One trip two years after Bill's 1995 trip:
Northern Ireland welcomes back Hillary :
When Bill Clinton left Northern Ireland in December 1995 he vowed that he would return. He spent two days on the island - one north and one south of the border and it proved to be a remarkable diplomatic success. The President received a film star's welcome from the people of Belfast, Londonderry and Dublin.
The rock musician, Van Morrison, who played for the President in front of a massive crowd at Belfast City Hall sang the line, "Wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time?" Contrasting his reception with the more difficult times he was facing in the US, Mr Clinton would have had no difficulty agreeing with that sentiment.
Two years on, it's not President Clinton but his wife, Hillary, who is making the return trip. Her intention is to focus attention on the role of women and young people in democracy and in the Northern Ireland peace process.
This will be a lower profile visit than the last time. This is partly because the First Lady will not be accompanied by her husband, but also because the situation in Northern Ireland has changed significantly since the heady days of Christmas 1995.
Hillary Clinton Sees Hope in Ulster, Too:
Hillary Rodham Clinton stayed strictly on track today, traveling to this troubled city to sound the themes she has embraced in her carefully planned re-emergence: women, children and families.
In her first overseas trip after the very public celebration of her 50th birthday last weekend and the speculation it raised about her recast role as First Lady, she began the day by delivering a lecture in memory of Joyce McCartan, whom she met in 1995, when she and the President visited Belfast together. Mrs. McCartan, who lost a son and 17 other relatives to sectarian violence, ran a center that brought Catholic and Protestant women together to promote peace.
In a moving address, Mrs. Clinton spoke of the important role that women like Mrs. McCartan can play in helping to solve the world's most intractable problems.
''An extraordinary power is unleashed when women reach out to their neighbors and find common ground,'' Mrs. Clinton said. ''When women are empowered to make the most of their own potential, then their families will thrive. And when families thrive, communities and nations thrive as well.''
Holding up a teapot, a gift from Mrs. McCartan during that visit two years ago, Mrs. Clinton said that whenever she used it, she was reminded of Mrs. McCartan, who died last year at 67, and the work she did.
''Joyce McCartan deserves as her real legacy that the peace process will go forward,'' she said. ''She and all the brave women who for more than 20 years marched, baked, prayed and shouted for peace deserve to be heard.''
1998:
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks at Vital Voices Conference2000:
Women know 'there's no going back'Two trips, two speeches. That's it.
The Honorable Mitchell B. Reiss, President's and Secretary of State's Special Envoy to Northern Ireland
Emmanuel College, Cambridge University
Cambridge, United Kingdom
September 9, 2005
Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for that generous introduction. I would like to thank Conor Brady and all the members of the British-Irish Association for inviting me here this evening.
Many of you have spent much of your lives as observers, commentators and participants in the events of Northern Ireland. I am humbled by the accumulated experience and wisdom in this room, and would therefore welcome your comments on my remarks during the discussion period that David McKittrick is going to moderate afterwards.
<…>
The United States in particular has made important contributions to the peace process. American politicians like Hugh Carey, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Tip O'Neill and Ted Kennedy were among the first to draw international attention to the discrimination against the Catholic community in education, employment and housing in Northern Ireland. And they were also among the first to denounce the use of violence by the IRA. The Clinton Administration deserves great credit for energizing the peace process by raising Sinn Fein's profile, and then by devoting time and attention at the highest levels to ensure that political momentum could be maintained. The Friends of Ireland on Capitol Hill ensured that Congress was fully supportive of the peace process as well. Of course, it is difficult to imagine where we would be today without the enormous contribution of Senator George Mitchell, who masterfully translated the governments' broad vision into negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement. And President Bush has been intimately involved in moving the peace process forward.But it is not just the politicians and officials in Washington who have played a role. Irish Americans have also cared deeply about all things Irish, especially as they relate to Northern Ireland. They have been a source of moral, political and financial support for Ireland since they landed on America's shores. And so it was significant when public opinion among Irish Americans shifted markedly during the past year, in response specifically to the Northern Bank robbery and the brutal McCartney murder, and more generally to the global war against terror that we now find ourselves in since 9/11. "Yes," they said, "we still support the cause of a united Ireland, all 32 counties. But no, we do not condone the use of violence, under any circumstances. It is time for the IRA to rely on purely peaceful and democratic means." Gerry Adams heard this message loud and clear during the St. Patrick's Day events in Washington. And he has used it to move the IRA.
