[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4359-S4363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    AN AUSPICIOUS ST. PATRICK'S DAY

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, last week, friends of Ireland celebrated 
St. Patrick's Day in an atmosphere of hope. The guns have been silent 
in Northern Ireland for 6 months and it appears that the people of that 
conflict-torn land may at long last be on the irreversible road to 
peace.
  Today, the British Government's Minister of State at the Northern 
Ireland Office, Michael Ancram, met with Loyalist paramilitary 
representatives, and Sinn Fein representatives and the British 
Government appear close to an agreement on an agenda for Ministerial 
talks to begin soon.
  Most important, the people of Northern Ireland themselves are hopeful 
that this peace will last. The vast majority believe it is time to get 
on with talks. Irish citizens from Dublin and other parts of Ireland 
are traveling to Belfast in greater numbers because the fear of 
violence is disappearing. The people of Northern Ireland are going out 
in the evenings without fear of terrorist attacks. Peace is pervasive, 
and each day makes it harder for violence to return.
  The United States has played a significant role in achieving this 
emerging peace, and great credit for it goes to President Clinton. He 
has taken risks for peace in Northern Ireland. He has embraced all 
those in Ireland who are willing to do the same. His foresight and 
judgment have been vindicated. Irish Americans congratulate him--but 
most of all, we thank him, and so do the people of Ireland, Protestant 
and Catholic alike.
  The President and Mrs. Clinton hosted a reception on St. Patrick's 
Day at the White House which was an historic occasion itself. John 
Hume, John Alderdice, Gerry Adams and Gary McMichael--four men 
representing vastly different political views in Northern Ireland--were 
all in attendance. The evening was brought to a close when John Hume 
and Gerry Adams sang the poignant song, ``The Town I loved So Well.'' 
The final verses of the song, which is about John Hume's home town of 
Derry in Northern Ireland speaks to everyone who cares about this 
issue:

     Now the music's gone but they carry on,
     For their spirit's been bruised, never broken.
     They will not forget, but their hearts are set
     On tomorrow and peace once again.

     For what's done is done, and what's won is won;
     And what's lost is lost and gone forever.
     I can only pray for a bright, brand new day
     In the town I love so well.

  [[Page S4360]] Mr. President, only time will tell whether the bright, 
brand new day is finally here. But several recent articles verify the 
new optimistic mood and praise President Clinton for the role he has 
played. I ask unanimous consent that excellent articles by James F. 
Clarity in the New York Times, David Nyhan in the Boston Globe, Mary 
McGrory in the Washington Post, and Patrick J. Sloyan in Newsday, as 
well as the lyrics to ``The Town I Loved So Well,'' and an ad thanking 
President Clinton which appeared in the New York Times on St. Patrick's 
Day, may be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:
                [From the New York Times, Mar. 22, 1995]

                    The I.R.A.'s Political Strongman


        gerry adams seems able to sustain truce and advance aims

                         (By James F. Clarity)

