Bill Clinton: “Thank you. It's very beautiful. We're delighted to have you here, and we'd be glad for you to make whatever remarks…”

“Thank you. It's very beautiful. We're delighted to have you here, and we'd be glad for you to make whatever remarks you'd like. Prime Minister Bruton. Mr. President, first of all, this gift of a bowl of shamrock symbolizes an Irish greeting. And it's a greeting, first and foremost, which says thank you, thank you to the United States for making a home for so many generations of Irish people who have come here to participate in the greatest democracy in the world. It's also a way at this particular time of saying thank you to you personally for your contribution to giving us peace in Ireland. The 17 months of the cease-fire during which so many lives were saved, those 17 months would never have come were it not for the courage that you showed and the interest that you took in bringing peace to Ireland. Your interest gave confidence to peacemakers in Ireland, and that interest is something that I believe will be crucial in bringing peace back to Ireland now that it has been, unfortunately, interrupted. I believe that the important thing we need to reestablish the cease- fire has already been achieved. That is the setting of a fixed date for all-party talks, the 10th of June of this year. As we know, those who are concerned about progress in Northern Ireland, those who are concerned from a republican perspective, a nationalist perspective, that adequate progress was not being made, were demanding consistently the setting of a fixed and unconditional date for talks. That date has now been set. The talks will start on the 10th of June. Meanwhile, difficult discussions are taking place, mapping out the route towards the talks, the various things that need to be done so that talks will start in the best possible atmosphere on the 10th of June. I want to stress that the only qualification required of any party for participation in those talks is that they should not support a campaign of violence. Thus the only qualification required for something that we want very much, which is full Sinn Fein partici- pation in these talks, is the reinstatement of the cease-fire. And I ask the IRA to reinstate the cease-fire so that Sinn Fein will be able to take their unique and deserved part in the talks that will be starting on the 10th of June. I want to say also, from the point of view of the Irish Government, that it is extremely important that these talks, when they start on the 10th of June, do not become logjammed on one item. Of course, the issue of the decommissioning of arms and the very important and difficult questions that were so lucidly dealt with by Senator George Mitchell in his report--of course those are critical issues which must be dealt with in the talks from the very outset and dealt with in a serious way. But I want to say that, from the point of view of the Irish Government--and we will be participating fully in these talks--we're not willing to allow any one item, be it decommissioning or anything else, to prevent progress on other items. We want to see a total and comprehensive engagement on all of the issues across all of the problems by all of the parties. And I want to stress that the goal of these talks is truly ambitious. It is a comprehensive agreement, not an internal settlement within Northern Ireland, a comprehensive settlement dealing with the relations between Britain and Ireland, dealing with relations between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland, and of course, instituting justice within Northern Ireland and fairness within Northern Ireland itself. What we're aiming at in that three-stranded approach is a system of government for the people of Northern Ireland to which both communities can give equal allegiance. All throughout the world where problems of this nature exist, where there are two communities mixed together with differing national allegiances, the tendency has been in the past for one community to be predominant and the other to be subordinate. What we're looking for in Ireland is something different. It is a system of government where both communities will feel equal, where both will have the same loyalty to the institutions each share and each live under. That's something which I believe that deserves to happen; it deserves to happen in this generation. And I recollect, when I first came to this house, and you, Mr. President--I've given you some shamrock today--you made me a presentation of a book which was entitled ``How the Irish Saved Civilization.'' It was about the role of Irish monks in preserving learning during the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire. And it quite properly, I think, indicated your realization that we of Irish heritage have a capacity to do some things that affect the whole world. And it's my view that if we in Ireland can devise political institutions, form a society where you have two communities with radically different allegiances, and let us not minimize the differences of allegiance that exist between unionists and nationalists, if we have the imagination, the spirit, and the confidence to devise institutions in these talks that will start on the 10th of June, I believe that we, Irish people and people of Irish heritage, will again be contributing a model to the world, a beacon of hope to the world similar to the one to which you drew my attention when you presented me with that most excellent book. Thank you very much, Mr. President.”