Clinton says time to 'belly up to bar' in Ireland

REUTERS

February 9, 2000
Web posted at: 12:29 p.m. EST (1729 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton said Wednesday there was hope for solving the crisis in the Northern Ireland peace process but it was time for all parties to "belly up to the bar" and work on a solution.

It was the second time the president, a key player in the search for peace in the British province, has publicly used a barroom analogy in describing the conflict. The last time he apologized.

"I think everyone understands that we're at a very important moment, and that we're trying to keep it going and we have a chance," Clinton told reporters at the White House.

"And I just hope everyone will -- everyone will belly-up to the bar and do their part, so that we don't have any kind of backsliding or reversal here. We've come too far," he said.

The peace process, based on a 1998 agreement, is in crisis with pro-British Protestant Unionists threatening to quit a new power-sharing executive in belfast unless the Irish Republican Army, which wants a united Ireland, starts to disarm.

"We're working very hard on it. And I have some hope that we may find a way through this which would enable every aspect of the Good Friday Accord to be realized -- that's, after all, what the people of Northern Ireland voted for overwhelmingly -- and that could achieve that objective without interrupting the progress so far," Clinton said.

In October Clinton, who has personal contacts with all sides in Ireland and played a critical role in keeping the process on track, apologized for suggesting the antagonists were as addicted to fighting as drunks are to their drink.

"I spent an enormous amount of time trying to help the people in the land of my forebears in Northern Ireland get over 600 years of religious fights," he said then.

"And every time they make an agreement to do it, they're like a couple of drunks walking out of the bar for the last time. When they get to the swinging door, they turn right around and go back in and say I just can't quite get there."

Clinton normally is acutely alert to religious and ethnic sensitivities and takes pride in embracing cultural diversity.

His remark last year drew quick and sharp criticism from some leaders in Northern Ireland but others sympathized with his views, saying they reflected international frustration.