       Dublin, March 21.--As a result of his delicate and much-
     publicized visit last week to New York, Washington and the 
     White House, Gerry Adams appears to have strengthened himself 
     considerably as the political leader of the Irish Republican 
     Army, the man most Irish people think has great influence in 
     sustaining the I.R.A. cease-fire now in its seventh month.
       And Mr. Adams, back in Dublin, also seems to have achieved 
     significant success on a number of tactical goals of Sinn 
     Fein, the I.R.A.'s political arm.
       At home, in the military council of the I.R.A., Mr. Adams, 
     the president of Sinn Fein, has shown once again that his 
     political efforts are bringing the Republican movement 
     benefits and concessions it could not even dream of if the 
     I.R.A. re-started the guerrilla warfare in Northern Ireland.
       In addition to gaining the right to raise funds for 
     political purposes in America, Mr. Adams was invited to meet 
     and chat with the President of the United States, to talk and 
     have his picture taken with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, to 
     attend a White House party in a tuxedo, all proud signs that 
     he and his movement have come a long way from the days when 
     he led the I.R.A.'s Belfast Brigade and was interned by the 
     British for his trouble. On television screens all over the 
     world he achieved the major Republican goal of getting 
     international attention for his argument that the British 
     should relinquish power in their Northern Ireland province.
       Perhaps the most significant result of all this, according 
     to Irish officials and independent experts, is that Mr. 
     Adams' influence with the I.R.A. has probably never been 
     stronger, and that he seems to be easily strong enough in 
     army councils to sustain the cease-fire, at least for several 
     months. Tim Pat Coogan, a historian whose writings on the 
     I.R.A. are standard reference material, said Mr. Adams and 
     his No. 2 in Sinn Fein, Martin McGuinness, who also has a 
     guerrilla background, now have effective control of the 
     military organization.
       Mr. Adams' diplomatic victories, the experts say, have made 
     it more difficult for any I.R.A. commanders who may still be 
     restless with the peace effort to gain support among their 
     fighters for a resumption of attacks on military and civilian 
     targets in the North. While the I.R.A. reportedly keeps going 
     through the training motions of selecting putative targets, 
     the Roman Catholics in the North, particularly in Belfast, 
     press for continuing the talks, for trying to negotiate the 
     early release of I.R.A. prisoners and for the reform of the 
     overwhelmingly Protestant Royal Ulster constabulary, the 
     police force.
       Mr. Coogan, who has many friends in Sinn Fein, and other 
     experts said that Northern Catholics and Protestants want 
     negotiations that could bring their imprisoned fathers, 
     husbands and sons home rather than military operations that 
     risk more death and imprisonment. And, among politicians, the 
     need to keep talking also reflects the rarely spoken fear 
     that a particularly heinous violation of the cease-fire, one 
     that killed several civilians or British police or soldiers, 
     could still collapse the peace effort.
       Mr. Coogan and Irish officials said that Mr. Adams was 
     compelled to make a worth-the-price concession to the British 
     in order to gain Mr. Clinton's approval of his visit: his 
     agreement to discuss I.R.A. disarmament with British 
     ministers. Asked this week if he was still ready to discuss 
     I.R.A. disarmament at such talks, Mr. Adams said, 
     ``Absolutely,'' but he declined to say how soon that might 
     happen. Previously, Mr. Adams had insisted that disarmament 
     could only be discussed at all-party talks, including 
     Northern Ireland's Protestant leaders, as part of a final 
     peace settlement.
       Two weeks before he left for America, Mr. Adams said, 
     ``Republicans are fairly patient,'' and would not expect to 
     be included in all-party political tasks on disarmament, for 
     three or four months.
       Politically, outside the I.R.A., Mr. Adams has also won 
     concessions. Until he and John Hume, the influential leader 
     of the Catholic-dominated Social Democratic Labor Party, 
     began a secret peace initiative two years ago, Sinn Fein was 
     banned from the United States as a front for a terrorist 
     organization.
       Now Mr. Hume, once a political enemy whose candidate 
     defeated Mr. Adams in the 1992 British Parlimentary election, 
     has personally introduced Mr. Adams to Mr. Clinton in 
     Washington. And Mr. Adams can visit America, raise money, 
     and, most important, he was achieved an old Sinn Fein 
     objective: pulling the White House directly and openly into-a 
     mediator's role between the I.R.A. and the British. American 
     pressure on London delights Sinn Fein and the I.R.A. because 
     it influences, and sometimes vexes, the British Government.
       Mr. Adam's agreement, under White House pressure, to 
     discuss disarmament with British ministers was followed in a 
     matter of days by a British concession on the issue Mr. Adams 
     calls ``demilitarization'': the promised withdrawal of 400 
     British troops from the North.
       And Mr. Adams has held on to the political support of the 
     Irish Government of Prime Minister John Bruton, support that 
     seemed weakened when Mr. Bruton replaced Albert Reynolds 
     three months ago. Mr. Reynolds had urged Britain and the 
     United States to trust the I.R.A.'s stated good intentions, 
     to keep the cease-fire going even though they refused to 
     renounce forever the option of returning to violence.
       Mr. Reynolds welcomed Mr. Adams to Dublin to discuss peace 
     at an open Government forum. Mr. Bruton had long been accused 
     of being more sympathetic to the Protestants in the North who 
     want to remain part of Britain than to the I.R.A. goal of a 
     united Ireland free of British control.
       Mr. Bruton has continued to nudge Mr. Adams on disarmament 
     and on a categorial renunciation of violence, and he has 
     emphasized that the Protestant unionist majority in the North 
     has a right to reject a united Ireland in a referendum.
       But Mr. Bruton has also given Mr. Adams a symbolic hand-
     shake and talked with him privately, and he urged the White 
     House to let him visit last week. Some experts, invoking the 
     Nixon-and-China principle, see Mr. Bruton as the Irish leader 
     who has the best chance of gaining trust among Protestant 
     unionists and persuading them to talk to Sinn Fein, 
     eventually.
       And Prime Minister Bruton, with the approval of all sides, 
     seems willing to continue to play the role of referee in the 
     sparring match between Sinn Fein and Britain, making sure 
     that the predictable but sometimes sharp jabs are not struck 
     too low and, with most of the audience hoping anxiously for a 
     draw, that neither side tries for a knockout.
                                                                    ____

