    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [November 30, 1995]
    [Pages 1809-1811]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community in Londonderry, Northern Ireland
    November 30, 1995

        Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, Mrs. Kerr, Mr. and Mrs.
    Hume, Sir Patrick and Lady Mayhew. And to this remarkable crowd, let me
    say that there have been many Presidents of the United States who had
    their roots in this soil. I can see today how lucky I am to be the first
    President of the United States to come back to this city to say thank
    you very much.
        Hillary and I are proud to be here in the home of Ireland's most
    tireless champion for civil rights and its most eloquent voice of
    nonviolence, John Hume. I know that at least twice already I have had
    the honor of hosting John and Pat in Washington. And the last time I saw
    him I said, ``You can't come back to Washington one more time until you
    let me come to Derry.'' And here I am.
        I am delighted to be joined here today by a large number of
    Americans, including a distinguished delegation of Members of our United
    States Congress who have supported peace and reconciliation here and who
    have supported economic development through the International Fund for
    Ireland.
        I'm also joined today by members of the O'Neill family. Among the
    last great chieftains of Ireland were the O'Neills of Ulster. But in
    America, we still have chieftains who are the O'Neills of Boston. They
    came all the way over here to inaugurate the Tip O'Neill Chair in Peace
    Studies here at the University of Ulster. This chair will honor the
    great Irish-American and late Speaker of the House of Representatives by
    furthering his dream of peace in Northern Ireland. And I am honored to
    be here with his family members today.
        All of you know that this city is a very different place from what a
    visitor like me would have seen just a year and a half ago, before the
    cease-fire. Crossing the border now is as easy as crossing a speed bump.
    The soldiers are off the streets. The city walls are open to civilians.
    There are no more shakedowns as you walk into a store. Daily life has
    become more ordinary. But this will never be an ordinary city.
        I came here because you are making a home for peace to flourish and
    endure--a local climate responsible this week for the announcement of
    new business operations that offer significant new opportunities to you
    as well as new hope. Let me applaud also the success of the Inner City
    Trust and Paddy Dogherty who have put people to work rebuilding bombed-
    out buildings, building new ones, and building up confidence and civic
    pride.
        America's connections to this place go back a long, long time. One
    of our greatest cities, Philadelphia, was mapped out three centuries ago
    by a man who was inspired by the layout of the streets behind these
    walls. His name was William Penn. He was raised a Protestant in Ireland
    in a military family. He became a warrior, and he fought in Ulster. But
    he turned away from warfare, traded in his armor, converted to the
    Quaker faith, and became a champion of peace. Imprisoned for his
    religious views, William Penn wrote one of the greatest defenses of
    religious tolerance in history. Released from prison, he went to America
    in the 1680's, a divisive decade here, and founded Pennsylvania, a
    colony unique in the new world because it was based on the principle of
    religious tolerance.

    [[Page 1810]]

        Philadelphia quickly became the main port of entry for immigrants
    from the north of Ireland who made the Protestant and Catholic
    traditions valuable parts of our treasured traditions in America. Today
    when he travels to the States, John Hume is fond of reminding us about
    the phrase that Americans established in Philadelphia as the motto of
    our Nation, E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one, the belief that back then
    Quakers and Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians could practice their
    religion, celebrate their culture, honor their traditions, and live as
    neighbors in peace. In the United States today in just one county, Los
    Angeles, there are representatives of over 150 different racial, ethnic,
    and religious groups. We are struggling to live out William Penn's
    vision, and we pray that you will be able to live out that vision as
    well.
        Over the last 3 years since I have had the privilege to be the
    President of the United States I have had occasion to meet with
    Nationalists and to meet with Unionists and to listen to their sides of
    the story. I have come to the conclusion that here, as in so many other
    places in the world, from the Middle East to Bosnia, the divisions that
    are most important here are not the divisions between opposing views or
    opposing interests. Those divisions can be reconciled. The deep
    divisions, the most important ones, are those between the peacemakers
    and the enemies of peace: those who, deep, deep down inside, want peace
    more than anything and those who, deep down inside, can't bring
    themselves to reach out for peace; those who are in the ship of peace
    and those who would sink it; those who bravely meet on the bridge of
    reconciliation and those who would blow it up.
        My friends, everyone in life at some point has to decide what kind
    of person he or she is going to be. Are you going to be someone who
    defines yourself in terms of what you are against or what you are for?
    Will you be someone who defines yourself in terms of who you aren't or
    who you are? The time has come for the peacemakers to triumph in
    Northern Ireland, and the United States will support them as they do.
        The world-renowned playwright from this city, Brian Friel, wrote a
    play called ``Philadelphia, Here I Come.'' In it a character who is
    about to immigrate from Ireland thinks back on his past life and says to
    himself, ``It's all over.'' But his alter ego reminds him of his future
    and replies, ``And it's about to begin.'' It's all over, and it's about
    to begin. If only change were that easy.
        To leave one way of life behind in search of another takes a strong
    amount of faith and courage. But the world has seen here over the last
    15 months that people from Londonderry County to County Down, from
    Antrim to Armagh, have made the transition from a time of ever-present
    fear to a time of fragile peace. The United States applauds the efforts
    of Prime Minister Major and Prime Minister Bruton who have launched the
    new twin-track initiative and have opened a process that gives the
    parties a chance to begin a dialog in which all views are represented
    and all can be heard.
        Not far from this spot stands a new Statue of Reconciliation, two
    figures, 10 feet tall, each reaching out a hand toward the other but
    neither quite making it across the divide. It is a beautiful and
    powerful symbol of where many people stand today in this great land. Let
    it now point people to the handshake of reconciliation. Life cannot be
    lived with the stillness of statues. Life must go on. The hands must
    come closer together or drift further apart.
        Your great Nobel Prize winning poet, Seamus Heaney, wrote the
    following words that some of you must know already but that for me
    capture this moment. He said:

        History says, Don't hope
        On this side of the grave,
        But then, once in a lifetime
        The longed-for tidal wave
        Of justice can rise up,
        And hope and history rhyme.

        So hope for a great sea change
        On the far side of revenge.
        Believe that a further shore
        Is reachable from here.
        Believe in miracles
        And cures and healing wells.

        Well, my friends, I believe. I believe we live in a time of hope and
    history rhyming. Standing here in front of the Guildhall, looking out
    over these historic walls, I see a peaceful city, a safe city, a hopeful
    city, full of young people that should have a peaceful and prosperous
    future here where their roots and families are. That is what I see today
    with you.
        And so I ask you to build on the opportunity you have before you, to
    believe that the future

    [[Page 1811]]

    can be better than the past, to work together because you have so much
    more to gain by working together than by drifting apart. Have the
    patience to work for a just and lasting peace. Reach for it. The United
    States will reach with you. The further shore of that peace is within
    your reach.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:20 p.m. in the Guildhall Square. In his
    remarks, he referred to Lord Mayor John Kerr and his wife, Corita; John
    Hume's wife, Patricia; and Sir Patrick Mayhew's wife, Jean.