Interview with Ireland's first female President.
In your memoir, “Everybody Matters,” you write that you were the third child amid four boys. Do you think having so many brothers affected your political path?
I do joke that this is the start of my belief in human rights and using my elbows. But more seriously, I had a stronger sense of myself as a young Irishwoman than many of my contemporaries. When I was elected president of Ireland in 1990, I was very conscious that I could use symbols in a way that would be harder, maybe, for a man. In my inauguration, I emphasized the word “love,” which is somehow easier for a woman to use.
(We invite our users to read the complete interview published March 22 2013)
Interview with Ireland's first female President.
In your memoir, “Everybody Matters,” you write that you were the third child amid four boys. Do you think having so many brothers affected your political path?
I do joke that this is the start of my belief in human rights and using my elbows. But more seriously, I had a stronger sense of myself as a young Irishwoman than many of my contemporaries. When I was elected president of Ireland in 1990, I was very conscious that I could use symbols in a way that would be harder, maybe, for a man. In my inauguration, I emphasized the word “love,” which is somehow easier for a woman to use.
(We invite our users to read the complete interview published March 22 2013)
