    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [November 30, 1995]
    [Pages 1804-1807]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1804]]

    Remarks to Mackie International Employees in Belfast, Northern Ireland
    November 30, 1995

        This is one of those occasions where I really feel that all that
    needs to be said has already been said. I thank Catherine and David for
    introducing me, for all the schoolchildren of Northern Ireland who are
    here today, and for all whom they represent. A big part of peace is
    children growing up safely, learning together, and growing together. I
    thank Patrick Dougan and Ronnie Lewis for their remarks, for their work
    here, for all the members of the Mackie's team who are with us today in
    welcoming us to this factory. I was hoping we could have an event like
    this in Northern Ireland at a place where people work and reach out to
    the rest of the world in a positive way, because a big part of peace is
    working together for family and community and for the welfare of the
    common enterprise.
        It is good to be among the people of Northern Ireland who have given
    so much to America and the world and good to be here with such a large
    delegation of my fellow Americans, including of course my wife. And I
    see the Secretary of Commerce here and the Ambassador to Great Britain
    and a number of others. But we have quite a large delegation from both
    parties in the United States Congress, so we've sort of got a truce of
    our own going on here today. [Laughter] And I'd like to ask the Members
    of Congress who have come all the way from Washington, DC, to stand up
    and be recognized. Would you all stand? [Applause]
        Many of you perhaps know that one in four of America's Presidents
    trace their roots to Ireland's shores, beginning with Andrew Jackson,
    the son of immigrants from Carrickfergus, to John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
    whose forebears came from County Wexford. I know I am only the latest in
    this time-honored tradition, but I'm proud to be the first sitting
    American President to make it back to Belfast.
        At this holiday season all around the world, the promise of peace is
    in the air. The barriers of the cold war are giving way to a global
    village where communication and cooperation are the order of the day.
    From South Africa to the Middle East and now to troubled Bosnia,
    conflicts long thought impossible to solve are moving along the road to
    resolution. Once-bitter foes are clasping hands and changing history,
    and long-suffering people are moving closer to normal lives.
        Here in Northern Ireland, you are making a miracle, a miracle
    symbolized by those two children who held hands and told us what this
    whole thing is all about. In the land of the harp and the fiddle, the
    fife and the lambeg drum, two proud traditions are coming together in
    the harmonies of peace. The cease-fire and the negotiations have sparked
    a powerful transformation.
        Mackie's plant is a symbol of Northern Ireland's rebirth. It has
    long been a symbol of world-class engineering. The textile machines you
    make permit people to weave disparate threads into remarkable fabrics.
    That is now what you must do here with the people of Northern Ireland.
        Here we lie along the peace line, the wall of steel and stone
    separating Protestant from Catholic. But today, under the leadership of
    Pat Dougan, you are bridging the divide, overcoming a legacy of
    discrimination where fair employment and integration are the watchwords
    of the future. On this shop floor, men and women of both traditions are
    working together to achieve common goals.
        Peace, once a distant dream, is now making a real difference in
    everyday life in this land. Soldiers have left the streets of Belfast;
    many have gone home. People can go to the pub or the store without the
    burden of the search or the threat of a bomb. As barriers disappear
    along the border, families and communities divided for decades are
    becoming whole once more.
        This year in Armagh on St. Patrick's Day, Protestant and Catholic
    children led the parade together for the first time since the Troubles
    began. A bystander's words marked the wonder of the occasion when he
    said, ``Even the normal is beginning to seem normal.''
        The economic rewards of peace are evident as well. Unemployment has
    fallen here to its lowest level in 14 years, while retail sales and
    investment are surging. Far from the gleaming city center to the new
    shop fronts of Belfast, to the Enterprise Center in East Belfast, busi-

    [[Page 1805]]

