Speaking to hundreds of law students at the inaugural Intervarsity Law Summit in Cork on Friday evening, Dr McAleese exhorted them to “never, ever be afraid to stand your ground”, adding: “Stand the ground that others need help to stand – that’s what you’re there for.”

Over the course of an hour-long fireside chat with Professor Louise Crowley of University College Cork (UCC) School of Law, Dr McAleese discussed her experience of growing up in the Ardoyne district of north Belfast during the Troubles, her Catholic faith, her legal practice, her 14-year stint as president of Ireland and her ongoing academic career.

Dr McAleese’s comments linked the theme of the summit, “Breaking Barriers: Let the Law Unite”, to the theme of her presidency, “Building Bridges”.

She recalled how, when she was 15, she voiced her aspiration to become a lawyer for the first time to a local parish priest, only for him to tell her bluntly that her choice of career was “not possible” because she was a woman and because she had no existing lawyers in her family.

“My mother, who is very mild mannered, immediately – and it was the first time I saw her be anything other than deferential to the priest – threw him out and told me not to listen to him,” Dr McAleese said. “She just said to me: ‘You don’t listen to him.’ It was really good advice.”

When she eventually commenced her studies at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in 1969, the top item on her reading list was Learning the Law by Glanville Williams. Included in a chapter titled “Women” – “there was no chapter titled ‘Men’”, she noted – was the claim that women wouldn’t make good lawyers because their voices wouldn’t carry in a courtroom. “This man never heard an Ardoyne mother in his life,” Dr McAleese joked.

Today’s law students, by comparison, have “been educated with women’s rights, gay rights, human rights, civil rights”, she said. “These are the people who are going to stand their ground and argue for a different kind of Ireland.”

Dr McAleese praised, in particular, the student organisers of the weekend summit for the “beyond phenomenal” amount of work put in by volunteers against the backdrop of intense study and examinations.

Bailey Lane and Anna O'Doherty

The first summit of its kind to bring together students from all seven law schools in the State, it was proposed and realised by UCC students Bailey Lane and Anna O’Doherty in the space of less than a year.

“Out of this [summit] will come, even over these few days, collaborations, there will be friendships, there will be ideas that will be shared, best practice … This thing is going to create a new dynamic, a bunch of new dynamics actually,” Dr McAleese said.

Earlier in the evening, Professor Mark Poustie, Dean of UCC School of Law, told students that he hoped the “plainly unlawful” Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a topic of extensive discussion during the weekend.

Describing the invasion as “an affront to the values that we stand for”, he continued: “It’s incumbent on us, the whole of the legal community, to stand up for our values in the face of such aggression and stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We can’t simply stand by in silence.”

Ending the event, Mr Lane and Ms O’Doherty presented Dr McAleese with the Orientum Solem award for breaking barriers and inspiring young people throughout her career. The Manus in Manu award was presented to Professor Crowley.