                 [From the Boston Globe, Mar. 22, 1955]

               Irish Eyes Smile on Clinton's Peacemaking

                            (By David Nyhan)

     But when I returned, Oh how my eyes did burn
     To see how a town could be brought to its knees
     By the armored cars and the bombed-out bars
     And the gas that hangs on every breeze. . .
                                  ``The Town That I Love So Well''
       President Clinton put it as plainly as it can be put Friday 
     night: ``Those who take risks for peace are always welcome 
     under this roof.''
       The largely Hibernian crowd in the East Room for the White 
     House St. Patrick's Day bash erupted. While some of the 
     Ulster Orangemen may fulminate and Britain's John Major keeps 
     Clinton's phone call on hold and the British papers go 
     berserk, Clinton's daring little Irish play is working, and 
     the crowd gave the boyish president his due.
       The president was straight-faced, but you knew he had to be 
     winking inside, when he said: ``The Irish knew then (in 
     Thomas Jefferson's day) how to back a winner (the fledgling 
     United States).'' But no one missed the irony: Major's Tory 
     party had bet big on a George Bush victory, and Clinton's 
     overture to the Irish Republican Army and its political 
     mouthpiece, Gerry Adams, was a longshot that paid off 
     handsomely.
       It was John Hume who prevailed upon Ted Kennedy and his 
     sister, Jean Smith, the U.S. ambassador to the Republic of 
     Ireland: Convince Clinton to lift the visa restriction on 
     Adams, the Sinn Fein spokesman, and allow him into the United 
     States to raise money and visibility--and to hell with the 
     British. Because Ted Kennedy is arguably Clinton's biggest 
     bulwark on the left, Hume's initiative prevailed, Adams 
     arrived here a year ago, and the pace was set for the cease-
     fire that now obtains.
       Any president, who can, with some dextrous diplomatic 
     jujitsu, end a 25-year-old, guerrilla war deserves some 
     credit. And this crowd gave it to him. Irish Prime Minister 
     John Bruton, a veteran back-bencher who suddenly emerged to 
     lead the government, lavished gratitude upon Clinton ``for 
     the role you have played personally, Mr. President.''
       Four times as many Dubliners now travel north to Ulster 
     every day to shop and spend
      and renew kinship ties, he said. ``There's a whole weight 
     lifted off our shoulders,'' said Bruton. ``We're a happy 
     land now.''
       And it was the United States and ``the stand for decency 
     the United States has taken on so many occasions'' that made 
     the difference, Ireland's leader testified. ``The courage of 
     the US has been the key factor in preserving the peace (in 
     Europe) over 50 years. Thank you again for the tremendous 
     good you have done for our country.''
       Ireland may be grateful; Britain is hopping mad, if last 
     weeks' London newspapers were any indication. To Britons, 
     Adams' is the bearded visage of terrorism, the voice 
     defending heinous bombers who killed kids, civilians, 
     contractors, cab drivers, who blew up Harrods and Airey Neave 
     and tried to kill Thatcher and did kill Mountbatten. Would 
     [[Page S4361]]  America like it if Britain's ruler invited 
     the Lockerbie bombers to 10 Downing St. for tea? Not hardly.
       But Clinton's gamble paid off. And he was toasted for it by 
     a crowd that included plenty from around here. There were 
     three O'Neills, enough Dunfeys to fill a bus and pairs of the 
     following: Bulgers (the Senate president and son Bill), 
     Flynns (Ambassador to the Vatican Ray and son Eddie), Kings 
     (administration personnel czar Jim and son Patrick) and at 
     least two Jesuits (BC President J. Donald Monan and former US 
     Rep. Robert F. Drinan).
       But the real pair of the evening came late, when many had 
     left, and after Mark Gearan, the top Bay Stater on Clinton's 
     staff, prevailed upon Bill Bulger Sr. to give us a tune. He 
     responded with, ``I come from the County Kerry; I'm a typical 
     Irish-man.'' But then, Bulger said yesterday, ``I saw John 
     Hume give me the sign he had a song. So I called him up, and 
     he did ``The Town I Love So Well.'' That tune is the 
     traditional lament for Derry, Hume's battle-scarred hometown 
     in the North.
       Bulger: ``So then I gave Gerry Adams the sign to come up, 
     and they did it as a duet.'' The sight and sound of Hume and 
     Adams singing under Bulger's benign tutelage in the East 
     Room, with the cease-fire holding, is all due to Clinton.
       Bulger, back in Boston, said: ``This is a real success. 
     It's incredible. Everyone had said `no' to Adams. It was a 
     real bold thing to do. The president broke that stalemate.''
                                                                    ____