    ness is thriving, and opportunities are expanding. With every extra day
    that the guns are still, business confidence grows stronger, and the
    promise of prosperity grows as well.
        As the shroud of terror melts away, Northern Ireland's beauty has
    been revealed again to all the world: the castles and coasts, the
    Giant's Causeway, the lush green hills, the high white cliffs, a magical
    backdrop to your greatest asset which I saw all along the way from the
    airport here today, the warmth and good feeling of your people. Visitors
    are now coming in record numbers. Indeed, today the air route between
    Belfast and London is the second busiest in all of Europe.
        I want to honor those whose courage and vision have brought us to
    this point. Prime Minister Major, Prime Minister Bruton, and before him,
    Prime Minister Reynolds, laid the background and the basis for this era
    of reconciliation. From the Downing Street declaration to the joint
    framework document, they altered the course of history. Now, just in the
    last few days, by launching the twin-track initiative, they have opened
    a promising new gateway to a just and lasting peace. Foreign Minister
    Spring, Sir Patrick Mayhew, David Trimble, and John Hume all have
    labored to realize the promise of peace. And Gerry Adams, along with
    Loyalist leaders such as David Ervine and Gary McMichael, helped to
    silence the guns on the streets and to bring about the first peace in a
    generation.
        But most of all, America salutes all the people of Northern Ireland
    who have shown the world in concrete ways that here the will for peace
    is now stronger than the weapons of war. With mixed sporting events
    encouraging competition on the playing field, not the battlefield, with
    women's support groups, literacy programs, job training centers that
    serve both communities, these and countless other initiatives bolster
    the foundations of peace as well.
        Last year's cease-fire of the Irish Republican Army, joined by the
    combined Loyalist Military Command, 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. The children told us that today. Both parties
    must do their part to move this process forward now.
        Let me begin by saying that the search for common ground demands the
    courage of an open mind. This twin-track initiative gives the parties a
    chance to begin preliminary talks in ways in which all views will be
    represented and all voices will be heard. It also establishes an
    international body to address the issue of arms decommissioning. I hope
    the parties will seize this opportunity. Engaging in honest dialog is
    not an act of surrender, it is an act of strength and common sense.
    Moving from cease-fire to peace requires dialog. For 25 years now, the
    history of Northern Ireland has been written in the blood of its
    children and their parents. The cease-fire turned the page on that
    history. It must not be allowed to turn back.
        There must also be progress away from the negotiating table.
    Violence has lessened, but it has not disappeared. The leaders of the
    four main churches recently condemned the so-called punishment beatings
    and called for an end to such attacks. I add my voice to theirs.
        As the church leaders said, this is a time when the utmost efforts
    on all sides are needed to build a peaceful and confident community in
    the future. But true peace requires more than a treaty, even more than
    the absence of violence. Those who have suffered most in the fighting
    must share fairly in the fruits of renewal. The frustration that gave
    rise to violence must give way to faith in the future.
        The United States will help to secure the tangible benefits of
    peace. Ours is the first American administration ever to support in the
    Congress the International Fund for Ireland, which has become an engine
    for economic development and for reconciliation. We will continue to
    encourage trade and investment and to help end the cycle of
    unemployment.
        We are proud to support Northern Ireland. You have given America a
    very great deal. Irish Protestant and Irish Catholic together have added
    to America's strength. From our battle for independence down to the
    present day, the Irish have not only fought in our wars, they have built
    our Nation, and we owe you a very great debt.
        Let me say that of all the gifts we can offer in return, perhaps the
    most enduring and the most precious is the example of what is possible
    when people find unity and strength in their diversity. We know from our
    own experience even today how hard that is to do. After all, we fought a
    great Civil War over the issue of race and slavery in which hundreds of
    thousands of our people were killed.

    [[Page 1806]]

