ADVISORY/Her Excellency Mary McAleese, The President of Ireland; Addresses the Members of The Economic Club of Chicago.

Business Editors

ADVISORY...

for Mon. (May 5)

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2003

WHAT:   Her Excellency Mary McAleese, The President of Ireland will
        address the members of The Economic Club of Chicago.

WHO:    Mary McAleese was born on June 27, 1951 in Northern Ireland,
        in the Belfast area of Ardoyne, a small Catholic enclave
        within Protestant dominated areas. She grew up in a deeply
        divided society where to be Catholic was to be treated as
        second class. When the recent round of 'Troubles' erupted in
        1968, she saw the terrors of riots and experienced
        intimidation first hand. Upon graduation from Queen's
        University Belfast she was called to the Northern Ireland Bar
        and practiced mainly in criminal and family law.

        In 1975 she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law,
        Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin until 1979,
        when she joined RTE, the Republics Television Station, as a
        journalist and presenter where she ran head on into an
        establishment wary of anyone from a Northern Nationalist,
        pro-Church background. She returned to the Reid Professorship
        at Trinity in 1981, while still continuing part-time with the
        RTE.

        In 1987, Mary McAleese was appointed Director of the Institute
        of Professional Legal Studies at Queen's University Belfast,
        which trains barristers and solicitors for the legal
        profession in Northern Ireland. In 1994, she was appointed
        Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast. In 1995,
        she was appointed Delegate to the White House Conference on
        Trade and Investment in Ireland and to the follow-up Pittsburg
        Conference in 1996. She has also held the position of
        Director, Northern Ireland Electricity, and Director, Royal
        Group of Hospitals Trust. President McAleese is also the
        founding member of the Irish Commission for Prisoners
        Overseas. On November 11, 1997, Mary McAleese was inaugurated
        as the eighth President of Ireland, taking as her theme, 'the
        building of bridges.'

WHEN:   Monday, May 5, 2003

        Please be advised, that you must contact Elizabeth Doran at
        312.726.1628 prior to the event if you would like to attend.

           12:00 Noon - 12:45 p.m. Camera Crew set-up in the
           Daniel Burnham Room
           12:30 - 1:15 p.m. Print Media
           1:00 p.m. Luncheon Begins
           1:30 p.m. Program begins in the Daniel Burnham Room

WHERE:     The Chicago Club
           The Daniel Burnham Room
           81 East Van Buren Street, Chicago IL