               [From the Washington Post, Mar. 21, 1995]

                           (By Mary McGrory)

                    Irish Eyes Have Reason To Smile

       Bill Clinton had a grand moment in the East Room at his 
     second St. Patrick's Day party. The Prime Minister of 
     Ireland, John Bruton, said to him, ``We're a happy land now, 
     thanks to the stand and courage that you and your colleagues 
     have shown, Mr. President.'' He further told his host that he 
     had been right and Dublin had been wrong about taking a 
     chance on Sinn Fein. It was the kind of ungrudging, 
     overflowing approval and vindication Clinton seldom hears. It 
     was the stuff of ethnic campaign commercials.
       But he missed a moment of triumph, a tableau of Irish unity 
     and harmony that sent the audience into roaring raptures and 
     left them with a memory for the generations.
       The Clintons had left. The guests lingered. The Clintons, 
     who forgot that the Irish rarely ``go gentle into that good 
     night'' from a good party, sent down instructions for music 
     to say good night to. Communications director Mark Gearan 
     went to the piano, Billy Bolger, the little Caesar of the 
     Massachusetts Senate and an eager tenor, was easily recruited 
     and ``When Irish Eyes Are Smiling'' was heard once again. 
     Suddenly Bolger stopped. ``I think we should hear from John 
     Hume,'' he said.
       Hume, the valiant leader of the Catholic party in Northern 
     Ireland, came up and began to sing his theme song, ``The Town 
     that I Love So Well.'' He was into the second or third verse 
     when a dark, bearded figure joined him on the stage. It was 
     Gerry Adams, and with arms around each other, they finished 
     the song. The audience went wild. As soon as they recognized 
     Adams, they began cheering, and as the pair continued, they 
     stood up applauding. Adams's smile, for once, was not mocking 
     or supercilious. `History,'' they told each other, a 
     settlement in song in the Clinton White House.
       ``Those who take risks for peace are always welcome under 
     this roof,'' Clinton had said in his welcome to the prime 
     minister. No one took a greater chance than Hume, the bright, 
     careworn favorite of Irish-American politicians, who sought 
     out the spokesman and Sinn Fein, the political arm of the 
     terrorist IRA, was discovered, harassed, threatened to the 
     point when he spent weeks in a hospital with a bleeding ulcer 
     and a bad case of despair. Hume convinced our ambassador Jean 
     Kennedy Smith and her brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, that 
     Adams was the key. Kennedy prevailed upon the president, and 
     a year ago February, while the British raged, Clinton gave 
     Adams a visa for a 48-hour U.S. stay.
       Adams maddens many because he insists on talking about Sinn 
     Fein as if it were a stamp club. When arms and bombs and 
     kneecappings and hideous murders of parents before the eyes 
     of their children come up, he looks pained and recoils. What 
     would he know about all that? But last August, he came 
     through. A cease-fire came into effect, the Catholics and 
     Protestants of Ulster began to breathe. The shadow of the 
     gunman disappeared from the streets of Belfast. Plans for 
     Anglo-Irish talks were resumed.
       It's still a long way to Tipperary, but another milestone 
     was passed when Clinton again leaned into the wind from 
     London, and not only let Adams come to Washington and the 
     White House, but let him raise money for Sinn Fein. Britain 
     saw it as a cheap bid for the votes of America's 40 million 
     Irish. Outrage led the British press. Adams raised $80,000 at 
     one New York lunch, and the British boiled over with warnings 
     that the money would go to buy arms to replace those that are 
     supposed to be ``decommissioned.'' Not a farthing, Adams 
     promised. John Major refused to take Clinton's calls.
       But everyone at the White House gala was happy and hopeful, 
     particularly the Bostonians, who outnumbered all others. Ray 
     Flynn, Boston's erstwhile mayor and now Clinton's envoy to 
     the Vatican, was telling people the good news that while on a 
     confidential political mission to Pennsylvania, he had found 
     out that Reagan Democrats had put aside their differences on 
     gays in the military and such, and are coming home.
       A number of nervous Irishmen seemed to have checked their 
     misgivings at the door. They were delighted to be able to 
     give their views in the splendors of the Executive Mansion. 
     Gary McMichael of the Ulster Democratic Party had a good chat 
     with Sen. Kennedy. Outside a handful of members of the 
     Families Against Intimidation and Terror picketed and 
     leafletted passersby. They were protesting the 46 beatings 
     that have been administered by both sides, Unionists and IRA, 
     since the cease-fire. Iron bars and clubs with nails are 
     used. The protesters had hoped to be invited in, they were 
     not but were assuaged by a visit to the Security Council the 
     following morning.
       On Sunday, Major resumed speaking to the president and 
     expressed the hope of putting it all behind. Adams landed in 
     Dublin and said, with his usual surprise that anyone would 
     ask, that no one had pressured him on decommissioning arms.
                                                                    ____


