President Clinton pledged at the weekend that as long as the people of Ireland continue along the peace path, America would stand by Ireland every step of the way.
He warned the 40,000-plus crowd and dignitaries in Limerick on Saturday: "As we mourn the losses of Omagh and the three little boys who were killed and taken from their parents' arms, remember there will be still efforts by the enemies of peace to break your will, to get you to turn back, to get you to lose faith. Don't do it, don't do it. Remember what it was like when you were here on this day." Mr Clinton, who received the freedom of the city from the Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Joe Harrington, added: "Now free of the demons of the past, you can look to the future. In less time than has elapsed since my last visit to Ireland in 1995, we all will be, like it or not, in a new century, in a new millennium. Nowhere on Earth does that new era hold more promise than here in Ireland.
"Nowhere does the change of the calendar correspond better to profound changes in the life of a people. The Irish people, who once knew hunger, today spare no effort to aid the afflicted in other places and who knew strife at home now send peace-keepers every single day to troubled regions around the world.
"I wish that every country could be as good and generous and caring to those who have been left out, left behind, downtrodden , as the Irish people have been. The rest of the world have a lot to learn from an Ireland where human rights are protected at home and defended abroad." And he admired the work of the former president, now UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson. "We appreciate her very much." He believed Ireland would be an inspiration to the rest of the world in the 21st century and he saw it taking shape in Limerick, for example, where the university "built in our own lifetime", has become a magnet for the brightest young men and women. He was proud that an American computer company, Dell, has been able to play such a strong role in this progress. The company announced a $90 million investment in the city, with a pledge of an additional 1,700 jobs, and the President thanked the company for generously donating 100 computers to the schools in Omagh after last month's tragedy. Referring to unrest around the world, the President said: "Because of what you have done in Ireland in 1998, you have made it possible for me on behalf of the United States and the cause of peace in the world to tell every warring, feuding, hating group of people trapped in the prison of their past conflicts to look at Ireland and know that there can be a better day."
Earlier, the Conference of University Rectors' Peace Award for his role in the Belfast Agreement was presented to Mr Clinton by Dr Daniel O'Hare, president of Dublin City University and Prof George Bain, president and vice-chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast.
Thanking the universities for the award, Mr Clinton said: "For all your generosity today, make no mistake about it, the major credit for the peace process belongs to the Irish - to the people who voted for the Good Friday Agreement, to the leaders of the various groups in Northern Ireland who supported it, to the Prime Minister of Great Britain and to your extraordinary Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who has been brilliant in his leadership in this endeavour."
Mr Ahern thanked Mr Clinton for coming to Ireland and for his "brilliant help" for the peace agreement. On a sombre note, he extended sympathy to the relatives of the 29th victim of the Omagh bombings and asked for a moment's silence. He also paid tribute to Dell for the new jobs boost and to the US multinationals in Limerick who were leading the way at the cutting edge of modern technology into the next millennium.
The mayor, who presented Ms Hillary Clinton with a commissioned piece of Drumcollogher Irish Dresden, told the President that his efforts for peace had been widely appreciated and added: "On the national and international stage, the bomb and the bullet too often appear to be the instruments of first resort."