Days Like This: President Clinton’s Public Diplomacy in Northern Ireland

Campaign Platform

“I first got involved in the Irish issue because of the politics of New York, but it became one of the great passions of my presidency.”

President Bill Clinton, My Life, p. 401

As a Presidential Candidate, Governor Bill Clinton first announced his intention to help promote peace in Northern Ireland at a 1992 Irish-American Democratic Candidates Forum. Clinton promised that, if elected, he would appoint a special envoy to assist the British and Irish governments’ stalled efforts to end the “Troubles”: a complex ethno-nationalist conflict between Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic communities marked by economic stagnation, human rights abuses, and terrorism. The “Troubles” modern origins lay in the Catholic civil rights movement of the late 1960s, but its roots are long, deep, and centuries old.

In a widely circulated follow-up letter to prominent Irish-American Congressman Bruce Morrison, Governor Clinton reaffirmed his commitment to appointing a special envoy for Northern Ireland.

Political and Religious Divisions

Northern Ireland is the smallest province of the United Kingdom, both in size and population: less than two million people live there. In 1992, approximately 55% of residents were Protestant and 45% Catholic. “Ulster” is the ancient name for most of the counties making up this region.

At the time of President Clinton’s inauguration in 1993, there were five major political parties in Northern Ireland: the long dominant Protestant-majority Ulster Unionist Party; the militantly Loyalist Democratic Unionist Party led by Rev. Ian Paisley; the non-sectarian centrist Alliance Party; the Catholic-majority Social Democratic & Labor Party cofounded by John Hume; and Sinn Féin, the party associated with the Irish Republican Army.

The Kennedy Family

After his election, President Clinton also received the support of the Kennedy family for his efforts on behalf of peace in Northern Ireland. Senator Edward Kennedy provided advice and encouraged the White House to hire Nancy Soderberg, his staff expert on Northern Ireland. Soderberg was subsequently placed on the National Security Council (NSC) and became a key adviser throughout the peace process. Her office files are an essential archival resource. On Saint Patrick’s Day in 1993, Clinton also appointed Jean Kennedy Smith as Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, where she became an active player during behind-the-scenes negotiations.

For more information on President Kennedy’s 1963 trip to Ireland, see the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum’s online exhibit, “A Journey Home: John F. Kennedy in Ireland.”

Sinn Féin and Gerry Adams

While leaders from each party made important contributions to the peace process, one, often polarizing, figure performed an outsized role: Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin. Born in West Belfast in 1948, Mr. Adams was elected the party’s leader in 1983 after the hunger strike protests by jailed members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, otherwise known as the IRA. In this capacity, Adams became the controversial face of Irish Republicanism. Although Adams has always vehemently denied that he served in the command structure of the IRA, Sinn Féin under his leadership often defended IRA terrorism as “armed struggle.” British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s antipathy to Adams was such that, in 1988, she had his voice banned from all British news broadcasts. The ban was still in force when President Clinton came into office.

Yet bringing Gerry Adams ‘in from the cold’ became extremely important to the Clinton Administration’s strategy for achieving peace in Northern Ireland. To this end, two questions dominated the Clinton Administration’s early efforts to end the "Troubles”: Would it kickstart the peace process to grant Mr. Adams a visa to enter the United States? Could the White House and sympathetic Irish-American leaders persuade Adams to use his position to create the conditions for a ceasefire and multiparty negotiations?

After a year of publicly rejecting Mr. Adams' visa requests, and against the strong objections of both the British government and the U.S. State Department, the President finally decided to let Adams visit the United States. It would be the first of several trips. As President Clinton explained in his autobiography:

"[The visa] would boost Adam's leverage within Sinn Féin and the IRA, while increasing American influence with him. That was important because unless the IRA renounced violence and Sinn Féin became a part of the peace process, the Irish problem could not be solved."

President Bill Clinton, My Life, p. 580.

When Mr. Adams spoke at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel a few days later, he informed a hall packed with New York City’s Irish-American political leaders that, under the right conditions, Sinn Féin was prepared to support a ceasefire in Northern Ireland.

As the President concluded in his autobiography:

“The visa decision had worked. It was the beginning of my deep engagement in the long, emotional, complicated search for peace in Northern Ireland.”

