Editing President of Ireland (section)

===Role of the president in relation to Northern Ireland===
{{See also|Names of the Irish state|Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland}}
[[File:President wreath.JPG|thumb|The president's wreath (in green) laid at Ireland's [[Remembrance Day]] ceremonies in [[St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin|St. Patrick's Cathedral]] in 2005. Presidents have attended the ceremony since the 1990s.]]
The text of the Constitution of Ireland, as originally enacted in 1937, made reference in its [[Articles 2 and 3]] to two geopolitical entities: a thirty-two county 'national territory' (i.e., the island of [[Ireland]]), and a twenty-six county 'state' formerly known as the [[Irish Free State]]. The implication behind the title 'president of Ireland' was that the president would function as the head of all Ireland. However, this implication was challenged by the [[Ulster Unionists]] and the [[United Kingdom|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland]] which was the state internationally acknowledged as having sovereignty over [[Northern Ireland]]. Articles 2 and 3 were substantially amended in consequence of the 1998 [[Good Friday Agreement]].

Ireland in turn challenged the proclamation in the United Kingdom of [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]] in 1952 as '[Queen] of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. The Irish government refused to attend royal functions as a result; for example, [[Patrick Hillery]] declined on government advice to attend the wedding of the [[Charles III of the United Kingdom|Prince of Wales]] to [[Diana, Princess of Wales|Lady Diana Spencer]] in 1981, to which he had been invited by Queen Elizabeth, just as [[Seán T. O'Kelly]] had declined on government advice to attend the 1953 Coronation Garden Party at the British Embassy in Dublin. Britain in turn insisted on referring to the president as 'president of the Republic of Ireland' or 'president of the Irish Republic'.<ref group="n">The office of "[[President of the Irish Republic]]" existed in the separatist [[Irish Republic]] of 1919–21.</ref> Letters of Credence from Queen Elizabeth, on the [[British government]]'s advice, appointing United Kingdom ambassadors to Ireland were not addressed to the 'president of Ireland' but to the president personally (for example: 'President Hillery').

The naming dispute and consequent avoidance of contact at head of state level has gradually thawed since 1990. President Robinson (1990–97) chose unilaterally to break the taboo by regularly visiting the United Kingdom for public functions, frequently in connection with [[Anglo-Irish Relations]] or to visit the Irish emigrant community in Great Britain. In another breaking of precedent, she accepted an invitation to [[Buckingham Palace]] by Queen Elizabeth II. Palace accreditation supplied to journalists referred to the "visit of the president of Ireland".{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} Between 1990 and 2010, both Robinson and her successor President McAleese (1997–2011) visited the Palace on numerous occasions, while senior members of the British royal family – the then-Prince of Wales (now [[Charles III]]); [[Prince Andrew, Duke of York|the Duke of York]]; [[Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh|Prince Edward, then Earl of Wessex]]; and [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]] – all visited both presidents of Ireland at [[Áras an Uachtaráin]]. The presidents also attended functions with [[Anne, Princess Royal|the Princess Royal]]. President Robinson jointly hosted a reception with the queen at [[St. James's Palace]], London, in 1995, to commemorate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Queen's Colleges in 1845 (the Queen's Colleges are now known as [[Queen's University Belfast]], [[University College Cork]], and the [[University of Galway]]). These contacts eventually led to [[Queen Elizabeth II's visit to the Republic of Ireland|a state visit]] of [[Elizabeth II]] to Ireland in 2011.

Though the president's title implicitly asserted authority in Northern Ireland, in reality the Irish president needed government permission to visit there. (The Constitution of Ireland in Article 3 explicitly stated that "[p]ending the re-integration of the national territory" the authority of the Irish state did not extend to Northern Ireland. Presidents prior to the presidency of Mary Robinson were regularly refused permission by the Irish government to visit Northern Ireland.)

However, since the 1990s and in particular since the [[Good Friday Agreement]] of 1998, the president has regularly visited Northern Ireland. President McAleese, who was the first president to have been born in Northern Ireland, continued on from President Robinson in this regard. In a sign of the warmth of modern British-Irish relations, she has even been warmly welcomed by most leading [[Unionists (Ireland)|unionists]]. At the funeral for a child [[Omagh bombing|murdered by the Real IRA]] in [[Omagh]] she symbolically walked up the main aisle of the [[church (building)|church]] hand-in-hand with the [[Ulster Unionist Party]] leader and then [[First Minister of Northern Ireland]], [[David Trimble]]. But in other instances, Mary McAleese had been criticised for certain comments, such as a reference to the way in which Protestant children in Northern Ireland had been brought up to hate Catholics just as German children had been encouraged to hate [[Jews]] under the [[Nazi]] regime, on 27 January 2005, following her attendance at the ceremony commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of [[Auschwitz concentration camp]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4214263.stm | work=BBC News | title=McAleese row over Nazi comments | date=28 January 2005 | access-date=22 May 2010 | archive-date=29 June 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629101055/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4214263.stm | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/01/27/story186673.html |title=BreakingNews.ie: Archives :2005-01-27 |access-date=1 September 2007 |archive-date=24 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824232409/http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/01/27/story186673.html |url-status=live }}</ref> These remarks caused outrage among Northern Ireland's unionist politicians, and McAleese later apologised<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4217545.stm | work=BBC News | title=McAleese 'sorry' over Nazi remark | date=29 January 2005 | access-date=22 May 2010 | archive-date=20 February 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060220210713/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4217545.stm | url-status=live }}</ref> and conceded that her statement had been unbalanced.