Former president in Ireland for anniversary
FORMER PRESIDENT of the United States Bill Clinton was in Dublin last night to deliver a speech on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement.
Mr Clinton visited University College Dublin for the event after earlier being awarded the freedom of the city of Belfast.
Mr Clinton and Senator George Mitchell were granted the freedom at a special meeting of Belfast Council. The two were instrumental in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Mr Mitchell was President Clinton’s US special envoy to Northern Ireland. He chaired the negotiations for the landmark agreement.
Councillor Tim Attwood, who proposed the motion in Belfast, was part of the SDLP team during the negotiations. He described the agreement as a “new dawn for politics right across Ireland”.
“There was long hours and difficult arrangements made by everyone,” he said.
He listed many of those who helped bring about the agreement, singling out Mr Mitchell and President Clinton “who was a champion of the peace process long before he was president”.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said meeting victims of the Troubles as he wrestled with his conscience over the early release of paramilitary prisoners was the most difficult aspect of striking the Good Friday peace deal.
Reflecting on the historic accord ahead of its 20th anniversary, the former Prime Minister said weighing the contrasting views of the bereaved was an onerous task.
The deal that largely ended the region’s 30-year sectarian conflict included a provision to facilitate the early release of about 500 paramilitary prisoners within two years.
Mr Blair cites the agreement, which came in his second year as Prime Minister, as one of the most important achievements of his decade in power.