Queen's set to provide next Irish president

The pro-vice chancellor of Queen's University Belfast has been tipped as the next president of Ireland.

Mary McAleese will not comment on speculation that she could succeed Mary Robinson. But the two women have more in common than a first name. They both trained as lawyers and have had high public profiles on a range of issues.

There was widespread speculation last week that Professor McAleese, who is also director of Queen's Institute of Legal Studies, had been tentatively approached by the three main political parties in the Republic: Fianna Fail, which is about to take over in government, and Fine Gael and the Labour party, the members of the previous coalition.

The Dublin government is thought to be keen to attract a Northerner to the post, in line with the ever-increasing formal links between the British and Irish governments, from the 12-year-old Anglo-Irish agreement to the framework documents drawn up by John Major.

Professor McAleese has also been named as a possible "unity" candidate to prevent unseemly squabbling for the job given the precarious make-up of the new Dail.

Professor McAleese, a Catholic, is a leading lay critic of the Catholic church and has been prominent in attacking it for what she sees as its lack of accountability.

Dublin governments have been keen to emphasise the growing gap between church and state. Just over two years ago Professor McAleese called for the church to set up a complaints procedure. She said: "There seems to be a glaring absence of any forum by which a person mistreated by, say, a bishop, acting on behalf of the church, can appeal to a third party for an adjudication ... is there a presumption perhaps that injustice never occurs, or that when it does it is something we have to put up with, silently and humbly?" Professor McAleese, who was born in fiercely nationalist Ardoyne, also stood for election as a director of the Bank of Ireland.