[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 36 (Monday, September 7, 1998)]
[Pages 1709-1710]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Victims of the Bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland

September 3, 1998

    Thank you very much. Mr. Prime Minister, Mrs. Blair, Secretary 
Mowlam, Ambassador Lader, Senator Mitchell; to the people of Omagh. 
Hillary and I are honored to be in your presence. We come to tell you 
that a long way away the American people have mourned the loss of 28 
innocents and all those who were injured. For those victims and family 
members who have come here today to say a word to us, we thank you for 
your presence.
    To all of you, we thank you for standing up in the face of such a 
soul-searing loss and restating your determination to walk the road of 
peace.
    We came here, knowing, as the Prime Minister said, that words are 
not very good at a time like this, simply to express our sympathy with 
the good people of this community, especially with the victims and their 
families, and again to support your determined refusal to let a cowardly 
crime rob you of the future you have chosen.
    What has happened here on August the 15th was so incredibly 
unreasonable, so shocking to the conscience of every decent person in 
this land, that it has perversely had exactly the reverse impact that 
the people who perpetrated this act intended. By killing Catholics and 
Protestants, young and old, men, women, and children, even those about 
to be born, people from Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, and 
abroad--by doing all that in an aftermath of what the people have voted 
for in Northern Ireland, it galvanized, strengthened, and humanized the 
impulse to peace.
    Even more than when we were here 3 years ago, people are saying to 
me: ``It's high time that the few stop ruining the lives of the many; 
high time that those who hate stop bullying those who hope; high time to 
stop the lilt of laughter and language being drowned out by bombs and 
guns and sirens; high time to stop yesterday's nightmares from killing 
tomorrow's dreams.''
    All I wanted to say today is that nothing any of us can say will 
erase the pain that those of you who have experienced loss know now. 
Just a few days ago, we had to--Hillary and I did--go to the airport to 
meet the plane bringing home the bodies of the Americans who were killed 
in the Embassy bombing in Africa, and to go from table to table to meet 
their families. There is no word to explain a mindless act of terror 
that grabs the life of an innocent. But I think the only way to truly 
redeem such a terrible loss is to make the memories of the innocents 
monuments to peace. We cannot brook a descent into terror. Northern 
Ireland is walking away from it. Life will never be the same here, but 
it will go on.
    Since the bombing, one of the victims, Nicola Emory, has given birth 
to a healthy baby. I pray that baby will never know an act of terror and 
will live a long, full life in the 21st century, proud of a hometown 
that learned through tragedy the meaning of community.
    I'd like to close my remarks by reading to you from a letter that 
our Ambassador in Dublin received from a young man named Michael 
Gallagher from County Mayo after this happened. He wrote to the American 
Ambassador: ``You don't know me. You may not even get this letter. But 
after yesterday's tragedy I just wanted to do something. I am 29 years 
old, an Irishman to the very core of my being. But throughout my life 
there has never been peace on this island. I never realized how precious 
peace could be until my wife, Martina, gave birth to our daughter, 
Ashleen, 20 months ago. We don't want her to grow up in a society that 
is constantly waiting for the next atrocity, the next bunch of young 
lives snuffed out in a sea of hatred and fear. Ashleen's name means 
`vision' or

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`dream,' and we have a dream of what Ireland might be like when she 
grows up. It could be a place where dreams come true, where people would 
achieve things never imagined before, where people would not be afraid 
of their neighbors. Hopefully, this can happen. But after yesterday, one 
has to wonder. We know America has done much for Ireland, all we ask is 
that you keep trying, even when times are hard. Please keep Ireland in 
mind because Ashleen and all Irish children need to be able to dream.''
    So we came here today to say we grieve for your loss, but to pledge 
to that little Ashleen in Mayo, and Nicola's newborn here in Omagh that 
we will work to build this peace, to make it a place where children can 
dream, to redeem the lost innocence from the madness of people who must 
fail so that your life can go on.
    Thank you for letting us come here, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 4:05 p.m. at the Leisure Center. In his 
remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom 
and his wife, Cherie; United Kingdom Secretary of State for Northern 
Ireland Marjorie Mowlam; Philip Lader, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britian 
and Northern Ireland; and former Senator George J. Mitchell, who chaired 
the multiparty talks in Northern Ireland. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of these remarks.