What role do you see for Ireland in the twenty-first century...
...I think that also opens up possibilities for Ireland as a European country to look outward-to look particularly, for example, at countries to which a lot of Irish people emigrated, to our links-our human links-with the United States, with Canada, with Australia, with New Zealand...
...The problem is obviously a top priori-ty of successive Irish governments...
...by making breakfast for her family...
...Ireland has its own strengths-in family life, in the local community, in the con-cept of meitheal, a very traditional form of cooperation in rural Ireland...
...You know, by being present, by valu-ing for them their kind of activity...
...Yet under the parliamentary system of government inherited from the British, President Robinson is outside and above politics...
...GARY MacEOIN: What made you think you could break into the all-male club of the presidency...
...My way to do that is to go as a witness, to see and let others see through what I see, so that it all comes back into the policy field in a more direct way...
...One lesson it can teach us is that there are no inevitable victims, that, for example, those who today go through a sim-ilar trauma-whether it's in Rwanda or Somalia or even Bosnia-have a right to a future...
...We can't apportion blame simplistically but rather [must] understand that blame has to be shared in different areas and levels of society...
...When I go later this morning to open a very small un-employment center at Donnycarney, it is to help the small, the marginalized, the vulnerable, by being interested in what they are doing...
...MacEOIN: No doubt it is in that spirit you have visited Somalia and Rwanda and pleaded for starving Somalians at the United Nations...
...I also think we have to be broader in our idea of what is work and what is a job...
...I have already been talking to you about the links, the little ways of encouraging and supporting that kind of thing, of being in touch...
...A candle shone in the upper-floor window of the kitchen in which Robinson starts her work day at 7 A.M...
...ROBINSON: Membership in the European Community, now the European Union, has helped Ireland to take its place as a European country with all the member states, includ-ing Britain...
...I particular-ly enjoy reading about people who have gone through a per-sonal growth...
...Three or four or five neighbors get together, ex-changing labor, farm equipment, and so on...
...As a people, I think, we do have undeni-able generosity...
...Can we talk a little about its con-tinuing role in the Irish psyche...
...ROBINSON: We have long had emigration...
...I join in the sense of urgency about creating inward-investment jobs, appropriate development, while also fostering local indigenous small industry that can create a lot of jobs, the kind of community self-development that increases the involvement of people...
...In addition, some of our young people are being educated to levels beyond our present capacity to pro-vide the jobs they are qualified to do...
...They are tackling issues of waste disposal and so on...
...MacEOIN: Of all the things you are doing, which do you regard as your top priorities...
...There are exchanges of young people, involvement of schools and youth groups...
...Her role is prin-cipally symbolic, but her imagination, vision, and commitment have given it substance...
...So we campaigned very hard, and the breakthrough was not just for me but for women...
Vol. 124 • March 1997 • No. 5
