Clinton In Dublin Ahead Of Belfast Visit

Hillary Clinton has arrived in Dublin at the beginning of an Irish visit which will see her travel to Belfast on Friday.

The US Secretary of State is in Dublin for an international security conference.

She will be in Belfast on Friday to discuss the peace process and economic opportunities.

While in Northern Ireland, she plans to discuss the trilateral US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership and economic opportunities for Northern Ireland.

She will also take part in an event hosted by The Ireland Funds - a fundraising network which supports programmes of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education, and community development throughout the island of Ireland.

The visit could be one of Mrs Clinton’s last foreign engagements, as her term ends in December and she has said she does not want a second term. It is part of a four-day tour of Europe which includes the Czech Republic and Belgium.

The trip continues a long association between the Clintons and Northern Ireland. Mrs Clinton has already visited Northern Ireland three times in the 90s with her husband, former US President Bill Clinton.

In 1995 the couple turned on the Christmas lights in Belfast a year after the first IRA ceasefire.

Mrs Clinton came to Northern Ireland in 1999 without her husband, when she gave a keynote address to a women's conference, as well as in October 1997 when she gave the Tip O'Neill Memorial lecture at the University of Ulster's Magee campus in Londonderry.

(IT)