President Bill Clinton, My Life, p. 581.

The prime minister of Ireland is called the Taoiseach [TEE-shuck], a Gaelic word meaning "chief" or "leader." The key partners in the Northern Ireland peace process, vital to securing the Good Friday Agreement were, Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, Taoiseach John Bruton (1994-1997) and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (1997-2008)

Special Envoys

To help guide the complicated and ever-contentious peace talks, the President appointed outgoing Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to serve as Special Adviser to the President & Secretary of State for Economic Initiatives in Ireland. American Attorney Jim Lyons, who served on the influential International Fund for Ireland, also helped to galvanize transatlantic business investment in Northern Ireland. Mr. Lyons would later succeed Mitchell as the President’s Special Adviser for Ireland.

Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown also served as an envoy, until a plane
crash in war-torn Croatia, where he was performing a similar role, ended his life on April 3, 1996.

Less visibly, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake (1993 - 97) and National Security Council (NSC) staffer Nancy Soderberg (1993 - 97) served as the principal coordinators of sensitive and classified communications between the White House and the major political actors involved. Both traveled to Ireland and the United Kingdom in support of President Clinton’s historic trip to Northern Ireland in 1995.

After the success of the White House’s spring conference on economic investment in Northern Ireland, and with the previous year’s ceasefire still holding, President Clinton accepted the British government’s invitation to visit the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the autumn of 1995. This decision triggered one of the most diplomatically sensitive mobilizations for presidential foreign travel during the Clinton Administration. Hundreds of people working inside the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland became involved. The trip also inspired dozens of proposals to schedule events and shape political messaging.

Scheduling and Advance

The staff members of the White House Office of Scheduling and Advance have primary responsibility for organizing the travel arrangements of the President. Closely coordinating with the White House Office of Communication, the National Security Council, the State Department, the Secret Service, members of Congress as well as foreign host counterparts, Scheduling and Advance sprang into action and produced a rich collection of archival records that bear witness to the scale and complexity of presidential travel abroad.

An important task of Scheduling & Advance is to prepare a “Site Survey Report.” Similar to film industry location scouting, the Site Survey Team travels ahead to locations to identify potential event sites and suggests scenarios for presidential speeches, meetings, and photo opportunities. White House staffer Joshua King ’s report for Northern Ireland identified potential themes for speechwriters, diplomats, and press handlers to maximize the impact of the President’s travel and minimize the possibility of creating controversy.

Other Potential Sites

Does President Clinton have family roots in Northern Ireland? One site given serious consideration for inclusion in the President’s itinerary was a cottage in rural County Fermanagh. President Clinton’s mother was born Virginia Dell Cassidy, and genealogists contributing to the trip planning effort believed the cottage might have once belonged to one of the President’s distant Cassidy ancestors. However, the lack of conclusive proof, and the remoteness of the farmstead, led the White House to cut the event from the schedule.

A collection released under the Freedom of Information Act, number 2016-0402-F tells the fascinating story of how White House staffers researched, debated, and ultimately dropped the idea of President Clinton visiting Fermanagh.

Preparing Remarks

After sites were chosen, White House speechwriters began the lengthy process of preparing the President’s public remarks. Before delivery, each speech went through numerous revisions, including those of the President, who spent considerable time personally marking up drafts. The Office of White House Communications also prepared a press plan for the pool of journalists who would report on the speech.

President Clinton and his team also received valuable advice from informal advisers and surrogates who often possessed unique access to certain political and business leaders involved in the peace talks.

Another team of staff members prepared “deliverables” for the trip, a list of specific political, diplomatic, cultural, and economic agreements to be exchanged and signed during the President’s visit to a foreign country. The “deliverables” on this trip were strongly weighted towards American investments in Northern Ireland’s economy.

Promoting Events

On the other side of the Atlantic, various civic organizations prepared for the President’s arrival by designing unique posters and other promotional material. This poster demonstrates that expectations for the President’s visit were high.

One of the last documents produced is the “Schedule of the President.” By the time Air Force One departed from the United States, virtually every moment of the President’s five-day trip had been planned. The result was an extraordinarily full itinerary of speeches, ceremonies, and other carefully prepared contacts with the people of Northern Ireland and their leaders.

