McAleese in tribute to patriot Davitt.

(From Irish Independent)

Bernard Purcell

in Haslingden

PATRIOT Michael Davitt would take pride in today's Ireland of no emigration and opportunity for all, President Mary McAleese yesterday told the Lancashire village in which he grew up.

But the Land League founder would also point out that it has not yet achieved full social inclusion, she said at a centenary commemoration of his death.

Davitt was six when his parents' landlord burnt down their home in Mayo and evicted them in 1852.

Like hundreds of other Irish his family settled in the Lancashire mill town of Haslingden where as …