Thousands in Ireland Rally for Peace as Britain OKs New Talks With Sinn Fein
Tens of thousands of people across divided Ireland paraded Sunday for peace as Britain agreed to its first talks with Sinn Fein since the party’s IRA backers scrapped a 17-month cease-fire.
The privately organized rallies drew huge crowds of Protestants and Roman Catholics alike in one of the biggest outpourings of public anger at Irish violence in 25 years.
About 10,000 demonstrators chanting “Cease-fire now! Give us back our peace!” packed the city center in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
In Dublin, U.S. Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith joined a 25,000-strong rally in College Green, where three months ago President Clinton addressed a crowd confident that the cease-fire by the Irish Republican Army would last.
In Washington, Clinton threw his support behind calls for peace.
“Those who seek to use violence and terror should hear the voices of today’s vigil being conducted across our lands: No to violence, yes to peace,” his statement said.
Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, said it will meet with British officials in Belfast today to press for elusive all-party talks on a settlement for Northern Ireland.
Britain has refused to hold ministerial-level talks with Sinn Fein since the IRA, frustrated at Britain’s failure to convene all-party negotiations, killed two people with a bomb in London on Feb. 9.
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