Clinton Lauds Ireland’s Economy, Progress Toward Peace

Declaring that there has never been a better time to be Irish, President Clinton praised the people of this country Friday for their striking turnaround over the last few years, in terms of both economic development and progress toward peace.

“Ireland has moved from nightmares to dreams,” Clinton said to several thousand employees of the Dublin assembly plant of Gateway 2000, a U.S. computer company. “As a result, you are moving toward permanent peace, remarkable prosperity, unparalleled influence and a brighter tomorrow for your children. . . . The future is yours.”

The president said Ireland’s years of misery were a result of its shortage of resources for manufacturing at a time when such resources helped guarantee economic success.

But, he went on, “the most important thing in the 21st century is the capacity of people to imagine, to innovate, to create, to exchange ideas and information. By those standards, this is a very wealthy nation indeed.”

Gateway provided an ideal backdrop for the president’s exuberant message because it illustrates how Ireland has become a magnet for the high-tech workplaces of the future, defying the long-held image of this nation as a place so bereft of good jobs that it could not keep its own citizens home.

While much of the world’s economy suffers, Ireland is thriving. A country with only 3.7 million people, it is second only to the United States in exports of computer software, while unemployment is at a 20-year low and the annual growth rate is at 8%.

Earlier in the day, during a speech at the Royal College of Surgeons, Clinton declared: “There has literally never been a better time, I don’t suppose, to be Irish.”

And many in the crowd at Gateway said his comment was on target.

“There’s a new confidence,” said Brendan Tuohy, 40, an official of the Department of Public Enterprise who helped draft an electronic commerce agreement that Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Clinton signed at Gateway. “We’re coming of age in many ways.”

Such optimism has been fueled largely by the progress made toward peace in Northern Ireland after 30 years of sectarian violence that poisoned life on both sides of the border.

“The peace process is so fundamental,” Tuohy added. “Added to that is the economic success. It’s fantastic.”

“It’s a really positive time,” said Christina O’Flynn, 27, who does market research at Gateway. “In the ‘70s and ‘80s, things were much bleaker. Now, we’re in the position where people don’t want to leave anymore. Before it was gray, and there was nothing to do. Now, you can find really good jobs.”

Clinton spent much of his day--both in public and private--with Ahern.

The focus of their talks was how to keep up the momentum of the peace process in British-ruled Northern Ireland--by disarming paramilitary groups, improving social equality between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the province and stimulating its economy.

“Peace literally would not have happened, in my judgment, if it hadn’t been for him,” Clinton said of Ahern during his speech to political, business and community labor leaders at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Most recently, Ahern was given credit for putting such pressure on Catholic paramilitary groups after the bombing last month that killed 28 people in Omagh, Northern Ireland, that the group responsible, which calls itself the Real IRA, declared a cease-fire.

White House officials stressed that the Irish people deserve much credit for the changes north of their border, particularly because of their strong vote for peace in the referendum endorsing the Good Friday peace agreement that was held simultaneously with a corresponding poll in Northern Ireland.

“I think it’s important to recognize that we would not be where we are now were it not for the efforts of the Irish,” said U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor James Steinberg.

Clinton left Dublin late in the day and headed west to Ballybunion, a seaside resort with dramatic cliffs and one of the world’s most famous golf courses. Clinton had planned to golf there in 1995, on his first trip to Ireland, but had to change his plans when he cut that trip short because of the U.S. troop deployment in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

On the flight from Dublin, Clinton walked to the rear of Air Force One, where his media pool sits, and chatted for about 15 minutes about his impressions of the visit to Ireland and Northern Ireland and his great desire to get on the golf course for the first time in a month.

“I’ll be lucky if I don’t lose a dozen balls tomorrow,” he said. “It’s very difficult, and I’ll have fun.”

“The wind will be howling,” he added, referring to rough weather forecast for today.