[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[November 30, 1995]
[Pages 1815-1816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception Hosted by Sir Patrick Mayhew in Belfast
November 30, 1995

    The President. Thank you.
    Audience member. Four more years!
    The President. The plane for America leaves tomorrow morning. I want 
you to be on it. [Laughter] We'll take you back.
    Thank you, Sir Patrick and Lady Mayhew. And thank you, Sir Patrick, 
for your tireless efforts for peace in Northern Ireland.
    I want to thank the Vice Chancellor, Sir Gordon Beveridge, and 
everyone here at Queen's University for allowing us to meet at this 
wonderful place in the year of its sesquicentennial celebration. I am 
delighted to be here. And I'm also delighted that it was given to me the 
honor to make a little announcement involving Queen's. Under the 
auspices of the Fulbright program, named after the late Senator from my 
home State, J. William Fulbright, who gave me my first job in public 
life, we are establishing a distinguished Fulbright lecturer program 
here at Queen's University to bring distinguished Americans to share 
their experiences and their ideas with their academic colleagues here 
and to reach out to the community throughout Northern Ireland.
    Let me say that Hillary and I are delighted to be here with a very 
large contingent of Americans from all walks of life and from both 
political parties. I am delighted to be the first American President 
ever to visit Northern Ireland while serving as President. And I think 
all of you here know that I would, given the choice, never miss a chance 
to go to an exciting place and make new friends. But the real reason I'm 
here is because of the hard work and the tough choices that many of you 
in this room have made to advance the cause of peace and reconciliation 
in this land. And I thank you for that.
    I will take away from this visit a lot of enduring memories, a lot 
of lasting impressions of peace. When we were at the Mackie plant this 
morning, it really struck me as a symbol of Northern Ireland's rebirth 
since the cease-fire. On the shop floor, men and women who come to the 
plant by separated gates still, work together side by side with common 
goals for their families and their communities.
    I went to the Enterprise Park in East Belfast, and I met with 
tenants and managers who were

[[Page 1816]]

making the most of their ideas, their potential, assisted, among other 
things, by the International Fund for Ireland.
    I went to Londonderry where we had an extraordinary crowd, and I saw 
the splendor of that beautiful old city wall and also the remarkable 
Statue of Reconciliation there, which is also a sharp reminder. If 
you've seen it, you know there are two tall figures with their hands 
outstretched, but they're not quite touching yet. And of course, tonight 
at the Christmas tree lighting, for Hillary and for me it was an 
especially poignant moment not only because it reaffirmed the ties 
between our two lands with the President's Prize and the Christmas tree 
from your sister city of Nashville and because of those remarkable 
letters that those children wrote but also because of what I saw and 
felt in that vast throng of people.
    And when I was shaking hands in the crowd there when there were no 
microphones on and no cameras shining, person after person after person 
that I shook hands with said, ``We're glad you're here. We're trying to 
do this. Please stay with us; we haven't finished yet. The peace is not 
certain yet. We have to do this.'' Person after person. Person after 
person said, ``Surely we'll never go back to the way it used to be.'' 
Just people in the crowd with their passion and energy and intensity.
    I will remember this day for as long as I live, with great 
gratitude. And let me say what I have said all day: I am proud that the 
United States stands with the peacemakers here. We respect each 
tradition equally. We believe peace can be built here on the basis of 
mutual consent and, in fact, only on that basis. We continue to stand 
with those who take risks. And we want to see that there are clear, 
concrete benefits to peace through trade and investments and new jobs 
and new futures. We will do everything we can to work with all of you to 
sustain the momentum that Northern Ireland has at this point.
    Let me finally say that I have taken a strict and unyielding 
position about the role of the United States as a force for peace 
throughout the world. Whether in the Middle East or in Bosnia or here, 
it is that we cannot, and we could not even if we wanted to, impose a 
peace on anyone. People must make their own peace from their heads and 
from their hearts. All we can do is to do the very best we can to create 
the best conditions in which people can make peace, to give the greatest 
encouragement to the process of peace, and to offer the hope of every 
reward we can possibly help to provide.
    That is our role. That will remain our role. The details, the 
direction, and the question of whether you will go forward, that, my 
friends, is all up to you. But if you do, we will be proud to walk with 
you.
    Thank you, and Merry Christmas.

Note: The President spoke at 9:27 p.m. in Whitla Hall at Queen's 
University.