President Mary McAleese has told RTÉ News that she is very pleased and very relieved with what she described as 'the generous reaction' to her apology for her Nazi comment in relation to Northern Ireland.
Mrs McAleese apologised yesterday for any hurt caused by her comment the previous day when she likened the hatred of Nazis towards Jews to the hatred of Catholics in Northern Ireland.
The comment sparked anger among various groups in the North, and the Orange Order cancelled plans to meet the president in March.
Speaking in England this morning, President McAleese said she hoped the bridge-building work she had undertaken had not been damaged by the row.
She said she recognised the fact that, in making her controversial remarks, when she gave examples of sectarianism, it had not been balanced and that sectarianism was a problem for both communities in the North.
Earlier today, the Orange Order and unionist politicians said they accepted the apology.
However, the Orange Order Grand Secretary, Drew Nelson, said that he believed a meeting between the order and President McAleese would take place some time in the future, but perhaps not as early as March, as previously planned.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, said he was glad that there has been an apology, because he considered the remarks remarkably ill-judged and most unlike the president.
Meanwhile, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Dr Ken Newell, has said it is time to draw a line in the sand over the controversy.