                     [From Newsday, Feb. 27, 1995]

                      Sinn Fein Balks at Disarming

                         (By Patrick J. Sloyan)

       Dublin.--A plump dove, white on a purple backdrop, flew 
     over the conference, streaming the Irish tricolor wrapped 
     around the slogan: ``Create Peace: Unite Ireland.''
       ``Does anyone want to speak?'' Gerry Adams, president of 
     Sinn Fein, asked delegates to its annual conference. ``We 
     welcome your criticism.''
       As the meeting of the Irish Republican Army's political 
     wing droned to a close yesterday, Adams seemed miffed over 
     news accounts of grumbling delegates. Some were dismayed by 
     the tepid tone of freedom fighters turned peacemongers.
       Owen Bennett stalked to the Mansion House microphone. ``No 
     one can promise some future generation will not resort to 
     arms to win self-determination,'' Bennett said. He was from 
     south Armagh, a hotbed of IRA warfare for the past quarter of 
     a century. A roar filled the hall.
       Until the IRA ceasefire last August, many of the delegates 
     lived by nationalist-intellectual Patrick Pearse's slogan: 
     ``Life springs from death. And from the graves of patriot men 
     and women spring living nations.'' It was on a banner set 
     discreetly to one side in the conference hall and was 
     decorated not with doves but crossed rifles, a revolver and a 
     pike.
       Only a few blocks away is the Dublin post office seized on 
     Easter 1916 by Pearse and comrades determined to end 
     England's rule of Ireland. Now, 79 years later, Adams and the 
     heirs to that uprising were closer than ever to that goal.
       But handling doves, as Adams is learning, is far trickier 
     than wielding a pike. The next step toward a permanent peace 
     in Northern Ireland and the beginning of an eventual union 
     between Irish north and south could be a difficult one for 
     the IRA.
       Before starting negotiations on the Belfast framework 
     announced last week, British Prime Minister John Major wants 
     the Sinn Fein to give up thousands of IRA rifles, rocket 
     launchers, pistols and grenades and tons of hidden 
     explosives.
       ``There has to be substantial progress made on the
        decommissioning of arms,'' Sir Patrick Mayhew said 
     yesterday. He is the British government's Secretary of 
     Northern Ireland and has refused to talk with Sinn Fein. 
     Instead, his staff conducted preliminary talks on Mayor's 
     behalf with Sinn Fein emissaries.
       ``We have told the British that Sinn Fein does not have any 
     weapons,'' said Martin McGuinness, who represented the 
     organization in talks with Mayhew's staff. Most delegates at 
     Mission House will wink at that one. McGuinness is reputed to 
     be military commander of the IRA, succeeding Adams in 
     directing attacks in Northern Ireland.
       But McGuinness drew applause with a reminder that it was 
     Sinn Fein's unilateral initiative that produced the cease 
     fire that has sparked the peace process.
       ``We told them, just in case the reality had escaped them, 
     that the British government and the British army had not 
     defeated the IRA; that the IRA had not surrendered and that 
     the British government could not even remotely expect Sinn 
     Fein to deliver that surrender for them,'' McGuinness said to 
     cheers.
       Adams has a counterproposal: decommission British and 
     Unionist guns as well as IRA weapons. And demilitarize the 
     province by eliminating 13,500 Royal Ulster Constabulary 
     police at 161 stations and removing 19,000 British troops at 
     135 forts.
       London is inching toward Sinn Fein demands. Border 
     checkpoints have become largely unmanned traffic snarls. 
     British army patrols have decreased dramatically, and 
     soldiers have vanished from some areas. Some British 
     government officials say troops could be withdrawn as 
     security needs subside.
       Dublin government officials see a precedent for Sinn Fein 
     disarmament. When the 26 counties of the south won 
     independence in 1937, the IRA turned over many of their 
     weapons to help equip a new Irish army. ``But it would be 
     difficult now,'' said an aide to Deputy Irish Prime Minister 
     Dick Spring. ``Gerry Adams has to deal with the `hard men' 
     [extremists] in the Sinn Fein.'' 
     [[Page S4362]] 
       One possible compromise would be the release of an 
     estimated 600 IRA prisoners in Ulster and British prisons 
     coinciding with a Dublin decommisssioning of IRA weapons.
       In the meantime, Adams and Major's demand for IRA weapons 
     is merely a dodge to stall the start of all-party talks, 
     including Sinn Fein and Unionist paramilitary leaders as well 
     as government officials from Dublin, Belfast, and London.
       In response to Mayhew's statement yesterday demanding 
     progress on disarmament, Adams said: ``He wants to make up 
     his mind. It is a precondition of talks or it's not a 
     precondition.''
       The Sinn Fein leader was daring Major to obstruct an Irish 
     peace process that has revived his slipping political 
     fortunes in Britain. A Gallup Poll financed by the London 
     Telegraph showed 92 percent of Britain voters supported the 
     Belfast framework and 68 percent believed Ulster Unionists 
     were wrong not to participate in the talks.
       Another poll, commissioned by British television among 
     Northern Ireland's Unionist voters, approved the plan. Ulster 
     Marketing found 81 percent of the more moderate Unionist 
     party members favored the framework, which also was supported 
     by 61 percent on the more conservative Democratic Unionist 
     Party.
       ``The British government position [on IRA disarmament] is 
     untenable,'' said Sinn Fein's McGuinness. ``It has to 
     change.''
                                                                    ____

