[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1332]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HILLSBOROUGH AGREEMENT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to call the Senate's 
attention to a significant agreement that was signed late last Friday 
night to preserve the current government in Belfast and continue the 
long road toward permanent peace in Northern Ireland.
  The 12 years since the signing of the Good Friday Peace Accords have 
not been easy ones for the people of Northern Ireland. The power-
sharing government was suspended in 2002, the British resumed direct 
control, and violence has flared at times. However, all sides have been 
committed to working towards the blueprint for peace worked out in 
1998--the Irish Republican Army formally ended its armed campaign in 
2005, the St. Andrews Agreement returned control of the government to 
Northern Ireland, and all sides have resisted a resurgence of the 
brutality of the past.
  In recent months, disagreements over a variety of issues have 
threatened to bring down the fragile government again--tensions over 
British control of prosecutors, the judiciary and the police, and the 
rights of the Protestant Orange Order to parade through heavily 
Catholic neighborhoods have prevented both sides from moving forward.
  I commend the Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson of the 
Democratic Unionist Party and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness 
of Sinn Fein who met at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast with Prime 
Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown, and Taoiseach Cowen of the Republic 
of Ireland, whose leadership has been vital. Friday's agreement set 
April 12 as the date for the transfer of the Judiciary and Police 
forces to local control, and laid out a plan and timeline for the 
resolution of disagreements on parades before ``marching season'' in 
July of 2011.
  Northern Ireland's long peacemaking process has been difficult, 
demanding painful concessions by both sides. Yet both sides also seem 
to have reached a point where return to the conditions of the last 40 
years is no longer an option. The last few years have seen 
opportunities for Northern Ireland to return to sectarian strife, and 
yet both sides, their leaders, and the people of Northern Ireland have 
looked over the edge and stepped back with the knowledge that no matter 
how difficult the road forward is, the road back must not be travelled.
  I am proud of the critical role the United States has played in the 
process. Former President Clinton was intimately involved in the Good 
Friday Agreement, and Secretary of State Clinton deserves a great deal 
of credit for her part in these talks. All of us in this chamber also 
are proud of the role that former Senator George Mitchell played at 
crucial junctures earlier in this long process. I assure the people of 
Northern Ireland that this Senator--and all Americans of good will--
remains committed to remaining with them every step of the way.

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