link Press Releases
Date: October 18, 2005
For Immediate Release
On Tuesday, November 8, 2005, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) will proudly present its prestigious William J. Flynn Initiative for Peace Award to Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Féin, and Hugh L. Carey, former governor of New York, at a dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria.
For more than a quarter of a century, Gerry Adams has been a pivotal figure in the quest to achieve an effective political settlement of the "Troubles." Largely as a result of his efforts, the Irish Republican Army formally ended its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland and decommissioned its remaining weapons this year. That outcome would not have come about without the leadership and determination of Mr. Adams, who has transformed his party, Sinn Féin, into the leading nationalist party in Northern Ireland, as evidenced in the last election for the power-sharing Assembly in the North and reinforced by electoral victories in several parliamentary constituencies in Dublin and in successive elections to Parliament at Westminster.
Once banned from the airwaves in Ireland and Britain and barred from entering the United States, Mr. Adams was finally allowed to set foot on U.S. soil in 1994, when President Bill Clinton, in response to an appeal made by the NCAFP, ordered the State Department to issue a visa to him. That visa enabled Mr. Adams (as well as representatives from all sides of the divide in the North) to present his case in person to politicians, representatives of Irish America, scholars, and the media at a conference convened by the NCAFP. The trust placed in Mr. Adams by President Clinton, the NCAFP, and many others has borne fruit.
Governor Hugh L. Carey needs no introduction to New Yorkers who salute him for the leading role he played during the 1970s in rescuing New York City from bankruptcy. What is less widely known is the pioneering work that Governor Carey performed in the pursuit of peace in Northern Ireland. In the early 1980s, he denounced the use of violence as a means of bringing about necessary political change in that fractured land. Governor Carey and other Irish-American politicians such as Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and House Speaker Tip O'Neill became known as the Four Horsemen, although the end result of their work was hardly apocalyptic. Instead, it produced an environment that is conducive to the affirmation of life by encouraging investments in people, projects, and the peace process.
The William J. Flynn Initiative for Peace Award that Gerry Adams and Hugh Carey will receive on November 8 is aptly named. William J. Flynn, chairman of the NCAFP, is a peace pioneer who is known for his work throughout the island of Ireland. The countless risks he took for peace during almost two decades of involvement in the peace process have made him a legend in both the loyalist and republican communities in the land of his forebears. In his own homeland, Mr. Flynn was applauded by other advocates of peace such as Governor Hugh Carey for the direct approach he took to convince President Clinton to grant a visa to Gerry Adams. Mr. Adams's trip to the United States provided the impetus for the peace pioneers to come together in subsequent years and provide the kind of support that the leader of Sinn Féin would need to pursue the peace process, which culminated in the Belfast, or Good Friday, Agreement.The National Committee on American Foreign Policy was founded in 1974 by Professor Hans J. Morgenthau and others. It is a nonprofit, activist organization dedicated to the resolution of conflicts that threaten U.S. interests. Toward that end, the NCAFP identifies, articulates, and helps advance American foreign policy interests from a nonpartisan perspective within the framework of political realism. Previous winners of the William J. Flynn Initiative for Peace Award are former United States Senator George J. Mitchell, the facilitator of the Good Friday Agreement, Dr. Marjorie J. Mowlam, who served as British secretary of state for Northern Ireland, and Viola Herms Drath, who laid the groundwork for the "2 + 4" process that led to the formal unification of Germany.
linkThe claim reminds me of Hillary taking credit for
SCHIP There is a reason former NY Governor Hugh Carey
endorsed Obama.
Peace
agreement signed 1998 after an extensive decade-long process that began in 1988.
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