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From: Nancy Mazzeo Reeb <>
Subject: [MAYO] From Mary McAleese
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 14:17:08 -0500

Christmas Greetings from President Mary McAleese

My warmest Christmas and New Year greetings to Irish people, and to
Ireland's friends, everywhere. This special season presents us each year
with a chance to renew friendships, to reconcile differences, to
celebrate kindness and to reflect on the extraordinary capacity we have
to touch, and be touched by, the lives of all we meet.

There was never a better example of our ability to enrich each other
than the 2003 Special Olympic World Games which Ireland was privileged
to host. Those inspiring athletes brought out the very best in us,
creating memories of heroic endeavour and limitless generosity which
will live in our hearts and minds for a long time to come. Though the
Special Olympic flame was extinguished at the end of the Games, all that
it symbolises endures and not just in the field of sport.

Coming as I do from Northern Ireland, I was particularly delighted that
the Special Olympics was an all-island project and that through the
Olympian spirit of friendship we shared such a successful partnership. I
hope it is a sign of happier times to come. Since 1998, the Good Friday
Agreement has slowly but surely transformed the atmosphere in Northern
Ireland. The old miseries of political conflict and sectarianism are
losing their grip as people count their dreadful cost and set their
sights on a better future shared equally by all. The elections to the
Northern Ireland Assembly have now taken place and I have great hope
that the newly elected men and women, entrusted with delivering that
future, will work together constructively and responsibly, mindful of
the undeniable progress that has been made in recent years and the huge
desire for peace.

2004 will be an important year for Ireland. We assume the Presidency of
the European Union on 1 January and so it will be our privilege to host
the historic Day of Welcomes when ten new member states join the Union
on May 1st. The Union's new members have known times of great difficulty
and hardship but now they are ambitious for their futures. They take
great heart and inspiration from Ireland's remarkable success and we
look forward to working with them to drive forward the vision of a
peaceful, prosperous European homeland created and sustained by its many
peoples working together in respectful and equal partnership.

May our homes, our streets and our communities be places of comfort and
of welcome, of tolerance and goodwill. Our world faces many ups and
downs and there are plenty of things to test our spirit and our values.
Whatever challenges the New Year holds for us may we continue to be
uplifted by the spirit of Christmas and may we continue to work, in
hope, for

". . . that dream, born in a herdsman's shed,
And for the secret Scripture of the poor."

Mary McAleese
President of Ireland

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• [MAYO] From Mary McAleese by Nancy Mazzeo Reeb <>