CNN World News

Pres. Clinton waving children

Bitter divisions are slow to heal

November 30, 1995
Web posted at: 6:50 p.m. EST (2350 GMT)

From Correspondent Rob Reynolds

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- With American flags flying, Belfasters turned out to watch Bill and Hillary Clinton drive up Falls Road, a predominantly Catholic section of west Belfast. In that area, enthusiasm for the U.S. president and his role in Northern Ireland's politics run high. (600K QuickTime movie)

girl with flag

But it was in the Protestant, loyalist stronghold of the Shankhill Road that Clinton chose to make his first surprise stop of the day, shaking hands in an area where many are suspicious of him and his motives.

A frequent claim among Protestants is that the president is pushing for the Irish-American vote by backing the Irish Republican Army. But one man who shook the president's hand said that Clinton's gesture might reduce the distrust.

Irish boy

"It lets people see he's as much for the people on this side as he is for the people on the other side," he said.

Violence has been cruelly even-handed in Belfast for the past quarter century. In the shop where Clinton stopped to buy fruit, the owner remembers a bitter past.

Massacre from 1993

"There was a guy actually murdered in the shop eight or nine years ago," said Violet Clark.

The Shankhill Road, she said, was the site of numerous "unpleasant things."

Just up the street from Clark's store, men are finishing work on a wallpaper store. The site it occupies was the scene of a massacre in 1993, when an IRA bomb destroyed what was then Frizzell's Fish Shop. Upstairs, the Ulster Defense Association was meeting. Nine people, including the IRA bomber, died.

In a brutal reprisal, five people were killed in an attack on a bookmaker's shop in a Catholic neighborhood.

The people who turned out Thursday to cheer President Clinton -- and those who stayed away -- cannot be sure that the violence has been banished forever.

Despite more than a year of peace in Northern Ireland, bitterness and deep divisions remain. But if there is one thing that unites almost everyone in Belfast, it is an abiding hope that the cycle of violence has at last been broken.

Related Stories

Related sites:



[Imagemap]
| CONTENTS | SEARCH | CNN HOME PAGE | MAIN WORLD NEWS PAGE |

Copyright © 1995 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.