As his six-month-old son, Andrew Maclachlan, slept upstairs, the triumphant chairman of the Northern talks George Mitchell was guest of honour at a dinner hosted by the US ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith in the Phoenix Park last Friday, to celebrate the successful conclusion of the talks, and the honorary degree he had received from Trinity College that afternoon. Next-door neighbour, the President, Mrs McAleese, led the guests, who included Liz O'Donnell, John Hume, Paddy Hillery, John Bruton, Ruairi Quinn, Father Alex Reid, Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, Albert Reynolds, Archbishop Desmond Connell, Dr Walter Empey and Martin Mansergh.
Mitchell, who was with wife Heather, speaks often about how his son was born during the lengthy peace talks, and he doesn't want his son's generation growing up amid more violence. He had been around for a long time, he said, and done a lot of things in life, but one of the most rewarding of all was public service, which was why the agreement meant so much to him. And Mitchell is Irish. His paternal grandparents were Kilroys and he was adopted from a Boston orphanage by a Lebanese family who had taken the WASP-sounding name of Mitchell. Tonight Kennedy Smith hosts another dinner party in honour of Arthur Schlesinger and the legendary movie star Lauren Bacall.