Hail to the Chief
So as we approach the last leg of Ian Paisley's farewell tour, we have to prepare for a flying visit from another politician who will soon be on his way. George Bush is due at Stormont at the end of his European tour in June. Earlier today I was interviewing another US Visitor, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jody Williams who is in Ireland to support calls for a local Peace Minister and to attend a conference on cluster bombs in Dublin.
It was clear from the get go that Ms Williams isn't the President's biggest fan. She reckons the Iraq war was all about stealing oil and confessed to having some qualms about the notion of a US Peace Minister when she first heard about it, lest the President appoint Donald Rumsfeld to the job.
I reminded her that last time President Bush visited Hillsborough he had promised to devote just as much time to making peace in the Middle East as Tony Blair did to making peace in Northern Ireland. Had he kept to his pledge? "Not in my measure of how you do peace" Ms Williams replied, adding "but then I did get the Peace Prize and he didn't."
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