PORTRAITS OF POWER

Mary McAleese



Mary McAleese, President of Ireland, 1997- .

Because the Irish presidency is usually described as "a largely ceremonial position", I was going to include this picture under the rubric of PORTRAITS OF POMP, but in light of the fact that the Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 2007 included President McAleese in position number 58 (compared with Hillary Clinton and Helen Clark, who were ranked 25th and 38th respectively), I opted to describe this photograph as a PORTRAIT OF POWER instead.