November 29, 1995 7:10 am:
The President and First Lady arrive Heathrow Airport, London, England

Since Northern Ireland is a region of the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister John Major extended the honor of a state visit to the President and First Lady starting in London. Along with all of the pomp and ceremony of such an occasion, it also afforded Major the opportunity to discuss his support for the ongoing peace negotiations amongst his government, the Republic of Ireland, and participating political leaders in Belfast.

November 30, 1995 9:10 am:
The President and First Lady arrive at Aldergrove Airport, Belfast, Northern Ireland

The President and the First Lady then flew aboard Air Force One for approximately one hour to Aldergrove Airport, which serves as the international airport. The temperature was below freezing outside Belfast. As President Clinton emerged, important political dignitaries lined up for handshakes and photographs with the First Couple.

November 30, 1995 10:45 am:
Speech: The Factory Floor

“In the land of the harp and the fiddle, the fife and the lambeg drum, two proud traditions are coming together in the harmonies of peace . . . Mackie's plant is a symbol of Northern Ireland's rebirth. It has long been a symbol of world-class engineering. The textile machines you make permit people to weave disparate threads into remarkable fabrics. That is now what you must do here with the people of Northern Ireland.”

President Bill Clinton, Remarks to the employees and community at Mackie International

Early in the trip-planning process, the President and his team of speechwriters made a strategic communications decision: to focus on how modernizing Northern Ireland’s economy could ease sectarian tensions and bolster the prospects for peace. The Mackie International Plant was selected as an ideal scene to promote the message of reconciliation. Straddling both Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods in a distressed part of west Belfast, the owners of the factory had a policy of hiring workers from both faiths.

In the weeks preceding the President’s trip, the Mackie Plant speech went through dozens of revisions. But consistent with his usual practice, Clinton continued to make his own revisions minutes before giving his public remarks. In this instance, the President added a few moving words drawn from a painful chapter in the history of his home state of Arkansas.

“I grew up in the American South in one of the states that tried to break from the American union. My forebears on my father's side were soldiers in the Confederate Army. I was reading the other day a book about our first governor after the Civil War who fought for the Union Army and who lost members of his own family. They lived the experience so many of you have lived. When this governor took office and looked out over a sea of his fellow citizens who fought on the other side, he said these words, "We have all done wrong. No one can say his heart is altogether clean and his hands altogether pure. Thus, as we wish to be forgiven, let us forgive those who have sinned against us and ours." That was the beginning of America's reconciliation and it must be the beginning of Northern Ireland's reconciliation.”

President Bill Clinton, Remarks to the employees and community at Mackie International

Children's Letters

The future of Northern Ireland’s children was another powerful theme of this and other scheduled events. To underscore this message, the White House helped organize a letter-writing contest for school children, who were given the prompt , “What are your hopes for the future of peace in Northern Ireland?” Out of hundreds of submissions, two local students, David Sterrett and Catherine Hamill, were chosen to read their letters. Nine-year-old Catherine wrote:

“I live in Belfast. I love where I live. My first daddy died in the Troubles. It was the saddest day of my life. I will think of him. Now it is nice and peaceful. I like having peace and quiet for a change instead of people shooting and killing. My Christmas wish is that peace and love will last in Ireland forever.”

Letter to President Clinton from Catherine Hamill

Future speeches by the President on Northern Ireland would return to the hopes of these children again and again. Reproduced in newspapers all over the world, the sight of David and Catherine holding their hands in solidarity became an iconic photo of the entire trip.

November 30, 1995 11:50 - 11:58 am:
O.T.R Street Walk Falls Road - Greet Gerry Adams (Unplanned)

“Pessimists will always have history on their side to predict the worst for Northern Ireland. But the street scenes in Belfast last week were not about pessimism. They were about hope. As a consequence, the province stands better placed to enjoy a second Christmas of peace. That is no small achievement.”

Editorial, The Liberal Observer (12/3/1995)

Shankill Road

Responding to concerns raised by Unionist political leaders that the President should demonstrate a balanced approach towards both traditions in Northern Ireland, President Clinton and the First Lady stopped first on the mostly Protestant Shankill Road. Locally known simply as ‘the Shankill,’ this district had been the scene of numerous terrorist attacks by the Provisional IRA. As the White House photographer captured vividly, the highlight was a stop at Violet’s Fruit Shop. On the street, locals gave the First Couple a warm welcome to Belfast.

