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mary robinson

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Was mary the best president Ireland ever had?

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Twinkleboots

Most definitely!

Joekers

bleg

Without a doubt. Incredible person.

mike65

The best president plays golf and is hardly seen or heard.

wonderfulname

Easily. One of the most impressive individuals our country ever had outside of that as well.

ejmaztec

The two Marys were the best presidents that Ireland ever had, and all of the other presidents pale into insignificance, including the one we got lumbered with on the last occasion.

My name is URL

She managed to piss off a load of right-wing pro-Israel nutjob groups like AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League so that's a plus in my book!

losthorizon

The Americans dont like her. She had to quit her job from the UN because of sustained pressure from the US government.

suicide_circus

losthorizon wrote: »

The Americans dont like her. She had to quit her job from the UN because of sustained pressure from the US government.

Why don't they like her?

[Deleted User]

The two Marys (should that be Maries? Ha) were absolutely brilliant and definitely did our country proud. I think Michael D. Higgins is doing a good job too.

Pherekydes

suicide_circus wrote: »

Why don't they like her?

Because she's a liberal/leftie.

Though it should be noted that she quit in 2002, and it had nothing to do with the current US regime.

Sir Pompous Righteousness

No. She wore trousers most of the time. Terrible fashion sense.

jhegarty

She had so little respect for the position she quit early when a better offer came along.

mike65

She quit the job halfway through her second term, for a better paid/more prestigious job with the UN, that's how good Robinson was.

dvpower

mike65 wrote: »

She quit the job halfway through her second term, for a better paid/more prestigious job with the UN, that's how good Robinson was.

Did she do it for the money and the prestige?

later12

mike65 wrote: »

She quit the job halfway through her second term, for a better paid/more prestigious job with the UN, that's how good Robinson was.

Not half way; three months before the end. She didn't start a second term.

She stayed in the job for 7 years, and executed it with greater dexterity and depth than any of her predecessors.

She resigned because a new High Commissioner for Human Rights was badly needed at the UN. Nevertheless, she called it the greatest regret of her Presidency a couple of years ago. A bit of perspective maybe.

Sir Pompous Righteousness

dvpower wrote: »

Did she do it for the money and the prestige?

Probably both.

Yamanoto

Mary Robinson was the right person for the job, at precisely the right time.

Here was a woman who'd long campaigned for changes to the Divorce, Contraception and Homosexuality laws of the State, being put before an electorate who were yearning to emerge from the fog of a country retarded socially and economically by an overbearing church and a dull and gutless political cabal.

mike65

/\ that's probably true and all thanks to that gobsh1te Pee Flynn

Teyla Emmagan

Yes. Mary R is an incredible individual. Worth about 10 ordinary politicians. An incredible intellect and a heart in exactly the right place. One of the most significant politicians this country has ever produced.

losthorizon

suicide_circus wrote: »

Why don't they like her?

She criticised the US for violating human rights in its war on terror.

LivelineDipso

That whole Climate Justice thing is a bit silly. Apart from that she did alrght.

later12

It happens that some of the poorest societies are those who will be most affected by climate change.

I think it's a wonderful example of using foresight in order to mitigate an emerging problem rather than waiting until the fuller force of the problem has hit. No doubt Robinson's time at the UN would have convinced her of the importance of early systematic intervention.

You're in the other thread using an almost biblical allegory of a two headed serpent in criticizing the government for a lack of foresight in public transport, so I'd really love to know why, or how, Robinson's campaign for far more important foresight, through her foundation, is "silly".

Anita Blow

mike65 wrote: »

She quit the job halfway through her second term, for a better paid/more prestigious job with the UN, that's how good Robinson was.

1) She left 3 months before her first term ended. Not halfway through.

2) How do you know she left for money/prestige? As far as I was knew, she assumed the role after visiting Rwanda nearing the end of her presidency where she was horrified at what she saw and you could see it in her press conference following it where she was in tears. She did what any person would do in her position when offered a role where she could try to improve the lives of those she saw; she accepted it.

I get that in these matters people are perfectly entitled to have their opinions on whether they like her/don't like her, but I just knew there'd be the typical boards hipsters who go against the grain just for the sake of it. She's an incredibly intelligent and compassionate woman who did the role of Irish President a huge justice, as did Mary McAleese.

