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Newsbriefs Ground readied for Clinton visit

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Ray O’Hanlon

The first of several White House advance teams was in Ireland in last week preparing the ground for President Clinton’s visit in early September.

The final schedule for the four-day visit has yet to be finalized but all indications are that it will be less formal than the 1995 trip, with perhaps only one large scale public rally and speech.

Preparing the ground also means a close study of a patch of ground in County Kerry: the Ballybunion Golf Course. A presidential hack around the famous links is considered a near certainty.

At a press conference last week, outgoing White House press Secretary Mike McCurry was asked if the Clinton visit would focus on paramilitary weapons decommissioning and the question of Unionist cooperation with Sinn FTin in the Assembly executive.

“The president is very anxious to facilitate those who are nurturing the peace process that has brought the good Friday Agreement and the promise of a better future to the citizens of Northern Ireland,” McCurry said.

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“Certainly, he will be in contact with both governments in advance of the trip and he will use his time in both the North and in the Republic of Ireland to advance the peace process. It’s too early at this point to indicate how he might do so,” McCurry added.

Meanwhile, final preparations are being made for the visit to Ireland at the end of next week of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and seven other members of Congress.

The Gingrich party is expected to visit Dublin, Kilkenny, Belfast, Buncrana, Co. Donegal, where Gingrich will check out his Irish family roots, and Shannon, Co. Clare.

— Susan Falvella Garraty in Washington

Hibernians honor King

Long Island rep. Peter King was awarded the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Medal by the Ancient Order of Hibernians during the recent 89th AOH National Convention in Pittsburgh.

King was presented with the medal by Thomas Gilligan, AOH national vice president.

King was lauded by the Hibernians for his work on behalf of Ireland and Irish America going back over three decades.

“Pete has been a champion of the cause of the oppressed in Ireland for over 30 years. He gave voice to those who sought justice for the victims of Bloody Sunday, for prisoners like Joe Doherty and Roisin McAliskey, and to those victimized by our own Justice Department like Noel Cassidy,” Gilligan told the assembled delegates during the presentation ceremony.

Gilligan added that through membership of the Ad Hoc Committee, King had been an eloquent advocate for undocumented Irish, immigration reform, the International Fund for Ireland, for a strong U.S. position against human rights abuses in Northern Ireland and “for an end to the corruption of the law in the North.”

Building and breaking for peace

A four-person group — two adults and two teenagers — are leaving New Hampshire this week for Northern Ireland, where they will take part in a building project linked to the Belfast “Feile and Phobail,” or People’s Festival, taking place in the city Aug. 2-9. The four will represent the Manchester, N.H.-based EcoloArt Global Harmony Mural Project, a non-profit organization.

Also this week, 35 Protestant and Catholic students from the North will be in Washington, D.C., to take part in a two-day seminar on peace building and reconciliation sponsored by the United Methodist Seminars on National and International Affairs and the Children’s Friendship Project for Northern Ireland. The seminar is entitled “Breaking Down the Walls and Bridging the Gaps: How Do We Learn to Live as Peacemakers in a Divided World?” During their stay in D.C., the students will perform volunteer work with the homeless and also visit the White House.

Meanwhile, 38 politicians from Ireland, North and South, and Britain attended a seminar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard last week that was aimed at highlighting ways of making the Good Friday peace agreement actually work.

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