Mary Robinson: ‘It’s really important that we see the migrant for who he or she is. They are the brave people of their community’

When Mary Robinson was president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, immigration was nowhere near the top of the political agenda. In fact, in the first four years of her term, more people left Ireland than entered the country.
It is Ireland’s long history of emigration spanning generations that the former president says must not be forgotten, now that anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise and protests continue outside prospective asylum centres across the country.
“We should have a very different approach [to immigration] remembering our own history, remembering that’s what Irish people did. Irish people took the famine boats and went because you couldn’t live in Ireland,” she tells The Irish Times Women’s Podcast.
Speaking about the need to reframe attitudes towards refugees, she says, “I think it’s really important that we see the migrant, the refugee, for who he or she is. They are the brave people of their community. They have come through whatever they’ve come through to get to this country, and they send remittances home. They build a better life for themselves.”
Robinson’s activism and her life-long commitment to making the world a more equitable place are at the heart of the new documentary about her life, Mrs Robinson.
Told in her own words, the film reflects on key moments in Robinson’s life and career, including her move from law into politics, the wedding that her parents refused to attend, and some of her political and personal regrets.
In this conversation with podcast presenter Aideen Finnegan, Robinson explains why she was initially hesitant to make the film, what she hopes people can take from it, and how she went from a shy child growing up in Ballina to walking the halls of Áras an Uachtaráin.
We also hear from the director, Aoife Kelleher, who talks about her memories as a young girl watching the 1990 election, what inspired her to make the film, and the joy of going through archive footage, including never-before-seen home videos shot by Robinson’s father.
You can listen back to this episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.