                        The Town I Loved So Well

                   (Words and Music by Phil Coulter)

     In my memory, I will always see
     The town that I have loved so well,
     Where our school played ball by the gas yard wall
     And we laughed through the smoke and the smell.
     Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane,
     Past the jail and down behind the fountain--
     There were happy days in so many, many ways
     In the town I loved so well.

     In the early morning the shirt factory horn
     Called women from Creggan, the Moor and the Bog;
     While the men on the dole played a mother's role,
     Fed the children, and then walked the dog;
     And when times got tough, there was just about enough;
     And they saw it through without complaining:
     For deep inside was a burning pride
     In the town I loved so well.

     There was music there in the Derry air
     Like a language that we all could understand;
     I remember the day that I earned my first pay
     When I played in a small pick-up band.
     There I spent my youth, and to tell you the truth,
     I was sad to leave it all behind me:
     For I'd learned about life, and I'd found a wife
     In the town I loved so well.

     But when I've returned how my eyes have burned
     To see how a town could be brought to its knees;
     By the armoured cars and the bombed-out bars,
     And the gas that hangs on to every breeze:
     Now the army's installed by that old gas yard wall
     And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher;
     With their tanks and their guns, Oh my God what have they 
           done
     To the town I loved so well.

     Now the music's gone but they carry on
     For their spirit's been bruised, never broken;
     They will not forget, but their hearts are set
     On tomorrow and peace once again.
     For what's done is done, and what's won is won;
     And what's lost is lost and gone forever:
     I can only pray for a bright, brand new day
     In the town I love so well.
                                                                    ____

               [From the New York Times, March 17, 1995]

                         Irish Eyes Are Smiling


                 president clinton--thank you very much

         (National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Inc.)

