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President addresses Rimini Meeting
President McAleese has delivered the opening address at the Rimini Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples. The Rimini Meeting is an annual summer festival of encounters, exhibitions, music and spectacle which seeks to create points of contact between people of different faiths and cultures. Expected to attract an average daily attendance of 100 000, the theme of this year's Meeting is 'That nature which pushes us to desire great things is the heart'.
The President spoke on the theme 'The forces which change history are those which change the hearts of men'.
Previous speakers at the Meeting include Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa and Tony Blair.