President Clinton and Secretary Clinton Travel to Northern Ireland to Mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

For Immediate Release: April 15, 2023

Contact: press@clintonfoundation.org

PRESIDENT CLINTON AND SECRETARY CLINTON TRAVEL TO NORTHERN IRELAND TO MARK THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT

(BELFAST) Over the next week, President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton will be in Northern Ireland to mark the 25th Anniversary of the historic Good Friday Agreement – to look back at the long road to peace, to reflect on where we are today, and to call for the rededication to the work of reconciliation that remains.

Throughout his administration, President Clinton was deeply involved in the peace-making process in Northern Ireland. And as First Lady, Secretary Clinton was an ardent supporter of the women of Northern Ireland and she often advocated for women’s voices to be heard in peace negotiations. On April 10, 1998, after several years, the Good Friday Agreement was signed with overwhelming public support, ending the conflict in Northern Ireland and establishing a Northern Ireland Assembly. In commemoration of the anniversary, President Clinton authored an op-ed for the Washington Post on why peace has endured in Northern Ireland.

See below for more details, and learn more about the visit and the anniversary at clintonfoundation.org/good-friday-agreement/.

During the visit, President Clinton and Secretary Clinton will be participating in Agreement 25: Marking the 25th Anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, a three-day conference at Queen’s University Belfast from April 17-19. Secretary Clinton, who serves as the University’s Chancellor, will deliver opening remarks; President Clinton will deliver a keynote address; and Secretary Clinton will moderate a panel on sustaining peace featuring President Clinton, Sir Tony Blair, and Bertie Ahern. The full agenda, including specific sessions, can be found here. The event will be livestreamed at https://www.qub.ac.uk/agreement25/. For credentials to attend Agreement 25, please e-mail comms.office@qub.ac.uk.

In addition to the Queen’s University Belfast event, President Clinton and Secretary Clinton will both attend a Gala dinner on April 19 hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. President Clinton will also visit Derry on April 18 to deliver the keynote address for “Making Hope & History Rhyme,” an event hosted by the John & Pat Hume Foundation. Secretary Clinton will visit Limavady on April 19 for an event at Limavady High School/St Mary’s Limavady.

Additional background on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, including details about President Clinton’s and Secretary Clinton’s involvement, can be found below.

Background on the Good Friday Agreement

In 1992, President Clinton, then a candidate for the presidency, expressed support for peace in Northern Ireland. In 1994, President Clinton granted Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a “limited duration” visa to attend a conference on Northern Ireland in New York. The decision was highly controversial, but critical to jumpstarting the peace process as it elevated Adams’ position and ability to be involved in the process, and laid the groundwork for a cease-fire by the IRA. He also took the critical step of appointing Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell as Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

On April 10, 1998, after years of U.S. engagement, the Good Friday Agreement was signed with overwhelming public support, ending the conflict in Northern Ireland and establishing a Northern Ireland Assembly. It enshrined majority rule with minority rights, shared-decision making, shared economic benefits, and special ties to the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The final negotiated settlement called for:

• The transfer of power from London to Belfast with a Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive Committee in which Unionist and Nationalist parties would share power;
• Provisions governing decommissioning of paramilitary groups, policing, human rights protections, U.K. demilitarization and the status of prisoners; and
• A North-South Ministerial Council to allow leaders in the northern and southern parts of the island of Ireland to consult and cooperate on cross-border issues, and a British-Irish Council composed of representatives of the two governments and the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man to discuss matters of mutual interest.

Critically, the agreement recognized that a change in Northern Ireland’s status could only come about with the consent of the majority of its people. One month later, in May 1998, Ireland approved the Good Friday Agreement with an overwhelming vote of support – including 71 percent in support of the Agreement in Northern Ireland, and 94 percent in support in the Irish Republic.

Timeline of President Clinton’s Engagement with the Northern Ireland Peace Process

April 1992: While running for President, Governor Bill Clinton expresses support for both appointing a peace envoy for Northern Ireland and authorizing a visa for Gerry Adams, leader of the separatist Sinn Féin party.

