“Be Confident, be confident in your ability, know that your country will be better served by all of you”. Words of wisdom from one of Ireland’s most influential women. Writes Sean Dunne
Having
served as the seventh President of Ireland, Mary Robinson made history by being
the first ever elected female President. This week I had the honour of an
exclusive interview with one of Ireland’s most iconic women.
Ms Robinson walked into the room with
composure and a striking smile one would expect for such a respected Irish
figure.
Shaking
hands in a warm and affectionate manner put any pre interview nerves at ease
for this young journalist. Sharing a joke and an affirmative handshake with her
husband Nicholas Robinson, it gave great insight into the support Ms Robinson
has always felt in her career as she would later tell me about.
As a student
journalist one really must exhaust all means necessary to get ahead of the
game. With so many competing media organisations, I was confident in my ability
to get this far and to land my biggest interview to date. ”. Accompanied by friend and fellow
student journalist Órla Ryan, we were about to land our first ‘scoop’.
Sitting down
next to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, truly was an
honour. An engaging interview of almost ten minutes would follow. It was not
the usual rigid interview that student journalists are often times subjected
too.
The poise,
the character, everything down to the matching pearl earrings and necklace made
my time with the former President an enthralling experience. Asking Ms Robinson
her view of how society has engaged with women in politics since the end of her
term as president she spoke in her soft accent of how some things have gone
well and others had not.
“I thought;
we were on a clearer path, to women really taking their full place and their
full responsibility and actually it hasn't happened and there are struggles now
younger women have to fight” said Ms Robinson
Speaking of
the tough lesson Ireland has been through in relation to the economic crisis,
the former President realized it was hurting people like never before but gave
hope that she believes we will emerge stronger and fairer.
The
engagement throughout my interview with Ms Robinson was a very warm experience.
There was a smile on the Mayo woman’s face as I asked certain questions. It does
not surprise me that she is still held so affectionately in Irish hearts.
Speaking on
emigration and her lighting of the lamp famously in Áras an Uachtaráin, Ms
Robinson spoke perhaps as a parent, of the harsh reality for parents, who have
to saygoodbye to children, who are being forced into emigration.
Ms Robinson
alluded to the culture of “thinking about it” in reference to questions raised
on recent suicides in Ireland. Ms Robinson said that now more than ever, we had
to affirm especially to young people that “we believe in you”.
The former
President called herself the ‘visible face on the shoulders of so many’. At
every stage in her life she has had support and this is something that she is
greatly appreciative of.
She spoke of
her delighted that Ireland ‘actively sought’ to be a member of the human rights
council and this is something she sees as a modern values in Irish society.
Her position
now as a former President is to regenerate a sense of pride and real commitment
to equality and to human rights. She acknowledges in her book the help she has
received throughout her career and life.
Adding to
this Ms Robinson said, “I have done what I have done because it has been part
of a wider sense of achievement and I will always acknowledge that”.
Following
the interview the warm and affectionate Mayo woman happily posed for a picture
or two and signed her autobiography.
Concluding
the interview it struck me why this woman is still held in such affection by
the Irish public. She
is a remarkable Irish figure and one that set the tide on Irish politics but
yet has the human empathy that fails so many iconic Irish leaders.
No comments:
Post a Comment