This was a good sign for things to come. The Protestant reception of President Clinton was unknown before the trip. While some Loyalist leaders remained vocally critical of the President’s trip, such as the Rev. Ian Paisley, many people from the Protestant community came out to cheer the Clintons on throughout the day.

Falls Road

After giving his keynote address, the President travelled to the mostly Catholic Falls Road. Upon exiting his limousine, he paused to shake hands with Gerry Adams--a controversial photo opportunity to show Sinn Féin’s support for the peace process. The President also stopped at a bakery to meet residents of the neighborhood, who turned up in enthusiastic numbers. Reflecting later on the significance of Clinton’s walkabout on the Falls, Adams told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): “There had to be some signal, particularly on the back of the IRA cessation, that things had changed.” Staged in the heart of Irish Republican west Belfast, the public handshake between President Clinton and Gerry Adams below was that signal.

November 30, 1995 11:40 am:
The First Lady will depart for a seperate event at the "Women's Drop-in Center"

Following the walkabout on the Falls Road and the Mackie Plant speech, the President’s motorcade proceeded to east Belfast, where he visited Holly’s Handmades and Renaissance Iron Works. He also participated in a roundtable discussion with local business leaders. These events continued to emphasize the theme of promoting reconciliation through economic development and investments in innovative business enterprises, both big and small.

While the President attended events in east Belfast, the First Lady travelled separately towards her own important meeting at the inclusive Women’s Information Drop-In Center (WIDIC) in south Belfast. Established by Joyce McCartan, the WIDIC met in the Lamplighter Fish and Chips Restaurant and provided a safe place for women and children to gather, conduct meetings, and learn a range of employment skills during the sectarian violence. The First Lady gathered with women at the Lamplighter Restaurant and listened as McCartan told her about founding the Center after her seventeen-year-old son was murdered in 1987. Other women shared their own stories of tragedy and loss during the “Troubles.

In her autobiography Living History, the First Lady recalled Joyce McCartan’s parting wisdom: “It takes women to bring men to their senses.” Sadly, McCartan passed away shortly after this meeting. When Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to speak in Belfast two years later, she prominently placed McCartan’s gift of a simple stainless steel teapot on top of the lectern to honor these women’s humble, yet essential, work on behalf of peace in their corner of Belfast.

Mrs. Clinton also cited the work of the Women’s Drop-In Center as one of her inspirations for co-founding Vital Voices, a nonprofit organization for the promotion of women’s rights as a U.S. foreign policy goal. The First Lady returned to Northern Ireland under the aegis of Vital Voices in 1998 and 1999.

November 30, 1995 2:40 pm: Remarks to the Citizens of Londonderry

"Have the courage to work together. Have the patience to work for a just and lasting peace. Reach for it. The United States will reach with you."

President Bill Clinton, November 30, 1995

The city of Londonderry, or Derry as it is also known, was the site of President Clinton’s other major public appearance in Northern Ireland. Located 70 miles from Belfast on the island’s northern coast, Derry had a reputation as the province’s “friendly city” with respect to sectarian violence. Derry was also the home region of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, whose vision of Irish national reconciliation seemed to have a deep influence on President Clinton’s rhetoric about the Northern Ireland peace process.

Another of Derry’s hometown heroes was John Hume, leader and cofounder of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), for many years the largest Catholic political organization in Northern Ireland. Unlike Sinn Féin, the SDLP categorically opposed the IRA. For his leadership in securing the Good Friday Agreement, Hume would be a co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with David Trimble, leader of the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party.

Although it presented numerous logistical difficulties, President Clinton insisted on paying his respects to Mr. Hume in Derry’s symbolic Guildhall Square.

Since Londonderry lacked an airfield suitable for Air Force One, the President and the First Lady took a cold and turbulent hour-long flight aboard a U.S. Marines Blackhawk helicopter. Their arrival was much warmer. They were both greeted by a massive crowd of American flag-waving supporters, many of whom surged to rope lines to shake their hands.

