ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Celebrating a 15-month cease-fire, President Clinton visited violence-scarred neighborhoods on both sides of Northern Ireland's long conflict Thursday and declared, ``Surely there can be no turning back.''
The first American president ever to come to the troubled province implored Roman Catholics and Protestants alike not to surrender to the impulses of ``old habits and hard grudges.''
In his main speech of the day, Clinton addressed several thousand people at Mackie metal plant, located along a ``peace line'' - a wall of steel and stone dividing Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. The plant's work force is mixed but mostly Protestant. Workers are told to leave their politics at the door.
``You must stand firm against terror,'' Clinton urged. ``You must say to those who still would use violence for political objectives: `You are the past. Your day is over.'''
Clinton's peace appeals were loudly applauded, though a lone heckler, Cedric Wilson, twice called out, ``Never.'' Wilson is aligned with Protestant firebrand Ian Paisley, leader of the most extreme pro-British party, the Democratic Unionist Party.
Despite the truce observed by paramilitary groups, security was intense. Nearly 3,000 officers were put on duty to protect Clinton during his 24-hour stay. Dozens of roads were closed, sewers were searched and sealed, and metal detectors were erected in Clinton's Belfast hotel, bombed 37 times since the troubles began in 1969.
A crowd estimated at more than 50,000 braved the evening cold to watch Clinton switch on the Christmas lights on a 45-foot fir tree outside Belfast's city hall. The tree was cut in Belfast's sister city, Nashville, Tenn., and shipped here courtesy of the Air Force.
``This year must be especially joyous for you,'' Clinton said, ``for you are entering your second Christmas of peace.''
In the crowd, Naomi McCay, a Protestant, said, ``He's renewed hope; he's inspired us all.'' Catholic Seamus McFadden said Clinton's presence proved that ``America's behind the peace process. They're calling the shots. They're putting pressure on every side.''
Steeped in symbolism, Clinton's visit was designed to build momentum in the peace process and a sense of accomplishment in the cease-fire.
The journey - with a stop Friday in Dublin - also had political reverberations for Clinton, since 44 million Americans claim some Irish ancestry.
The visit required a diplomatic balancing act.
Arriving on the heels of a breakthrough agreement between London and Dublin on Northern Ireland, Clinton stopped first in a hard-line Protestant neighborhood, where he bought apples and flowers for his wife.
Later, the president visited a Catholic neighborhood, dropping by a bakery for a handshake with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, the political voice of the outlawed IRA. ``A hundred thousand welcomes,'' Adams said in a Gaelic greeting.
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