President Mary McAleese has been in Belfast today for a series of engagements.
Security around the president was low key as she arrived at Belfast City Hospital this morning, with most people apparently unaware her visit was taking place.
Inside she toured the respiratory unit and met some of the patients, including her aunt and uncle.
Later, Mrs McAleese officially opened a new £500,000 community centre at Hannahstown in west Belfast.
During an hour-long visit she was entertained by a cross-community choir drawn from local primary schools and Irish dancers.
School visit cancelled
A planned visit to a protestant primary school on the Shankill Road was cancelled following the president's controversial remarks during the Holocaust commemorations.
In the interview on RTÉ's Morning Ireland last month, President McAleese compared sectarianism in Northern Ireland to the irrational hatred for Jews in Nazi Germany.
She said some children in Northern Ireland were taught to hate Catholics in the same way Nazis despised Jews.
The president subsequently apologised for any offence caused.
The UCC historian, Professor Dermot Keogh, has since said that the initial comments were widely misreported and misrepresented.
Jackie McDonald, a UDA commander who has previously met the president and her husband, was at the city hospital this morning to lend them his support.
He said he expected Mrs McAleese would be invited back to the Shankill in the future.