        Today, in one of our counties alone, in Los Angeles, there are over
    150 different ethnic and racial groups represented. We know we can
    become stronger if we bridge our differences. But we learned in our own
    Civil War that that has to begin with a change of the heart.
        I grew up in the American South, in one of the States that tried to
    break from the American Union. My forebears on my father's side were
    soldiers in the Confederate Army. I was reading the other day a book
    about our first Governor after the Civil War who fought for the Union
    Army and who lost members of his own family. They lived the experience
    so many of you have lived. When this Governor took office and looked out
    over a sea of his fellow citizens who fought on the other side, he said
    these words: ``We have all done wrong. No one can say his heart is
    altogether clean and his hands altogether pure. Thus, as we wish to be
    forgiven, let us forgive those who have sinned against us and ours.''
    That was the beginning of America's reconciliation, and it must be the
    beginning of Northern Ireland's reconciliation.
        It is so much easier to believe that our differences matter more
    than what we have in common. It is easier, but it is wrong. We all
    cherish family and faith, work and community. We all strive to live
    lives that are free and honest and responsible. We all want our children
    to grow up in a world where their talents are matched by their
    opportunities. And I believe those values are just as strong in County
    Londonderry as they are in Londonderry, New Hampshire; in Belfast,
    Northern Ireland, as in Belfast, Maine.
        I am proud to be of Ulster Scots stock. I am proud to be also of
    Irish stock. I share these roots with millions and millions of
    Americans, now over 40 million Americans. And we rejoice at things being
    various, as Louis MacNeice once wrote. It is one of the things that
    makes America special.
        Because our greatness flows from the wealth of our diversity as well
    as the strength of the ideals we share in common, we feel bound to
    support others around the world who seek to bridge their own divides.
    This is an important part of our country's mission on the eve of the
    21st century, because we know that the chain of peace that protects us
    grows stronger with every new link that is forged.
        For the first time in half a century now, we can put our children to
    bed at night knowing that the nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union
    are no longer pointed at those children. In South Africa, the long night
    of apartheid has given way to a new freedom for all peoples. In the
    Middle East, Arabs and Israelis are stepping beyond war to peace in an
    area where many believed peace would never come. In Haiti, a brutal
    dictatorship has given way to a fragile new democracy. In Europe, the
    dream of a stable, undivided, free continent seems finally within reach
    as the people of Bosnia have the first real hope for peace since the
    terrible fighting began there nearly 4 years ago.
        The United States looks forward to working with our allies here in
    Europe and others to help the people in Bosnia, the Muslims, the Croats,
    the Serbs, to move beyond their divisions and their destructions to make
    the peace agreement they have made a reality in the lives of their
    people.
        Those who work for peace have got to support one another. We know
    that when leaders stand up for peace, they place their fortunes on the
    line and sometimes their very lives on the line, as we learned so
    recently in the tragic murder of the brave Prime Minister of Israel. For
    just as peace has its pioneers, peace will always have its rivals. Even
    when children stand up and say what these children said today, there
    will always be people who, deep down inside, will never be able to give
    up the past.
        Over the last 3 years, I have had the privilege of meeting with and
    closely listening to both Nationalists and Unionists from Northern
    Ireland. And I believe that the greatest struggle you face now is not
    between opposing ideas or opposing interests. The greatest struggle you
    face is between those who deep down inside are inclined to be
    peacemakers and those who deep down inside cannot yet embrace the cause
    of peace, between those who are in the ship of peace and those who are
    trying to sink it. Old habits die hard.
        There will always be those who define the worth of their lives not
    by who they are but by who they aren't, not by what they're for but by
    what they are against. They will never escape the dead-end street of
    violence. But you, the vast majority, Protestant and Catholic alike,
    must not allow the ship of peace to sink on the rocks of old habits and
    hard grudges. 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.

    [[Page 1807]]

    Violence has no place at the table of democracy and no role in the
    future of this land.'' By the same token, 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. Those who do show the courage to break with the past are
    entitled to their stake in the future.
        As leaders for peace become invested in the process, as leaders make
    compromises and risk the backlash, people begin more and more--I have
    seen this all over the world--they begin more and more to develop a
    common interest in each other's success, in standing together rather
    than standing apart. They realize that the sooner they get to true
    peace, with all the rewards it brings, the sooner it will be easier to
    discredit and destroy the forces of destruction.
        We will stand with those who take risks for peace in Northern
    Ireland and around the world. I pledge that we will do all we can,
    through the International Fund for Ireland and in many other ways, to
    ease your load. 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.
        But at the end of the day, as with all free people, your future is
    for you to decide. Your destiny is for you to determine. Only you can
    decide between division and unity, between hard lives and high hopes.
    Only you can create a lasting peace. It takes courage to let go of
    familiar divisions. It takes faith to walk down a new road. But when we
    see the bright gaze of these children, we know the risk is worth the
    reward.
        I have been so touched by the thousands of letters I have received
    from schoolchildren here, telling me what peace means to them. One young
    girl from Ballymena wrote, and I quote, ``It is not easy to forgive and
    forget, especially for those who have lost a family member or a close
    friend. However, if people could look to the future with hope instead of
    the past with fear, we can only be moving in the right direction.'' I
    couldn't have said it nearly as well.
        I believe you can summon the strength to keep moving forward. After
    all, you have come so far already. You have braved so many dangers. You
    have endured so many sacrifices. Surely, there can be no turning back.
    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.
        I was overcome today, when I landed in my plane and I drove with
    Hillary up the highway to come here, by the phenomenal beauty of the
    place and the spirit and the good will of the people. Northern Ireland
    has a chance not only to begin anew but to be a real inspiration to the
    rest of the world, a model of progress through tolerance.
        Let us join our efforts together as never before to make that dream
    a reality. Let us join our prayers in this season of peace for a future
    of peace in this good land.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. on the factory floor. In his
    remarks, he referred to Catherine Hamill and David Sterritt, students
    who introduced the President; Patrick Dougan, president, and Ronnie
    Lewis, senior shop steward, Mackie International; Richard Spring, T.D.,
    Foreign Minister of Ireland; Sir Patrick Mayhew, M.P., Secretary of
    State for Northern Ireland, United Kingdom; David Trimble, M.P., leader,
    Ulster Unionist Party; John Hume, M.P., leader, Social Democratic and
    Labour Party; Gerry Adams, leader, Sinn Fein; David Ervine, leader,
    Progressive Unionist Party; and Gary McMichael, leader, Ulster
    Democratic Party.