Ireland

Daniel Larison points out an extraordinary passage from Bill Clinton’s appearance on The Charlie Rose Show on Friday. Bafflingly, Clinton seems to believe that the Northern Irish peace process qualifies his wife to be President: Clinton:…The only way to overcome our differences is not basically to try to erase the past, it’s to get used to working together. I mean it’s kind of a metaphor for the Hillary argument. If you look at last Monday, the… Charlie Rose: You are people are pushing me, so it’s not my — Bill Clinton: The new leaders of Northern Ireland came to Washington to see the president. They — it represents a stunning

Well, not always. From the New York Times, September 29th 1994, less than a month after the declaration of a (temporary as it proved) IRA ceasefire: Artfully casting off his old role as official outcast, Gerry Adams, the political spokesman for the Irish Republican Army, beamed from the steps of City Hall yesterday as New York politicians vied to be at his side and hail him as honored guest and newborn statesman… …A relatively small lunch-hour crowd of a few hundred cheered him, but the domestic political value of Mr. Adams’s official turnabout was demonstrated by the throng of local politicians who crowded about Mr. Adams. They pressed him to

This interesting story about jury duty in Baltimore brought to mind that old and favourite line from an Irish judge: You have been acquitted by a Limerick jury and may leave this court with no other stain upon your character.