Léargas

John Fitzpatrick; Hillary Clinton; mise and Niall O Dowd It’s hard to imagine but my first St. Patrick’s Day Speakers lunch in Washington DC was exactly 20 years ago. It was also my first meeting with President Bill Clinton.   The St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in March 1995 also unexpectedly reinforced the sense of power and influence of Irish America. Having failed to stop me getting a visa to visit the USA the British Embassy in Washington in early 1995 went into overdrive to try to blunt Sinn Féin’s engagement with Irish America and with the Clinton Administration. The Embassy lobbied to prevent me getting another visa; they lobbied to stop me getting an invitation to the Speaker’s Lunch. They lobbied to prevent the White House inviting me to the President’s St. Patrick’s Day event. They lobbied against Sinn Fein getting the right to fund raise. They lobbied Congressional and Senate members not to meet me. The British Secretary of State Patrick Mayhew left Washington

Preparing to give Ard Fheis Speech The streets of Derry were alive with different accents from all parts of the island of Ireland last weekend. There were the Derry wans, the Belfast ones, Kerry, Cork, Belfast and a myriad of other drawls, twangs and brogues. There were even voices from Canada, the USA, Palestine, South Africa, Cuba, and Greece and a few I didn’t recognise. Probably Inisnagaire. The Ard Fheis was in town, and the people of Derry were delighted to have us. And we were delighted to be there. All agreed that it was one of the best Ard Fheiseanna ever. The Millennium Forum was packed from early on Friday evening before the Ard Fheis formally opened. There was a buzz about the place which got louder and more enthusiastic as the weekend proceeded. There was an energy, an excitement and passion around the debates and contributions from young and old alike. The breadth of issues covered was evidence of a political party that was ebullient and confident and det