Clinton Urges Irish to Take ‘Risks for Peace’

BELFAST, Northern Ireland —  Stirring high emotion in a triumphant peace tour of a once-volatile land, President Clinton appealed to the people of Northern Ireland on Thursday to stay the difficult course toward ending their decades-long civil war.

“Engaging in honest dialogue is not an act of surrender, it is an act of strength and common sense,” Clinton said on a daylong visit--the first any U.S. President has made to the province--celebrating 15 months of peace after 25 years of violence between Catholics and Protestants.

Clinton ignited admiring crowds in both communities with calls for courage in steering “the ship of peace” and a pledge of U.S. support for newly announced efforts to launch all-party peace talks.

Tens of thousands jammed the center of this once-ravaged city on a clear, blustery night for a rollicking holiday celebration, cheering the President as he pressed a button to light the municipal Christmas tree.

“We will stand with you as you take risks for peace,” Clinton said as the crowd roared and waved a sea of small American flags.

“Only good can come of this; it’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen in Belfast,” said gray-haired Rosemary Wilson, who came from work to see the tree lighted. “Clinton’s keeping the pressure on, and he’s working for peace. It’s a very unifying presence he’s brought.”

Rival republican and British-loyalist politicians who have spent decades spurning each other overcame their differences just enough to attend a reception in Clinton’s honor--although Protestant hard-liner Rev. Ian Paisley ducked out of the party after a private meeting with Clinton.

Clinton got a hero’s welcome wherever he went, both moving his listeners and being moved by the people he met. In a Belfast factory, a Catholic girl and a Protestant boy joined hands in front of the President to pray for a better tomorrow.

“I think the peace is great because there is no shooting or bombing. It means I can play in the park without worrying about getting shot,” said 10-year-old David Sterrett, a Protestant.

Catherine Hamill, 8, a Catholic, told Clinton that her father had been killed during the partisan violence--”the worst day of my life.”

“Now it is nice and peaceful,” she said in a clear, piping voice. “I like having peace and quiet for a change instead of people shooting and killing. My Christmas wish is that peace and love will last in Ireland forever.”

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In his most powerful address of a long day, Clinton applauded the marked economic and social progress that has come to Belfast since the cease-fire began in the six northern counties where about 3,200 people have died at the hands of terrorists in the past 25 years.

The cease-fire, he said, “marked a turning point in the history of Northern Ireland. Now is the time to sustain that momentum and lock in the gains of peace. Neither community wants to go back to the violence of the past,” Clinton said.

Speaking at the Mackie machine plant in predominantly Catholic West Belfast, Clinton said a twin-track process toward peace announced by Britain and Ireland this week gave all sides a chance to begin preliminary talks.

“We will stand with those who take risks for peace,” he said. “If you walk down this path continually, you will not walk alone. We are entering an era of possibility unparalleled in all of human history. If you enter that era determined to build a new age of peace, the United States of America will proudly stand with you.”

The ongoing struggle in Northern Ireland today, he said, is “between those who are in the ship of peace and those who are trying to sink it; old habits die hard.”

“You, the vast majority, Protestant and Catholics alike, must not allow the ship of peace to sink on the rocks of old habits and hard grudges,” Clinton said at the factory.

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The Mackie plant, a Belfast landmark that makes textile machinery, is a symbol of its city. When violence began 25 years ago, no Catholics worked there. Today about 30% of the work force, including the chief executive, is Catholic. The plant has two main entrances, one from a Protestant neighborhood, one from a Catholic neighborhood.

“You must stand firm against terror. You must say to those who still would use violence for political objectives--you are the past; your day is over. Violence has no place at the table of democracy and no role in the future of this land,” Clinton said.

The factory crowd applauded the President. But one among them, Cedric Wilson, did not like what he was hearing.

Wilson, a hard-line Protestant nationalist and former Belfast city councilman, became the day’s most prominent heckler.

“You must also be willing to say to those who renounce violence and who do take their own risks for peace that they are entitled to be full participants in the democratic process,” the President said.

“Never!” cried Wilson from the audience, breaking Clinton’s rhythm.

” . . . Those who show the courage--[applause]--those who do show the courage to break with the past are entitled to their stake in their future.” Cried Wilson again: “Never!”

The heckling was an aberration on an otherwise grand day for Clinton, but it is a routine fact of political life here.

“It wouldn’t be Northern Ireland without a heckler,” said Michael Ancram, the British government’s political minister for Northern Ireland.

At every opportunity, Clinton hammered home that resolve must be maintained in a peace process that has come to a critical juncture against all odds.

“You have braved so many dangers, you have endured so many sacrifices; surely there can be no turning back,” he said. “But peace must be waged with a warrior’s resolve--bravely, proudly and relentlessly, secure in the knowledge of the single, greatest difference between war and peace: In peace, everybody can win.”

In the predominantly Catholic city of Londonderry, the President was greeted by an ecstatic crowd of thousands that spilled over the ancient city walls, waving American flags and cheering wildly as he waded in to shake hands.

“We love you Cli-i-nton, oh yes we do-oo,” some in the crowd sang lustily.

“It’s almost like God coming down and saying Northern Ireland has a great future, giving people confidence and spirit,” said Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, part of a large delegation of Irish Americans who accompanied the President.

In the mostly Protestant neighborhood of East Belfast, the reception was more restrained, reflecting the worries of some British loyalists that Clinton is pushing too hard for accommodation with the Catholic-dominated Republic of Ireland in the south.

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But the touring President was resolutely even-handed, avoiding any hint of taking sides in the centuries-old dispute between a Catholic minority that seeks reunion with the south and a Protestant majority that wants to remain within the United Kingdom.

In a series of carefully contrived “impromptu” meetings during the day, Clinton greeted two Protestant and two Catholic politicians, including Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, and John Alderdice, leader of the moderate Protestant Alliance Party.

At his evening reception, Clinton held scrupulously equal 20-minute meetings with Adams, Paisley and Protestant leader David Trimble. White House officials allowed photographers to record the meetings but barred reporters.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said the President urged all parties to support the new “two-track” process proposed by the British and Irish governments.

He said Paisley largely repeated his existing positions but made a point of praising Adams, who once defended the terrorism of the IRA but has now committed himself to negotiations.

“It was clear that Mr. Adams has a very continuing and positive attitude toward the peace process,” Paisley said.

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During his day in Belfast, a city still divided by steel walls and barbed wire, the President made two shopping stops--one in a Protestant neighborhood, one in a Catholic district.

On Shankill Road in Protestant East Belfast, he bought apples, tangerines and a small bunch of mixed flowers at Violet’s Fruits.

“The car just stopped outside and in he came. If I had known I’d have had my hair done,” proprietor Violet Clarke said. “A lot here weren’t interested in his coming, but I’m not political. I like peace and I hope it lasts.”

As he left, there was an embarrassed skirmish about money.

“I didn’t want to take any money but he insisted, so I said ‘one pound,’ and he gave me two,” said Clarke. A good buy for the President: retail value of the fruits and flowers that vanished into the opaque-glassed presidential limo is 3 1/2 pounds--about $5.25.

Returning from the Mackie plant, Clinton stopped on Falls Road, the main street in Catholic West Belfast. It was there he met Adams and, with a cheering throng all around him, walked into McErlean’s bakery.

“I wanted to hug and kiss him, but I was shaking like a leaf,” said Suzanne Meenan, who served Clinton Irish soda bread.