[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 12 (Monday, March 23, 1998)]
[Pages 453-456]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Saint Patrick's Day Ceremony With Prime Minister Bertie 
Ahern of Ireland

March 17, 1998

    President Clinton. Good morning. Please be seated everyone. This is 
a wonderful day for all of us here at the White House. It's a great 
pleasure to welcome the Taoiseach here. Bertie Ahern has given great 
leadership to the people of Ireland and to the peace process. This is 
his first St. Patrick's Day here since assuming office, and we're very 
grateful for his presence. We welcome him.

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    And I want to turn the platform over to you. Thank you.
    Prime Minister Ahern. Thank you very much, President and Vice 
President. It's a great honor for me to be here, my first opportunity as 
Taoiseach of the Irish people, to be at the White House on St. Patrick's 
Day. I'm delighted to participate in this wonderful ceremony and to 
present to you some shamrocks from the land of your forebears.
    The presentation of shamrocks to the President of United States is a 
very apt symbol of very close and friendly relations between our two 
countries. St. Patrick used the shamrock as a religious symbol of unity 
and diversity, similar to the motto of the United States, e pluribus 
unum. And it remains a potent, unifying symbol, which is embraced by 
both traditions on the island of Ireland.
    The United States and Ireland are countries which enjoy long-
established bonds stemming from our intertwined history. And as you 
generously acknowledged, Mr. President, Irish Americans historically and 
still today have enriched Americans' way of life with the values of 
their heritage: love of family, faith, and hard work, a devotion to 
community, and compassion for those in need. They are things that we 
still live dear to. And for its part, the United States has been a 
constant resource of inspiration and support as Ireland has navigated 
its sometimes difficult history.
    And that solidarity is as vital today as it was during the Great 
Famine, which we've celebrated in the last few years, of 1845 to 1848, 
when the United States gave a new home and a new future to hundreds of 
thousands of Irish men and women. And the ties between our two 
countries, Mr. President, are now, of course, copper-fastened by an 
extremely vibrant economic relationship. And the flows of trade, 
investment, and tourism between Ireland and the United States have 
reached unprecedented levels. U.S. investment has made a crucial 
contribution to Ireland's current prosperity. And equally, as a very 
profitable location for investment, Ireland has contributed to cooperate 
and to assist corporate wealth of many great U.S. companies.
    Mr. President, I'm very conscious that the principle of unity and 
diversity has been one of the major domestic themes of your Presidency. 
The leadership that you have provided on this theme has been inspiring, 
not only within the United States but also internationally, where it has 
an immediate renaissance in places such as Bosnia and Middle East and, 
of course, in Northern Ireland.
    And in Northern Ireland, your inspiring vision of peace, based on 
the acceptance of diversity, has been matched by your constant support 
for a process which has experienced its shares of ups and downs. And 
you've been true to your promise made here a number of years ago, that 
you would be a friend of Ireland, not just on St. Patrick's Day but 
every day. And your act of support for the process has not only been 
constant but also impeccably fair and balanced. And for that, I want to 
thank you.
    The encouragement, the access which you and your administration have 
provided to all of the participants and that your administration has 
provided for all of us has inspired us all in good days and sustained us 
on bad ones. And perhaps the greatest resource that you have given us is 
Senator George Mitchell, who in his chairmanship of the talks so aptly 
represents the qualities of good will, of wisdom, impartiality, and 
tenacity, which the United States has brought to the Irish peace 
process.
    We're now entering, President, as we've spoken this morning, a 
decisive period in the talks. The core issues have been well and truly 
aired over the past months. As George has said recently, we are now in 
the end game; success will require courage, a willingness to compromise 
and, perhaps above all, a generous vision which transcended partnership, 
focuses on the common interest of all who are in the talks and all who 
share it.
    Our task will be greatly assisted by the continued support and 
encouragement which we know that we can count on from you, Mr. 
President, and from Mrs. Clinton, from your administration, and from our 
friends on both sides of the aisle of Congress.
    Mr. President, I want to thank you for everything you've done. I 
want to thank you for all that you've contributed to the cause of peace 
in Northern Ireland. And in presenting you with the unifying symbol of

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shamrock, I wish you and your family a very happy St. Patrick's Day.

[At this point, Prime Minister Ahern made brief remarks in Gaelic and 
presented the President with a bowl of shamrocks.]