       For the first time in a generation, 44 million Irish 
     Americans can celebrate peace in Ireland.
       This ``emergent vision of peace,'' as the poet Seamus 
     Heaney has called it, allows us to celebrate St. Patrick's 
     Day with a pride in our heart and warmth in our soul.
       Many brave men and women, Protestant and Catholic, Irish 
     and British, helped bring about this peace process.
       So did their respective governments.
       Countless Americans of all traditions and from every walk 
     of life, worked so hard to make this miracle happens.
       Moreover, the important role played by the men and women of 
     the United States Congress, from both parties can never be 
     forgotten.
       Above all, Mr. President, we celebrate your role in making 
     this peace possible.
       Since your first day in office, you have shown a rare 
     commitment to bringing peace to that ancestral land of your 
     mother's roots.
       Your involvement in encouraging all the political parties 
     in Northern Ireland to come together was crucial.
       Your vision in granting U.S. visas to leaders of the 
     Republican and Loyalist communities, who now wish to take the 
     gun forever out of Irish politics, was vital.
       Your overall encouragement of the British and Irish 
     governments as they signed their historic Joint Framework 
     Document was inspiring.
       By your actions, you have made clear how much the United 
     States wants to help create the conditions for peace, justice 
     and reconciliation in Ireland.
       By your words, you have made clear your personal commitment 
     to the framework for an agreed Ireland that can allow all of 
     its people to live in peace.
       By your support, you have inspired your fellow Irish 
     Americans who will now redouble their efforts to ensure that 
     the peace continues.
       Another great Irish American, President Kennedy, stated 
     that peace must be ``dynamic, not static, changing to meet 
     the challenges confronting it, for peace is a process, a way 
     of solving problems.''
       With your help, Mr. President, we can keep that peace and 
     that process moving forward.
       We salute you for your concern and for your caring.
       And we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
       William J. Flynn, Chairman.
       Dr. George D. Schwab, President.
       We, the undersigned, wish to add our voice to that of the 
     National Committee on American Foreign Policy.
       Tom Barton, President, Marz Inc.
       Charles J. Boyle, Executive Director, Ireland Chamber of 
     Commerce in the USA, Inc.
       Hon. Hugh L. Carey, former governor, State of New York, 
     Executive Vice President, W.R. Grace & Co.
       Stanley Q. Casey, Richardson, Mahon & Casey.
       William J. Chambers, Chairman, Eirlink International.
       Ed Cleary, AFL-CIO.
       Elliot H. Cole, Esq., Partner, Patton Boggs, LLP.
       John J. Connorton, Jr., Partner, Hawkins, Delafield & Wood.
       Frank D. Cooney, Jr., Treasurer, County Asphalt, Inc.
       John T. Cooney, Sr., Vice President, County Asphalt, Inc.
       Robert A. Cooney, Associate Dean, Loyola Law School, Los 
     Angeles, CA.
       Gerald Cummins, Chairman, Mancum Graphics, Inc.
       Joanne Toor Cummings, Sr. Vice President, NCAFP
       John T. Dee, President, Service America Corporation.
       Thomas J. Degnan, President, In Progress Environment.
       Roy E. Disney, Vice Chairman of the Board, The Walt Disney 
     Company.
       Robert J. Donahue, President, Patrons of the John F. 
     Kennedy Trust, Inc.
       Thomas R. Donohue, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO.
       Cornelius (Connie) S. Doolan, Director, Trade Relations 
     North America, Guinness Import Co.
       Eamonn Doran, Restauranteur, New York/Dublin.
       John A. Doyle, President, the Doyle Group, Inc.
       Raymond G. Duffy, Vice President, Jefferson Smurfit 
     Corporation.
       Hon. Angier Biddle Duke, Chairman, Appeal of Conscience 
     Foundation.
       John R. Dunne, former US Assistant Attorney General for 
     Civil Rights
       Seymour Maxwell Finger.
       Hugh P. Finnegan, Partner, Siller, Wilk, & Mencher LLP.
       John Fitzpatrick, CEO, North America, Fitzpatrick Family 
     Group of Hotels.
       Peter J. Flanagan, President, Life Insurance Council of New 
     York.
       Adrian Flannelly, President, Adrian Flannelly Irish Radio.
       Edward T. Fogarty, President & CEO, Tambrands Inc.
       Richard R. Fogarty, CEO & President, Labatt.
       Michael J. Gibbons.
       William P. Gibbons, Attorney at Law, Cleveland, Ohio.
       Claire Grimes, CEO, Irish Echo Newspaper Corporation.
       Dr. Os Guinness, The Trinity Forum.
       Martin Hamrogue, General Manger, Operation Control, TWA.
       Peter Hanrahan, partner, Keegan Hanrahan Architects, PC.
       Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief, Irish America Magazine.
       Margaret M. Heckler, former US Ambassador to Ireland.