December 1993: Following meetings with President Clinton in 1993 with UK Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, the British and Irish Governments issue the Downing Street Declaration, a joint declaration from London to foster agreement and reconciliation.

January 1994: President Clinton grants Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a “limited duration” visa to attend a conference on Northern Ireland in New York. The decision was highly controversial, but critical to jumpstarting the peace process as it elevated Adams’ position and ability to be involved in the  process, and laid the groundwork for a cease-fire by the IRA.

March 1994: During a St. Patrick’s Day luncheon in Washington with Irish Prime Minister Reynolds, President Clinton calls on the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to lay down arms. In August 1994, the IRA announces a cease-fire, followed by a cease-fire later in the fall by loyalist paramilitary groups.

November 1994: President Clinton increases the U.S. contribution to the International Fund for Ireland and calls a conference on trade and investment in Ireland. This leads to a dramatic expansion of Northern Irish exports to the U.S. in the 1990s, and investment by U.S. firms.

December 1994: President Clinton appoints Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell as Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

May 1995: The White House sponsors the first-ever Conference on Trade and Investment in Ireland in Washington, D.C., with President Clinton citing “the end of organized violence” and urging American business to invest in Northern Ireland.

November 1995: Accompanied by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Clinton visits Northern Ireland, holding meetings with leading Unionists, Irish Nationalists, and peace advocates. The trip makes President Clinton the first sitting U.S. president to visit Northern Ireland.

February/March 1996: Following the end to the IRA’s cease fire and a deadly bombing in London’s Docklands, President Clinton meets with Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and extends a second visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in the pursuit of peace.

June 1996: With full backing of the White House, Senator Mitchell begins peace talks among the British, the Irish Republic and Unionists at Stormont, excluding Sinn Féin, due to continuing IRA violence.

December 1996: President Clinton and Prime Minister John Bruton of Ireland meet at the White House, where President Clinton calls for reinstatement of the IRA cease-fire. President Clinton will reiterate this call in May of 1997.

July 1997: The IRA Cease-fire is reinstated, and the following month Sinn Féin is invited to the Stormont Peace Talks.

Late 1997: President Clinton continues to engage with the peace process, meeting with Unionist Leader Trimble at the White House in October and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern at the White House in December.

March 1998: President Clinton meets at the White House with Irish Prime Minister Ahern and Northern Ireland political party leaders, urging Unionist leaders to hold a face-to-face meeting with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.

April 1998: Following more than six months of sustained engagement with British, Irish, and Northern Ireland’s political parties, President Clinton helps usher through the Good Friday Agreement.

May 1998: Ireland holds a referendum on the Good Friday Agreement, with 85 percent in support of the agreement across Ireland. In Northern Ireland, 71 percent votes to support the Agreement.

September 1998: After a deadly bombing in August from a dissident breakoff of the IRA, President Clinton embarks on a second trip to Northern Ireland as President accompanied by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. President Clinton travels to the site of the bombing to speak with survivors and relatives of the dead, meeting with British, Irish, and Northern Ireland leaders. Following the visit, the IRA dissident group announces a “complete cessation” of its campaign of violence, and the first paramilitary prisoners released under the Good Friday Agreement.

May 1999: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton begins a two-day visit to Ireland, where she praises Irish efforts at peace-making and receives an honorary doctorate of laws from the National University of Ireland. In Belfast, the First Lady visits a playground for children hurt during the Troubles and meets with 14 female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

September 1999: Following sustained engagement by President Clinton with British, Irish, and Northern Irish Leaders, Senator Mitchell begins a review of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, which moves forward the transfers of power, decommissioning, and demilitarization.

December 2000: Following continued cessation of violence, demilitarization and decommissioning, and transfer of power,  President Clinton embarks on his third and final trip to Northern Ireland as President, accompanied by the First Lady and Chelsea Clinton.