People: Mary McAleese denies Unionist hostility

One of the two leading contenders for the Irish presidency has rejected suggestions that Unionists are generally hostile towards her becoming the Republic's head of state.

Belfast-born Professor Mary McAleese has faced Unionist objections both to her appointment to positions at Queen's University Belfast, where she was the first woman to become a pro-Vice Chancellor, and this month to her selection as Fianna Fail's candidate for the Irish presidency.

Ms McAleese's family were forced out of mainly-Catholic Ardoyne area of Belfast by a sectarian machine-gun attack in the early years of the Troubles,

Launching her presidential campaign in Dublin yesterday, she recalled experiences of prejudice saying: "It has been taught from the cradle. Many in Northern Ireland respond with fear and suspicion. In a complex community, if a Catholic got a job, particularly at a high level, there were those who responded by thinking they had lost something." She said this was not bigotry, but arose from "deep-seated suspicion and fear".

She said Unionist opinion was "neither monolithic or stereotyped", citing "a mountain of correspondence and calls" from across that community, "wishing me well in my canvassing".