The Bill and Hillary Clinton connection to Northern Ireland

Bill and Hillary Clinton have visited Northern Ireland many times

Many US presidents have claimed Irish ancestry across the years but Bill Clinton is probably the one with the closest ties to Northern Ireland.

He was sworn in in 1993 and just two years later he became the first serving president to visit Northern Ireland.

During that visit he called for an end to the Troubles, encouraged agreement, and a trip he made to Londonderry was subsequently immortalised in the Channel 4 hit comedy Derry Girls.

This week the Clintons have returned to mark 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement.

The visit in 1995 was the first of three trips that Bill Clinton would make during his presidency.

Accompanied by First Lady Hillary Clinton, the president switched on the Christmas lights in Belfast but the most memorable moment was perhaps his speech in Guildhall Square in Derry.

A sea of flag-waving people greeted the couple, alongside Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume, with chants of: "We want Bill!"

President Clinton addressed a large crowd outside Derry's Guildhall in 1995

The Clintons returned to Northern Ireland in 1998, less than a month after the Omagh bombing.

It was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles, when a car bomb planted by dissident republicans opposed to the peace process killed 29 people on 15 August.

In an address in Omagh, President Clinton called for a new peace to be built after the Good Friday Agreement.

"We will work to build this peace, to make it a place where children can dream, to redeem the loss of innocents from the madness of people who must fail so that your life can go on," he said.

The following year Mrs Clinton returned to Northern Ireland on a solo trip to reiterate the Clinton administration's support for the peace process.

Mrs Clinton also regularly took on summer interns from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as part of the Washington Ireland Programme.

Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair joined Northern Ireland's First Minister David Trimble (left) and Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon (second right) on the steps of Stormont in December 2000

In 2000 President Clinton returned to Northern Ireland as part of his farewell tour.

He told an audience in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast that he "loved this land" and "the work [he] tried to do for peace", encouraging the implementation and progression of the Good Friday Agreement.

Post-presidency

Mr Clinton's presidency may have ended but the trips to Northern Ireland did not stop.

He returned to accept an honorary law degree from Queen's University Belfast in 2001.

By 2008 Northern Ireland had hosted eight Clinton visits but there were still plenty more to come.

Shortly after becoming the US Secretary of State in 2009 Mrs Clinton officially reopened the refurbished Belfast City Hall.

Naomi Long, now Alliance Party leader, was Belfast lord mayor when Hillary Clinton opened the refurbished Belfast City Hall in 2009

The start of the union flag dispute coincided with another solo trip in 2012.

While in Belfast Mrs Clinton condemned the violence and challenged political leaders to tackle sectarianism and political divisions on a grassroots level.

The Clintons' ties with Queen's University continued to bring them back to Northern Ireland.

Mr Clinton opened the William J Clinton Leadership Institute in March 2014.

In 2017 the former president travelled to Londonderry to attend the funeral of Northern Ireland's former deputy-first minister Martin McGuinness.

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton attended an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in Belfast

Both Mr and Mrs Clinton returned to the university together in 2018 to attend an event marking the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Later that year Mrs Clinton made another solo trip to Belfast to receive an honorary degree from Queen's University.

The trip fell almost two years after the collapse of power-sharing at Stormont, which Mrs Clinton addressed in a speech, calling for "peace, not paralysis".

Hillary Clinton is the chancellor of Queen's University Belfast

She would return to the university again in September 2021, when she was officially installed as its first female chancellor.

This week's return by the Clintons is part of a series of events to commemorate 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed.

Mrs Clinton will host a three-day event at Queen's University Belfast from 17 to 19 April, where she will be joined by her husband among other guests.