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1. BRIDGES to AMERICA
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BRIDGES to AM ERICA 3 “Three years ago, I pledged that if you chose peace Americans would walk with you,” President Bill Clinton told a cheering audience at Armagh at the close of an exhausting day in September . “You made the choice, and America will honor its pledge.” The president, making his second visit to Northern Ireland in three years, had flown into Belfast International Airport early in the morning of Thursday, September . He was to speak to members of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, elected only in June, to address over two thousand politicians, civic leaders, businessmen, and educators in the new Waterfront Hall, to open the new Educational Center of the University of Ulster at Springvale, and to visit Omagh and the survivors of a car bomb that had killed twenty-nine people two weeks earlier. In the warm light of the early evening at the open-air event in Armagh, his fifth major event of the day, Clinton told prime minister Tony Blair, Northern Ireland first minister David Trimble, deputy first minister Seamus Mallon, and the crowd of several thousands that the United States would continue to support Northern Ireland to further the peace process and to strengthen the institutions of democratic and representative government. During the day Tony Blair had paid Clinton the most generous tribute by saying, “There is no President of the United States who has done more for peace in Northern Ireland than you.”1 . Remarks by the president to “A Gathering for Peace,” Armagh, Historical files, U.S. Consulate General, Belfast; and Belfast Telegraph, September , . The events of this day represented something of a culmination of the efforts of President Clinton, prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major, and the Irish taoiseachs Bertie Ahern, John Bruton, and Albert Reynolds. A significant moment was signaled in the political evolution of Northern Ireland, which since April had seen the signing of the Good Friday Agreement for a new cross-community political structure, a referendum in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland approving the agreement, and elections setting the agreement in motion. While horrendous violence and civil disobedience had still dominated the summer, this was a moment to savor. The United States had played a part in these events, not a commanding part but a facilitating part—giving suggestions not orders. Through the office of the United States Consulate General and the special negotiator, former senator George Mitchell, the many parties had been kept at the table talking and working to a successful conclusion. Behind the scenes for the past several years, making all of this possible, had been the consul general, Kathleen Stephens, and her successor, Jane Benton Fort, and their staff of thirteen. The Belfast office is large for a consulate, the size of a small embassy really. It includes a consul general, a consul, a vice consul, a commercial officer , a press and information officer, and a security officer, as well as a large clerical staff. For a presidential visit the staff was augmented by several people from the United States Embassy in London and later by staff from the Executive Office in Washington. That this consulate has in recent years been increasingly close to the center of one of the most important American foreign policy initiatives is particularly fitting. This Belfast consulate was created in George Washington’s administration, and, with the vicissitudes of time, it is one of the oldest consulates to remain in constant service. This is more than simply an interesting coincidence. In the modern world of nation-states it is extraordinary for one country to allow another country to play any part in its domestic affairs . Much of international relations for over three hundred years ⁄ [3.235.140.73] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 07:53 GMT) has been based on the general acceptance that the exclusive responsibility for the domestic affairs of a state rests only in the control of its own government. In these matters Northern Ireland is a special case. The Republic of Ireland has since been allowed, although not without controversy, a voice in Northern Ireland affairs because of the historic unity of the island, the fraternity of many of the people of Northern Ireland with the people of the Republic, and the political preferences of a portion of the population of Northern Ireland . The voice allowed to the United States in these matters might seem more remote and less obvious. Nevertheless, the relationship of the United States to Great...