Clinton Speaks in Northern Ireland, Urging Peace
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/world/europe/13diplo.html
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BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Fourteen years ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton stood next to her husband at the Victorian city hall here, as a crowd of 70,000 gathered to watch President Bill Clinton light a Christmas tree.
On Monday, Mrs. Clinton, now the secretary of state, addressed a more select audience of 100 lawmakers in the imposing chamber of North Ireland’s Stormont assembly, exhorting them to stick with a peace process that the Clintons have made something of a family project.
“No one ever said it was going to be easy,” Mrs. Clinton said to the Protestant and Catholic leaders who are part of a power-sharing arrangement worked out during talks pushed by the Clinton administration. “This is not easy in any legislature, under the best of circumstances.”
Mrs. Clinton was one of the first foreign government officials invited to speak at Stormont, and she recalled the role of the Clinton administration in pushing the negotiations that resulted in the Good Friday peace accord in 1998 and led to the restoration of this body.
In the benches before her sat some of the bitterest enemies from the time known as the Troubles: Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Fein member and leader of its political wing, Sinn Fein, and Ian Paisley, the once-strident Protestant evangelist and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
Despite its progress, Northern Ireland has entered a tense period, with Protestant and Catholic leaders in the government mired in a dispute over transferring police and justice services from London to Belfast.
Mrs. Clinton said the United States did not want to meddle, but she gently prodded both sides to settle their differences.
“My hope is that you will achieve what you set out to do, to complete the process of devolution,” she said. “Please know that the Obama administration and the United States are committed to helping you finish your journey.”
On Monday, Mrs. Clinton, now the secretary of state, addressed a more select audience of 100 lawmakers in the imposing chamber of North Ireland’s Stormont assembly, exhorting them to stick with a peace process that the Clintons have made something of a family project.
“No one ever said it was going to be easy,” Mrs. Clinton said to the Protestant and Catholic leaders who are part of a power-sharing arrangement worked out during talks pushed by the Clinton administration. “This is not easy in any legislature, under the best of circumstances.”
Mrs. Clinton was one of the first foreign government officials invited to speak at Stormont, and she recalled the role of the Clinton administration in pushing the negotiations that resulted in the Good Friday peace accord in 1998 and led to the restoration of this body.
In the benches before her sat some of the bitterest enemies from the time known as the Troubles: Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Fein member and leader of its political wing, Sinn Fein, and Ian Paisley, the once-strident Protestant evangelist and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
Despite its progress, Northern Ireland has entered a tense period, with Protestant and Catholic leaders in the government mired in a dispute over transferring police and justice services from London to Belfast.
Mrs. Clinton said the United States did not want to meddle, but she gently prodded both sides to settle their differences.
“My hope is that you will achieve what you set out to do, to complete the process of devolution,” she said. “Please know that the Obama administration and the United States are committed to helping you finish your journey.”
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couldntfindausername
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Why do people still insist on the idiotic protestant vs catholic oversimplification?
- 2 years ago
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couldntfindausername
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larrysnotes
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Things got much lighter after 9/11/2001. The game got too large to play any more.
- 2 years ago
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larrysnotes
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biggranny
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this struggle has always been about power over the underdog. there are as many orange flag wavers as green. keep your heart open. the catholic and protestant church has interferred long enough. kick em to the curb and be the great country that you truly are
- 2 years ago
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biggranny
