    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [November 30, 1995]
    [Pages 1811-1812]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Inauguration of the Thomas P. O'Neill Chair for the Study
    of Peace in Londonderry
    November 30, 1995

        Mayor and Mrs. Kerr, Sir Patrick and Mrs. Mayhew, Mr. and Mrs. Hume;
    to the community and religious leaders who are here and to my fellow
    Americans who are here, Congressman Walsh and the congressional
    delegation; Senator Dodd, Senator Mack, and others. Let me thank you all
    for the wonderful reception you have given to Hillary and to me today
    and, through us, to the people of the United States. And let me thank
    Tom O'Neill for his incredibly generous remarks. I am honored to be here
    with him and with his family and with Loretta Brennan Glucksman and the
    other members of the American Ireland Fund to help inaugurate this Tip
    O'Neill Chair in Peace Studies. And thank you, Vice Chancellor Smith,
    for the degree. You know, I wonder how far it is from a degree to a
    professorship? [Laughter] See, I have this job without a lot of tenure,
    and I'm looking for one with more tenure.
        Tip O'Neill was a model for many people he never knew. The model of
    public service, he proved that a person could be a national leader
    without losing the common touch, without ever forgetting that all these
    high-flown speeches we give and all these complex issues we talk about
    in the end have a real, tangible impact on the lives of ordinary people
    and that in any free land, in the end all that really counts are the
    lives of ordinary people.
        He said he was a man of the House, but he was far more. He was
    fundamentally a man of the people, a bricklayer's son who became the
    most powerful person in Congress and our Nation's most prominent, most
    loyal champion of ordinary working families.
        He loved politics because he loved people but also because he knew
    it could make a difference in people's lives. And you have proved here
    that political decisions by brave people can make a difference in
    people's lives. Along with Senators Kennedy and Moynihan and former
    Governor Hugh Carey of New York, he was among the first Irish-American
    politicians to oppose violence in Northern Ireland. And though we miss
    him sorely, he will long be remembered in the United States and now in
    Ireland with this O'Neill chair. It is a fitting tribute to his life and
    legacy, for he knew that peace had to be nurtured by a deeper
    understanding among people and greater opportunity for all.
        Tip O'Neill was old enough to remember a time when Irish Catholics
    were actually discriminated against in the United States, and he had the
    last laugh when they wound up running the place. [Laughter] I was just
    thinking that in my conscious political lifetime we've had three Irish
    Speakers of the House of Representatives, John McCormick and Tip O'Neill
    of Boston and Tom Foley of Washington State, and goodness knows how many
    more we're destined to have.
        I am very proud to be here to inaugurate this chair in peace
    studies. I have been privileged to come here at an important time in
    your history. I have been privileged to be President at an important
    time in your history and to do what I could on behalf of the United
    States to help the peace process go forward.
        But the work of peace is really the work of a lifetime. First, you
    have to put the violence behind you. You have done that. Then, you have
    to make an agreement that recognizes the differences and the
    commonalities among you. And this twin-tracks process I believe is a way
    at least to begin that process where everyone can

    [[Page 1812]]

    be heard. Then, you have to change the spirit of the people until it is
    as normal as getting up in the morning and having breakfast to feel a
    real affinity for the people who share this land with you without regard
    to their religion or their politics. This chair of peace studies can
    help you to do that. It can be symbol of the lifetime work of building a
    peaceful spirit and heart in every citizen of this land.
        Our administration has been a strong supporter of the International
    Fund for Ireland. We will continue to do so because of projects like
    this one and because of the work still to be done. We were eager to
    sponsor the conference we had last May, aided by the diligent efforts of
    our friend, former Senator and Senate majority leader George Mitchell
    who now embarks for you on another historic mission of peace. I hope
    very much that Senator Mitchell will succeed. I think the voices I have
    heard on this trip indicate to me that you want him to succeed and that
    you want to succeed.
        A lot of incredibly moving things have happened to us today, but I
    think to me, the most moving were the two children who stood and
    introduced me this morning in the Mackie plant in Belfast. They
    represented all those other children, including children here from Derry
    who have written me about what peace means to them over the last few
    weeks.
        One young boy said--the young boy who introduced me said that he
    studied with and played with people who were both Protestant and
    Catholic, and he'd almost gotten to the point where he couldn't tell the
    difference. [Laughter] A beautiful young girl who introduced me--that
    beautiful child--started off by saying what her Daddy did for a living,
    and then she said she lost her first Daddy in the Troubles. And she
    thought about it every day. It was the worst day of her life, and she
    couldn't stand another loss. The upside and the downside, and those
    children joined hands to introduce me. I felt almost as if my speech
    were superfluous. But I know one thing: Tip O'Neill was smiling down on
    the whole thing today.
        The other night I had a chance to go with Hillary to the Ford
    Theatre in Washington, DC, a wonderful, historic place--it's been there
    since before our Civil War--and where President Lincoln was
    assassinated. And I told the people there who come once a year to raise
    money for it so we can keep it going that we always thought of it as a
    sad and tragic place, but it was really a place where he came to laugh
    and escape the cares of our great Civil War. And there, I was thinking
    that America has always been about three great things, our country: love
    of liberty, belief in progress, and the struggle for unity.
        And the last is in so many ways by far the most difficult. It is a
    continuing challenge for us to deal with the differences among us, to
    honestly respect our differences, to stand up where we feel differently
    about certain things and still to find that core of common humanity
    across all the sea of differences which permit us to preserve liberty,
    to make progress possible, and to live up to the deepest truths of our
    shared human nature.
        In the end, that is what this chair is all about. And believe me, we
    need it everywhere. We need it in the streets of our toughest cities in
    the United States, where we are attempting to teach our children that
    when they have conflicts, they shouldn't go home and pick up a gun or a
    knife and hurt each other, they should figure out a way to work through
    to mutual respect. We need it in the Middle East, where the Prime
    Minister of Israel just gave his life to a religious fanatic of his own
    faith because he dared to make peace and give the children of his
    country a better future. We need it in Bosnia, where the leaders have
    agreed to make peace, but where the people must now purge their heart of
    the hatred borne of 4 years of merciless slaughter. We need this
    everywhere.
        So, my friends, I pray not only for your success in making a peace,
    but I pray that through this chair and through your example, you will
    become a model for the rest of the world because the world will always
    need models for peace.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:48 p.m. in the Major Hall of Guildhall at
    the University of Ulster. In his remarks, he referred to Trevor Smith,
    vice chancellor, University of Ulster.