Following his remarks, the President and the First Lady withdrew into the Guildhall building for two closed-door events: a receiving line with the American Ireland Fund and the family of former U.S. House Speaker Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., and a reception for the inauguration of the Tip O’Neill Chair for Peace Studies at the University of Ulster. The University also bestowed an honorary degree on the President.

November 30, 1995 7:00pm: Tree Lighting Ceremony Outside Belfast City Hall

“When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch. Well my mama told me, there’ll be days like this.”

Van Morrison, "Days Like This." Days Like This, Exile Productions Ltd., 1995.

Belfast City Hall had been a magnet for protests and bombings since the beginning of the “Troubles.” For years, armed British soldiers patrolled its streets, and most shop entrances had metal detectors and security baggage checks.

Since the 1994 IRA and Loyalist ceasefire, most of these security measures had been withdrawn, making City Hall an attractive and symbolic location to stage the President’s televised event for the trip: the ceremonial lighting of a Christmas tree to mark the start of the holiday season.

For this event, Belfast’s American sister city, Nashville, Tennessee, donated a 49-foot white pine tree. Flown across the Atlantic by the U.S. Air Force, hundreds gathered downtown to watch as the tree was carefully trimmed with thousands of colorful lights. By dusk, some 80,000 people were present to cheer Belfast-born singer Van Morrison’s passionate delivery of “Days Like This,” a song which, after this performance, became an anthem for the peace process. Musicians Curtis Stigers and Brian Kennedy also contributed to the crowd’s enthusiasm for peace.

After the musicians, the Clintons took their places on the stage to sustained applause. The First Lady spoke first and gave a moving speech which emphasized the hopes for peace expressed by school children who had written to the White House, reflecting the President’s Mackie Plant remarks.

To chants of “We Want Bill,” the President rose and, accompanied by the Lord Mayor of Belfast and two local school children, strode over to an oversized light switch. With the whole crowd loudly counting down “three, two, one,” President Clinton flipped on the dramatic Christmas lights to waves of cheers. The moment was broadcast around the world, providing a powerful statement that diplomacy was making visible progress on the streets of Northern Ireland.

President Clinton’s parting words were largely improvised and clearly heartfelt. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he encouraged the citizens of Belfast. Then after more applause and cheers from a crowd who were reluctant to leave the square, the President and the First Lady departed for one last closed-door reception with Northern Ireland’s political leaders at Queen’s University.

Perhaps the most important attendee at this reception was the Rev. Ian Paisley, former leader of the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party. As President Clinton later related about this meeting with Paisley, “I didn’t get a word in edgewise for 20 minutes, but I didn’t care.” The DUP would oppose the Good Friday Agreement, but Paisley developed a good working relationship with Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness when the pair later served as First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.

Good Friday Agreement

In 1997, the election of a new British government under Prime Minister Tony Blair, assisted by his Secretary of State Mo Mowlam, gave the peace talks heightened momentum. Both leaders were, in the President’s words, optimistic that in Northern Ireland, “the people are further along than their leaders,” in their support for the peace process.

Less than a year later, the historic Good Friday Agreement was signed on April 10, 1998, and subsequently ratified by voters in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The accord established rules for power-sharing between the Protestant and Catholic communities in the governing of Northern Ireland as well as establishing mechanisms for conflict resolution involving both the British and Irish governments. The Good Friday Agreement is generally regarded as the end of the “Troubles.”

The Omagh Bombing

While a majority of the Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries laid down their weapons in 1998, a few splinter groups, both Catholic and Protestant, attempted to undermine the fragile peace with further acts of terrorism.

The most deadly of these attacks was carried out on August 15, 1998 in the town of Omagh. A group calling itself the “Real IRA” exploded a car bomb that killed 29 people and injured over 220 in a busy shopping area. It was the single deadliest terrorist attack of the entire history of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. It also immediately threatened to halt the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Claire Gallagher was a 15 year-old aspiring pianist when the Omagh bombing left her permanently blind. After meeting her in Northern Ireland, President Clinton invited Miss Gallagher to perform at the 1999 White House St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Irish songwriter and producer Phil Coulter accompanied Gallagher on the piano for the event.

