[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[December 1, 1995]
[Pages 1826-1828]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Dinner Hosted by Prime Minister John Bruton of Ireland in 
Dublin
December 1, 1995

    To the Taoiseach and Mrs. Bruton and to all of our hosts: Hillary 
and I are honored to be here tonight with all of you and to be here in 
the company of some of America's greatest Irish-Americans, including 
Senator George Mitchell, who has taken on such a great and difficult 
task; a bipartisan congressional delegation headed by Congressman Walsh; 
many members of the Ambassador's family, including Kathleen Kennedy 
Townsend, lieutenant governor of Maryland; the mayors of Chicago and Los 
Angeles; Secretary Riley, the Secretary of Education; Mark Gearan, 
Director of the Peace Corps. And as I said, we have the Secretary of 
Commerce, Ron Brown, tonight, who wishes more than ever before in his 
life that he were Irish. [Laughter] I think he is, down deep inside. I 
thank you also for--I see the mayor of Pittsburgh here. I know I've left 
out some others--my wonderful stepfather, Dick Kelley, who thought it 
was all right when I got elected President, but when I brought him home 
to Ireland he knew I had finally arrived. [Laughter]
    You know, the Taoiseach has been not only a good friend to me in our 
work for peace but a good friend to the United States. Indeed, he and 
Fionnuala actually came to Washington, DC, to celebrate their honeymoon. 
I think it's

[[Page 1827]]

fair to say that his honeymoon there lasted longer than mine did. 
[Laughter]
    I managed to get even with at least one Member of Congress--or 
former Member of Congress--when I convinced Senator Mitchell to give in 
to the entreaties of the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister to head this 
arms decommissioning group. Now, there's any easy job for you. 
[Laughter.] You know, in Ireland I understand there's a--our American 
country music is very popular. Garth Brooks said the other day he sold 
more records in Ireland than any other place in the world outside 
America. So I told Senator Mitchell today that--he was telling me what a 
wonderful day we had yesterday in Derry and Belfast and what a wonderful 
day we had today in Dublin, and I said, ``Yes, now you get to go to 
work.'' I said, ``This reminds me of that great country song `I Got the 
Gold Mine and You Got the Shaft.' '' [Laughter] But if anybody can bring 
out more gold, George Mitchell can.
    I want to thank the Taoiseach for the courage he showed in working 
with the Prime Minister of Great Britain, from the day he took office, 
taking up from his predecessor, Albert Reynolds, right through this 
remarkable breakthrough that he and Prime Minister Major made on the 
twin tracks that he helped to forge just 2 days ago. This is an 
astonishing development really because it is the first formulation 
anyone has come up with that permits all views to be heard, all voices 
to speak, all issues to be dealt with, without requiring people to give 
up the positions they have taken at the moment. We are very much in your 
debt.
    This has been an experience like none I have ever had before. 
Yesterday John Hume, who's joined us, took me home to Derry with him. 
And I thought to myself, all my life ``Danny Boy'' has been my favorite 
song; I never thought I'd get to go there to hear it. But thanks to 
John, I did.
    And then we were, before, in Belfast. And all of you I'm sure were 
so moved by those two children who introduced me, reading excerpts from 
the letters. You know, I've got thousands and thousands of letters from 
Irish children telling me what peace means to them. One thing I am 
convinced of as I leave here: that there is a global hunger among young 
people for their parents to put down the madness of war in favor of 
their childhood.
    I received this letter from a teenager right here in Dublin. I 
thought I would read it to you, to make the point better than I could. 
This is just an excerpt: ``With your help, the chance is given to reason 
and to reasonable people, so that the peace in my country becomes 
reality. What is lost is impossible to bring back. Children who were 
killed are gone forever. No one can bring them back, but for all those 
who survive these sufferings, there is future.''
    The young person from Dublin who wrote me that was Zlata Filpovic, 
the young teenager from Bosnia who is now living here, who wrote her 
wonderful diary that captured the imagination of people all over the 
world.
    I am honored that at this moment in the history of the world the 
United States has had the great good fortune to stand for the future of 
children in Ireland, in Bosnia, in the Middle East, in Haiti, and on the 
toughest streets of our own land. And I thank you here in Ireland for 
taking your stand for those children's future as well.
    Let me say in closing that in this 150th anniversary of the Great 
Famine, I would like everyone in the world to pay tribute to Ireland for 
coming out of the famine with perhaps a greater sense of compassion for 
the fate of people the world over than any other nation. I said today in 
my speech to the Parliament that there had not been a single, solitary 
day, not one day, since 1958 when someone representing the Government of 
Ireland was not somewhere in the world trying to aid the cause of peace. 
I think there is no other nation on Earth that can make that claim.
    And as I leave you, I feel so full of hope for the situation here in 
Ireland and so much gratitude for you, for what you have given to us. 
And I leave you with these words, which I found as I was walking out the 
door from the Ambassador's residence. The Ambassador made it possible 
for Hillary and me to spend a few moments this evening with Seamus 
Heaney and his wife, since I have been running around the country 
quoting him for 2 days. [Laughter] I might say, without his permission. 
[Laughter] And he gave Hillary an inscribed copy of his book ``The Cure 
at Troy.'' And as I skimmed through it, I found these words, with which 
I leave you:

    Now it's high water mark
    And floodtide in the heart

[[Page 1828]]

    And time to go . . .
    What's left to say?

    Suspect too much sweet talk
    But never close your mind.
    It was a fortunate wind
    That blew me here. I leave
    Half-ready to believe
    That a crippled trust might walk
    And the half-true rhyme is love.

    Thank you, and God bless you.
    I thought I had done something for a moment to offend the 
Taoiseach--he was forcing me on water instead of wine. [Laughter]
    Let me now, on behalf of every American here present, bathed in the 
generosity and the hospitality of Ireland, offer this toast to the 
Taoiseach and Mrs. Bruton and to the wonderful people of this great 
Republic.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 8:40 p.m. at Dublin Castle. 
In his remarks, he referred to U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy 
Smith and Mayors Richard M. Daley of Chicago, IL, Richard Riordan of Los 
Angeles, CA, and Tom Murphy of Pittsburgh, PA.