       John F. Henning, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, California 
     Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
       Hon. Alan G. Hevesi, Comptroller, City of New York.
       Ray Hogan, Hogan Fragrances.
       Peter J. Hooper.
       Abassador F. Hoveyda, Executive Committee, NCAFP.
       Carl F. Hughes, Chairman President & CEO, Fahey Bank.
       Tom Ivory, CEO, Baker Street Bread.
       Richard R. Joaquim, President, International Conference 
     Resorts.
       Philip M. Keating, Esq., David & Hagner.
       Kevin Keegan, partner, Keegan Hanrahan Architects, PC.
       Martin P. & Mary Kehoe.
       Denis P. Kelleher, CEO, Wall Street Investor Services.
       [[Page S4363]] Michael P. Kelley, Vice President, Sales, 
     Norcom Electronics.
       Daniel J. Kelly, Group Managing Partner, Deloitte & Touche.
       Patrick J. Keogh, President & CEO, Ireland Chamber of 
     Commerce in the USA, Inc.
       Herbert Kurz, Chairman, Presidential Life Insurance 
     Company.
       Michael J. Larkin, Executive Vice President, The Great 
     Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc.
       Dr. Thomas J. Ledwith, Executive Director, United States 
     Program, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth.
       Edward S. Lewis, President, SPK/Lewis Inc.
       Rev. Dr. Franklin H. Littell, Temple University.
       Edmund E. Lynch, National Coordinator, Lawyers Alliance for 
     Justice in Ireland, Inc.
       Jack MacDonough, CEO, Miller Brewing Company.
       Shirley Whelan MacRae, President, S.W. Management.
       Edward G. Maher, Patrick J. Maher, President, Business 
     Insurance Agency, Inc.
       Annette Mahon, President, Belvedere Public Relations, Inc.
       John F. X. Mannion, Chairman & CEO, Unity Mutual Life 
     Insurance Company.
       Edward I. Masterman, Esq., Masterman, Culbert & Tully.
       John McCabe, Account Manager, Corporate Express.
       Sean McCabe, Account Manager, Corporate Express.
       James F. McCann, President, 1-800-Flowers.
       William C. McCann, President & CEO, Allied Junction.
       Jerome R. McDougal, President & CEO, River Bank America.
       Gerald W. McEntee, President, The American Federation of 
     State, County, & Municipal Employees.
       Paschal McGuinness, 1st Vice President, International 
     Brotherhood of Carpenters & President, Irish-American Labor 
     Coalition.
       Denis McInerney.
       Mark P. McInerney, President, L.P. Cook Government 
     Securities Inc.
       Andrew J. McKenna, Chairman, President & CEO, Schwarz Paper 
     Company.
       William A. McKenna, Jr., Chairman & CEO, Ridgewood Savings 
     Bank.
       Hon. Timothy Connor McNamara, Columbia Consulting Group.
       Thomas J. Moran, President & CEO, Mutual of America.
       Bruce A. Morrison, former Member of Congress, Partner, 
     Morrison & Swaine.
       Sheillagh Mulready, Secretary/Treasurer, Patrons of the 
     John F. Kennedy Trust, Inc.
       James C. Nicholas, Executive Director, Connecticut World 
     Trade Association, Inc.
       Brian Nolan, Executive Vice President, Blarney Wollen 
     Mills.
       James J. O'Connon, President & CEO, The Annamor Group Ltd.
       Niall O'Dowd, Publisher, Irish America Magazine.
       Michael M. O'Driscoll, President, Cash's of Ireland.
       John A. O'Malley, President, Executive Benefits Group. Inc.
       Tice O'Sullivan, President, Diversified Management 
     Services.
       Joan Peters, Writer, Historian & Lecturer, Exec. Comm. 
     Member & Trustee, NCAFP.
       Ann Phillips, Member of the Board of Trustees, NCAFP.
       William Pickens III, President, Bill Pickens Associates, 
     Inc.
       Edward J. Quinn, President, Worldwide Educational Services, 
     Inc.
       James L. Quinn, Law/CPA Offices of James J. Quinn.
       Bryan Reidy, General Manager, Gallagher's Steak House, NYC.
       Alan Richards.
       Michael J. Roarty, President, Ireland-US Council for 
     Commerce & Industry.
       William J. Rudolf, Vice President, NCAFP.
       Dennis G. Ruppel, President, MTD Technologies, Inc.
       Dankwart A. Rustow, Distinguished Professor, City 
     University of New York.
       David L. Ryan, Vice President, The Doyle Group.
       Kathleen Schmacht, Executive Vice President, E.C. Services, 
     Inc.
       Elizabeth Shannon, Writer, Boston University.
       John T. Sharkey, New York City.
       Stanley Shmishkiss, Chairman Emeritus, American Cancer 
     Society Foundation.
       John R. Silber, President, Boston University.
       Richard Blake St. Francis.
       Robert E. Sweeney, President, Robert E. Sweeney Co., L.P.A.
       James D. Walker, Managing Director, VAT America.
       Kevin J. Walsh, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren.
       Michael J. Walsh, President, Walsh Trading Company.
       Stephanie Whiston.
       Use of Organization name is solely for identification 
     purposes.
     

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