After lengthy phone calls with Prime Minister Blair, President Clinton and the First Lady returned to Northern Ireland. Accompanied by Blair, the First Couple met with the victims and families of the Omagh bombing. Afterward, the President delivered an impassioned keynote address at a peace rally in the nearby ecclesiastical town of Armagh. Framed by Protestant and Catholic cathedrals dedicated to Saint Patrick, the President exhorted the mostly young audience of thousands to keep faith in the “miracle” of the Good Friday Agreement. But the President was also realistic:

“The question is not if the peace will be challenged; you know it will. The question is, how will you respond when it is challenged? You don't have to look too far. The bomb that tore at the heart of Omagh was a blatant attack on all of Northern Ireland's people who support peace . . . But it backfired. Out of the unimaginably horrible agony of Omagh, the people said, "It is high time somebody told these people that we are through with hate, through with war, through with destruction. It will not work anymore.”

President Bill Clinton, Remarks to a Gathering for Peace in Armagh, Northern Ireland, September 3, 1998

Farewell Tour

Before leaving office, President Clinton made one last trip in 2000 to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It was not a victory lap, but one final opportunity to personally shore up popular support for the Good Friday Agreement on both sides of the border. Nowhere was this purpose more apparent than the President’s speech in Dundalk, a town in the northeast of Ireland where the Omagh bombers had planned their violent campaign to undermine the peace process.

Appearing with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea, the President encouraged those present to “stand up for peace today, tomorrow, and the rest of your lives.”

Looking back over his eight years in office, the President concluded:

"Every Saint Patrick's Day, the Taoiseach comes to the United States, and we have a ceremony in the White House. We sing Irish songs, tell Irish stories—everything we say is strictly true, of course. [Laughter] In my very first Saint Patrick's Day occasion as President, I said I would be a friend of Ireland not just on Saint Patrick's Day but every day. I have tried to be as good as my word. And every effort has been an honor and a gift."

President Bill Clinton, Remarks to the community in Dundalk, Ireland December 12, 2000

The Clinton Digital Library contains thousands of pages of records pertaining to the Clinton Administration’s involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process. While some of these materials are redacted because of national security, the available documents provide a rich, behind-the-scenes account of President Clinton’s controversial decision to give Gerry Adams a US visa in 1994, his preparations for highly publicized trips to Northern Ireland in 1995 and 1998, as well as the President’s telephone diplomacy on behalf of the Good Friday Agreement. This archive also highlights the contributions of key staff members to the success of the Clinton Administration’s efforts, such as National Security Advisers Anthony Lake and Sandy Berger, National Security Council (NSC) Staff Director Nancy Soderberg, and NSC chief foreign policy speechwriter Antony Blinken.

2006-0459-F: Antony Blinken's NSC Speechwriting Files: This collection consists of Antony Blinken’s files from the National Security Council (NSC), Speechwriting Directorate. Blinken served as the chief foreign policy speechwriter in the NSC Speechwriting Directorate from 1994-1998. His materials contain background material, drafts and “final, as delivered” speeches. The speechwriting topics cover a variety of subjects: foreign trips or head of state visits; United National General Assembly addresses; speeches before domestic and international groups; memorials, commencements or holidays; State of the Union or weekly radio addresses; and editorials, book chapters or magazine articles. As an NSC speechwriter, Blinken produced speeches on major foreign policy actions during the Clinton Administration including Northern Ireland.

Education Activity Suggestions

Students should review the Days Like This exhibit before completing any of the following assignments. Students may work in groups or individually.

Option One:

Each Saint Patrick’s Day, the Prime Minister of Ireland presents a crystal bowl of shamrocks to the President of the United States to honor the close connection between the two nations. For this activity, students will research the design of past crystal bowls before designing a bowl of their own in the medium of their choice. Students should choose design elements that are symbolic of the relationship between Ireland and the United States. Students should present their designs to the class or a gallery could be displayed online, at an open house, or in the school’s hallways.

Extension Activity/Informed Action Component:
The annual Shamrock Ceremony at the White House is not a two way gift exchange; rather, it is only the Irish Prime Minister who makes a gift to the United States. Students should consider appropriate options for an equivalent gift that the United States could exchange with Ireland. After coming to a conclusion, students should pen a letter to the White House suggesting such an exchange.