    President Clinton. Thank you very much, Taoiseach, and thank you for 
the bowl of shamrocks. We will proudly display it as a lasting symbol of 
our shared values and common heritage.
    I think I should say in the interest of full disclosure, that my 
Cassidy relatives in Ireland sent me these cufflinks and this tie to 
wear on this day, so that I would be properly attired for your visit. 
[Laughter]
    Since last St. Patrick's Day, Ireland has chosen not only a new 
Prime Minister but also a new President--Mary McAleese of Belfast, the 
first Northerner to hold that office. We also share Ireland's pride in 
the fact that President McAleese's predecessor, our good friend, Mary 
Robinson, now serves as United Nations Human Rights Commissioner.
    I also want to acknowledge the announcement by a great friend of 
Ireland and great Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, that she intends to 
leave Dublin this summer. We thank you for your dedicated principled 
service to our country.
    Mr. Prime Minister, our cultures have enriched one another time and 
again as impassioned voices called back and forth across the Atlantic. 
Just as generations of American writers have been inspired by Yeats, 
Joyce, and Beckett, the great Irish musician, Van Morrison, sings of 
growing up in Belfast, reading Jack Keroac while a distant radio signal 
played Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Hank Williams.
    Last year an Irish American, a retired high school teacher named 
Frank McCourt, won our Pulitzer Prize for his remarkable ``Angela's 
Ashes,'' a memoir of growing up poor in Limerick and New York City in 
the 1930's and '40's. This writing pulls no punches, a fact admirers and 
critics in both of our countries have been quick to note. But his 
Limerick and his Ireland have changed. We are delighted that Ireland has 
enjoyed the best run of economic growth in the developed world during 
this decade, just as America continues to profit from the labors of your 
sons and daughters.
    This is a holiday, a day for laughter and celebration. But let me 
say something about which we are all very serious. Northern Ireland now 
has an unparalleled opportunity for a just and lasting peace. The 
Taoiseach and his government and Tony Blair and the British Government 
have gone the extra mile to create an atmosphere in which negotiations 
can succeed. George Mitchell has been a very distinguished chairman of 
the peace talks, and we thank you for your comments, Taoiseach.
    During these St. Patrick's Day events, I will speak with the party 
leaders who have come here to Washington. I will tell all of them on all 
sides the same thing. I will say it as clearly and emphatically as I 
possibly can: This is the chance of a lifetime for peace in Ireland. You 
must get it done. You must do it for yourselves and your children. It is 
too late for those who have already been killed by the sectarian 
violence of the last three decades. But you can do it, and you must, 
now.
    To get an agreement, there must be compromise. No party can achieve 
all its objectives. The party leaders must lead, and leading means 
looking forward. And it means being strong enough to make principled 
compromise. Concessions that today might seem hard to accept will seem 
so much less important in the light of an accord that brings hope and 
peace and an end to violence. No one will be the loser if agreement is 
reached. Everyone will benefit from a chance to build a peaceful future. 
The parties must look at the larger picture, to the ultimate goal: a 
Northern Ireland for all, free of cowardly acts of violence, free of the 
division and despair that have robbed too many children of their futures 
for too long.
    Mr. Prime Minister, today you ask me to stay personally involved in 
the peace process. I will do everything I can. The United States will 
continue to stand firmly against extremists on both sides who want to 
use violence to thwart a peaceful, just solution that the vast majority 
of the people in Ireland, whom I was privileged to see in late 1995, 
clearly still want.

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    As they negotiate, the parties, too, must continue to demonstrate by 
words and deeds that they reject violence. They must do everything 
possible to prevent further bloodshed.
    Here on the edge of the 21st century, there is a growing global 
community of people committed to peace, to democracy, to social justice, 
to putting the divisions of the past of religion and race, of ethnicity 
and tribe, behind them. From Guatemala to Mozambique, even now to 
Bosnia, the unceasing desire of people for a peaceful, decent life is 
overcoming the forces of hate and bigotry and violence. Ireland, its 
leaders, and its peacekeeping forces have helped to contribute to the 
progress of this peace all around the world. There has not been a day in 
the last four decades when an Irish peacekeeper has not been somewhere 
on duty as a sentinel for peace in a distant part of the world.
    Now all the people on the island of Ireland can be sentinels for 
peace, if only their leaders will make the principled agreements 
necessary to give them that chance.
    Again, let me say, the days I spent in Ireland in 1995 are perhaps 
the most memorable days of my life. As we rejoice today in the spirit of 
St. Patrick, the heritage of Irish and Irish-American people, let us 
remember what the spirit of St. Patrick was, and how he became the first 
and only person ever to bring Christianity to a distant, alien place 
without the sword. And let us bring a future to Ireland worthy of that 
great achievement of St. Patrick.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to former Senator George J. 
Mitchell, independent chairman of the multi-party talks in Northern 
Ireland.