Celebration as summit

By Susan Falvella-Garraty and Ray O’Hanlon

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House is working to make this last St. Patrick’s Day with Bill Clinton at its helm a peace summit for the political leaders visiting from Ireland.

President Clinton is clearly dismayed over the course of events that led to the earlier success the Good Friday accord to disintegrate last month. Talk of mere celebration for this March 17 have now been converted into plans for serious attempts to resurrect the peace process from the current impasse.

All the pivotal political figures in the peace process are expected in the U.S. capital for a series of events hosted by the White House itself and both the Irish and British embassies.

In addition to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, party leaders John Hume, Gerry Adams and David Trimble will also be in Washington.

White House officials were warning that no one should be looking for miracles but that this year’s festivities will take on a more serious tone than other years in an effort to put the stalled process back on track.

"We intend on rolling up our sleeves and working," a White House official said.

However, amid rumors of a possible "significant" statement from President Clinton on St. Patrick’s Day, there have also been words of caution.

A breakthrough, Taoiseach Ahern told reporters in Australia Tuesday, "will take some time further." He said the meetings in Washington "will afford us the opportunity of all the party leaders having some discussions, some dialogue. . . . It is our view that it is only the two governments working with the parties which can resolve these issues and hopefully there is the goodwill to do that."

During his visit to Washington, Ahern is expected to have no fewer than four face-to-face meetings with President Clinton.

Given the expectations raised by such extended meeting time, Ahern’s caution is understandable. At the same time, the level of personal contact and the troubled backdrop in Northern Ireland is also certain to raise hopes that St. Patrick’s Day in Washington will produce more than just an exchange of shamrock and mutual political good wishes.

Roundtable talks

Washington has tried to make the Irish government’s proposal of reduction of British troops in return for a declaration from the IRA that their war is over more palatable to Unionists and British government officials.

White House officials said this week’s meetings are the first in an orderly set of steps required to put the process back on track. Unlike years past, when Clinton met individually with the various party leaders during the day prior to the evening St. Patrick’s Day reception, the president will hold more round table or small multi-lateral discussions this time around.

"This year will be more serious," said a White House official, "it will be more reflective.

"It’s not as though we expect the stars to become aligned. We do want to do everything we can to help keep the process going because the past has shown that stoppage leads to a hardening of positions."

White House officials also say that although Sen. George Mitchell, the architect of the 1998 Good Friday accord, will be in Washington at the same time as the party and government leaders, there are no plans to inject him back directly into the process.

It is their hope that Mitchell’s work, both on the initial production of the agreement, and his follow-up review, will be enough and that the leaders themselves will "get their acts together." It is felt that any further necessity for Mitchell’s personal mediation could devalue the agreement the parties signed up to 23 months ago.

It has not been lost on White House officials that meetings at the White House conducted during 1998’s St. Patrick’s Day events were deemed critical in the run-up a month later to the signing of the Good Friday agreement.