This is an edited version of the speech delivered by President Clinton in the Odyssey Centre, Belfast yesterday. The full speech, together with the text of the speeches of Mr Tony Blair, Mr David Trimble and Mr Seamus Mallon, are available on www.ireland.com/special/clinton
Hillary, Chelsea and I are delighted to be back in Northern Ireland, and here.
I also can't help noting that this magnificent new arena is new since I was last here in '98 - a new team, a new sport, a new facility, a new Northern Ireland. I want to thank the Belfast Giants for letting us use the arena tonight. I understand they don't treat their opponents as kindly as me, and I thank them for that. Thank you.
Believe it or not, I actually read in the press this reference that said that since I'll be out of work soon - (laughter) - that if I can skate and shoot and I'm not very expensive, the Giants would consider offering me a position. Well, I'm used to absorbing blows, but that's about the only qualification I have. Senator Mitchell, however, comes from Maine, where they play hockey all the time, and I think you should consider offering him a position. He is very well suited for it.
Let me say to all of you, I have been honoured to be involved in the quest for peace here for almost eight years now. It has been not a passing interest, but a passion for me and my administration, and, as many as you know, for my family as well. And I want to say a special word of thanks to my wife, and to the women here in Northern Ireland who have worked with her through the Vital Voices programme and other things to try to make a contribution to the peace.
I came here five years ago for the first time. Now, I am back on my third visit - no other American President can say that. I want you to know that I'm here not just because I have Irish roots, like millions of Americans; and not simply because I love the land and the people: I believe in the peace you are building. I believe there can be no turning back. I believe you are committed to that. And I think it's very important that people the world over see what you are doing and support you along the way.
I remember how hard Prime Ministers Blair and Ahern, and George Mitchell, and all the leaders here worked on the Good Friday accord. I remember time and time again being called, saying that this or that problem had arisen and maybe the agreement couldn't be reached. And just before dawn on Good Friday, when the final momentum was building, one of your leaders said to me, in a very tired voice - I'll never forget it - this is a life-and-death meeting. And then he added, but we'll make it happen. When they did, I remember saying to that person, go and claim your moment.
That is what I have to say today. After the Good Friday accord was reached, the people of Northern Ireland sealed it in an overwhelming vote for peace. And so I say, it is still for you to claim your moment.
How many children are alive today in Northern Ireland because deaths from sectarian violence are now a small fraction of what they were before the Good Friday accords? How many days of normality have you gained because the checkpoints on the border aren't there anymore, because honest people can go to a pub or a school or a church without the burden of a search or the threat of a bomb?
You have spent so many years mourning your losses. I hope you will now celebrate with pride and defend with passion the progress you have made.
Just look at this arena here. Ten years ago, I'm not sure you could have gotten the investment necessary to build this arena or to revitalise the entire Laganside area. But over the five years just passed, as hopes for peace have grown, the economy has grown - manufacturing up 27 per cent, foreign investment almost 70 per cent, the number of American firms growing from 40 to 100, 22,000 new jobs there alone. More people coming in than moving out.
In spite of the overwhelming support for the Good Friday agreement and the evident progress already brought, opponents of peace still try to exploit the implementation controversies, to rub salt in old wounds and serve their own ends. And others, for their own purposes, still stand on the sidelines, watching and just waiting for something to go wrong. Well, I wanted you all to come together, first to show the world that the great majority of the people of Northern Ireland are still on the side of peace and want it to prevail; second, to say again to the proponents of violence that their way is finished; and, third, to reaffirm, even in this great arena, that peace, unlike hockey, is not a spectator sport.
No one can afford to sit on the sidelines. For years you have made your view clear: Violence is not the answer. Peace is the path to justice. The Good Friday accords define that path.
Last week's tragic killings are a brutal reminder of a past we all wish to leave behind that is not completely gone, and a sober reminder that failing to move forward risks slipping backward. The people of Northern Ireland must be clear and unequivocal about your support for peace. Remember, the enemies of peace don't really need your approval. All they need is your apathy.
I do not believe you want Northern Ireland ever again to be a place where tomorrow's dreams are clouded by yesterday's nightmares. The genius of the Good Friday agreement still remains its core principles of consent, equality, justice, respect for each other and for law and order. These ideas are big enough to embody the aspirations, hopes and needs of all the people of Northern Ireland.
As I said before, your progress in putting these principles into practice has truly been remarkable. But, again, we all know there is still much to do before the agreement's vision is fully and finally realised. We know, for example, there must be a full and irrevocable commitment to effecting change only through peaceful means - through ballots, not bullets. That means putting all arms fully, finally and forever beyond use.
Last week's IRA statement on this topic was a welcome development; the follow-through will be even more so.
We welcome the contribution of those paramilitaries observing a ceasefire. Those who reject peace should know there is no place for them to hide. Based on my conversations with Prime Minister Ahern in Dublin yesterday, and with Prime Minister Blair today, I want to say that the United States will intensify its co-operation with British and Irish authorities on counter-terrorism, to combat groups seeking to undermine the Good Friday accords through violence.
We are going to get experts from the three nations together in the near future, and the United States will continue to work in a systematic way to do whatever we can to help to root out terrorism and to make this peace agreement take hold.
Now, we also know that real respect for human rights must be woven into the fabric of all your institutions. The light this will cast is the best guarantee that political violence will disappear. That's why it is so important to have a police force that inspires pride and confidence in all the people.
Just before our gathering here, I met with victims of the violence - quite a large number of them who lost their children, their husbands, their wives, their limbs, their livelihood. Among them was the widow of an RUC officer and the sister of a slain defence attorney. Together, they offer the best testimony to the need to honor those who unjustifiably sacrificed their lives, their health or their loved ones. We should honor those who have done their duty in the past while making a fresh start toward a police service that will protect, serve and involve everyone equally in the years to come.
Finally, and maybe most important of all, for the vision of the Good Friday agreement to be fully realised, all sides must be fully engaged with each other, understanding that they must move forward together or not at all; that for one community to succeed, the whole community must succeed.