Presidential Gaffe
President Mary McAleese has caused some upset among Northern Protestants by drawing a parallel between the anti-Semitism that spawned the Holocaust and hatred for Catholics in Northern Ireland. She made the remarks during a radio interview on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The remarks are unfortunately a double-edged sword, insulting Northern Protestants and gravely understating the horrors of the Holocaust.

Mrs. McAleese is herself a Northern Catholic. Moreover, the nationalist – mostly Catholic - areas of Ulster seem to harbour unusually strong anti-Israel sentiment.

I have been an admirer of President McAleese but unfortunately one is now left with an uncomfortable feeling that this is something of a Freudian slip.

- posted by Pat O'Sullivan @ 11:56 PM