Clinton Gets Hero’s Welcome in Ireland

President Clinton on Tuesday came to this border town, long a refuge for Irish Republican Army “hard men” on the run from police, to ask the people to stand up for peace between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland.

Clinton urged the tens of thousands of residents jammed into the town’s central square to help protect the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement to end a generation of sectarian warfare in the British-ruled province a few miles away.

“You can give people all over the world proof that peace can prevail, that the past is history, not destiny. That is what I came to ask you, to redouble your efforts,” he said.

The president arrived in Dundalk from his first stop on what will be a two-day visit--the Irish capital, Dublin, where he got a hero’s welcome for his key role in fostering the peace accord that brought about a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. But the agreement is faltering over disputes about IRA disarmament, policing powers and the withdrawal of British troops from the province.

At the site of the original Guinness brewery, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern delivered a tribute to Clinton.

“I want to say personally, thank you for all of the time, all of the calls, all of the meetings,” Ahern said, adding that, despite Clinton’s busy schedule, “every time that we needed you . . . you had time to make a call.”

In Dundalk, Clinton was greeted like a rock star with cheers and whistles and cries of “We love you, Bill.” At the end of his speech, he was serenaded by a children’s chorus singing “Danny Boy.” The president, his arms draped around First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea, sang along.

Dundalk is a hardscrabble town situated not only on the geographic divide between north and south but on the figurative border between the region’s violent past and its hope for a prosperous future. It is home to a new Xerox Corp. plant that employs 1,600 people. Their jobs are particular valuable in a municipality with 7% unemployment, and would never have been created without the peace process, residents say.

“It’s a good town that got a bad name,” insisted Alan Sheekey, 33, one of the lucky ones to get a job at Xerox. “And any normal person here would support the peace process.”

The 30,000 residents of Dundalk--the vast majority of them Catholic--voted overwhelmingly to support the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which relinquished the Irish Republic’s claim to the six counties of Northern Ireland in exchange for political and civil rights reforms in the province.

Many also have supported the Irish Republican Army, which declared a cease-fire in 1997 and all but signed on to the peace accord that has seen its political wing, Sinn Fein, join a Protestant and Catholic power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

But the town is also known to Irish and British authorities as a base for the dissident Real IRA, which claimed responsibility for a 1998 bombing in the town of Omagh that was the worst single attack in the 30-year history of Northern Ireland’s sectarian war. Twenty-nine people died in the blast.

The leaders of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, which opposes the peace process and claims to be strictly a political group working for a united Ireland, live in a suburb of Dundalk. Michael McKevitt and Bernadette Sands McKevitt--sister of hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died in 1981 and became a martyr to Irish Catholics--deny police accusations that they are a front for the Omagh bombers.

No one has been charged with murder for the bombing, although in Dundalk it is said that “even the dogs in the street” know who did it.

But in Dundalk, people also know to keep their mouths shut.

One man waiting for hours in a steady rain to see Clinton claimed to be a neighbor of the McKevitts.

“She’s well thought of. I’m friendly with her son, who owns the village [takeout food shop]. I don’t think they did it,” said the man. But he declined to give his name, pointing a finger at his temple like a pistol and saying: “Security. You know, mentioning the McKevitts and all.”

A couple of blocks away, an American flag hung in the window of McDonnells pub, widely known but rarely said aloud to be an IRA extremist bar. The owner, Colm Murphy, has been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions in connection with the Omagh bombing and released on bail to await trial.

Customers wearing stubbly beards and shamrock tattoos grew quiet at the sight of two U.S. reporters asking for opinions about the Clinton visit.

“I’d really rather not say,” answered the ginger-haired bartender with beefy arms. “I’d rather you not ask.”

Why the American flag, then?

“It’s just the spirit of the day,” he said frostily as a few Guinness-drinkers smirked.

Across the street at Ma Brady’s restaurant, owner Michael Brady wouldn’t discuss McDonnells. (“Oh, I don’t know about that, I’m on this side of the street.”) But he was more than happy to talk about Clinton.

“He’s a good man, and he’s done a lot for Ireland,” Brady said.

Brady’s grandparents founded the restaurant in 1916, the year of the Easter Rising against British rule, he noted. His mother, Agnes, who ran Ma’s for 56 years before he took over, is also a fan of Clinton’s.

“He’s a lovely man,” she said as she donned a plastic rain scarf in preparation for going out.

And the peace process?

“You’ll never change some sides, you know. But it’s much, much better than it was. It was terrible a few years ago.”

Better or not, security in Dundalk was ample Tuesday. As soldiers with sniffer dogs checked for bombs, security experts searched sewers, drainpipes and trash bins downtown. Scores of police circled the central square, which was blocked off to traffic in every direction for blocks.

Nonetheless, well-wishers arrived early dressed as Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty to listen to Irish samba music and folk singers.

Sheila Campbell, 55, showed up at 11:30 a.m. with a folding stool and a flask of tea to wait for Clinton, who didn’t arrive until 8:30 p.m.

“You know the pilgrimage site of Lough Derg? Well, you stay up all night there doing your penance, so this is no bother here,” Campbell said. “We just wanted to see President Clinton. He’s done so much for peace in Ireland.”