Elmer Blooker

My name is URL wrote: »

She managed to piss off a load of right-wing pro-Israel nutjob groups like AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League so that's a plus in my book!

She supported the right wing nutjob DUP when she opposed the Anglo Irish agreement in the 80s. She has never been asked to explain why she opposed an attempt to find a political solution to the conflict in N.Ireland.

Yamanoto

Elmer Blooker wrote: »

She supported the right wing nutjob DUP when she opposed the Anglo Irish agreement in the 80s.

Disingenuous wording at work there methinks.

Wade in the Sea

It's not hard to be the best at something when everyone before you was fairly crap at it.

JupiterKid

Yes - without a doubt.

Mary Robinson modernised and transformed the Presidency, opened up Aras an Uachtaran, was a highly articulate representative of our country and was the perfect President for a 1990s Ireland that was finally catching up with the rest of the developed world.

later12

Yamanoto wrote: »

Disingenuous wording at work there methinks.

Yes it is. Mary Robinson's position on Northern Ireland has been incredibly diplomatic and logical throughout her career. If you were to guess, you might suppose the speech below was delivered by Robinson in 1997. In fact, it is an oration long before its time - I should say 25 years before its time, having been delivered to the Seanad in 1974.

Bear in mind, this was a year in which the troubles were raging, Bloody Sunday was still fresh in people's minds, and just a few years after Operation Armageddon, when the Irish Government were considering sending troops into Northern Ireland. There was a very different prevailing attitude in Dail Eireann at the time to what Robinson was advocating, especially in terms of renouncing territorial claims and advocating power sharing in its place.

It bears a striking resemblance to the GFA which was to come:

http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0078/S.0078.197407030005.html

Mrs. Robinson: I should like to second this motion and to welcome the opportunity which it gives us in this House to discuss the position, not only in the North of this country but in these islands. If we try to discuss or assess what is called the problem of Northern Ireland out of that context, [781] we are not going to come up with a balanced, realistic conclusion.

Before going on to carry out that assessment I should like to remind ourselves—if we need reminding—that we are talking about the lives, jobs, relationships and even the dignity as human persons of the people living in this whole geographical territory, more critically those in the North, but also those in this part of the country and in the neighbouring island.

...I would prefer to see a very detailed assessment of the consequences of each type of withdrawal. Taking them separately, regarding the consequences of military withdrawal, I think that it could be very beneficial if a phasing down of military presence in Northern Ireland could be achieved in a constructive way, because it would reduce very substantially the level of violence...

We must do this in a framework where nobody has to give up their political aspirations provided they do not try to impose those aspirations by violent means on others.

I feel that this is a very delicate balance which must be achieved. I do not believe that it is beyond our imaginations or our energies. We will be condemned by future generations unless we get down to it much more seriously and with much more desire for concrete and positive results...

...We cannot go on talking about aspirations and unity unless we are a great deal clearer about what we mean by unity. I, for one, do not see or desire unity as a takeover by the South or as an assertion of territorial domination or even jurisdiction. Not only do I have to state that firmly but I believe I must try to persuade my fellow politicians—the Members of this House—and members of the Government who are in a position to take steps on it, to state in a much more concrete way than has been done that the concept of Ireland is not a concept of domination from the South as the single way in which there can be the fulfilment of any aspiration or national aim for unity.

It is very important, as I said at the beginning, that the political package which emerges is sufficiently flexible to allow both majority and minority to participate in power. I believe that this is negotiable, that it is possible, with the economic and political pressures that can come to bear on those in Northern Ireland, to insist on power sharing between majority and minority and to insist that this can be done in a context which does not require denial or undermining of the aspirations of those who participate.

Also, a much more conscious effort must be made to reinforce the idea that any nationalist aspirations that are held by the minority in Northern Ireland are of the more flexible kind which I hope are emerging here—not a concept of Southern domination or of a takeover, but an aspiration for co-existence between Irish men and women on this island in viable units which offer the basic protections of peace and security, of respect for the dignity of human persons and of absence of discrimination and terrorism.

WhimSock

I thought she was very good in a factual documentary I saw recently called Mooneboy.