Twenty-five years on from the Good Friday Agreement, Prime Time's Miriam O'Callaghan went to talk to former US President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"The most onerous part-time job in history," former US president laughs as he recalls George Mitchell's description of his task the night before the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. Three years earlier, Clinton had appointed former Senator Mitchell as his envoy to help broker peace in Northern Ireland.
I was speaking to Bill and Hillary Clinton last week at the Clinton Foundation offices in New York.
Getting cleared by the Secret Service ahead of the meeting was intense, but in the end, we got the necessary approvals, went through security and headed up to wait in the open-plan kitchen area.
We arrived early as a team, conscious that we were about to interview two of the most recognisable faces on the planet. There was no margin for error. No matter how long you do this job, you never take moments like this for granted. All of us were very excited, but also a bit nervous. We didn’t want anything to go wrong.
We had come a long way for this. We all wanted it to go well. The interviews were separate. Hours went into arranging the room in the Clinton Foundation, making sure that the lighting, camera positions and sound were all perfectly placed as soon as the Clintons walked into the room.
I heard the unmistakeable southern drawl as the former president walked along the corridor towards us. Bill Clinton's voice is incredibly distinctive, probably still one of the most recognisable voices in the world. He walked in all smiles.
History has guaranteed President Clinton an important place in the eventual success of the negotiations that led to the agreement. It is widely acknowledged that in the final 24 hours when the talks could very easily have fallen apart, he played a key role in reassuring both Gerry Adams and David Trimble, who were both getting cold feet for very different reasons.
Mr Clinton takes us back to that final Thursday night. "We all knew we were coming to the eleventh hour. I talked to George (Mitchell) and Tony (Blair) and Bertie (Ahern) late in the evening – I said this is your peace, you have to make it work, but if you think I can help, then call me anytime of the day or night."
And they did. "They called me again," recalls Mr Clinton, "and I was on the phone until about 2.30 in the morning, walking through all the details with everyone, especially Gerry Adams. So I get off the phone and I went to bed again and I slept, maybe for about two hours. And at five in the morning, George (Mitchell) called me again. And he said, 'I just need you to take a couple of more calls.' "
This is when the key calls happened that made all the difference, that made sure the deal was done. The former US President spoke to both Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin leader, that night and to David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and according to those involved, these calls were very significant and helpful.
The former president laughed as he recalled how George Mitchell, who he had appointed to chair the talks, joked with him during that 5am call, that he didn’t want any complaints from President Clinton about being disturbed at that ungodly hour as George had only agreed to take the job because he had been told it was a part-time job. "He said, 'you got me in to this part-time job, this is the most onerous part-time job in history.’ I said, 'George, you love it and so do I. Who do you want me to call?’ "
When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked into the room for her interview, her voice was also so familiar.
Unlike her husband, she did not participate in the actual negotiations, but nevertheless her role was significant. It was after a keynote speech Hillary Clinton made in Beijing in 1995 where she spoke about ‘women’s rights being human rights’, that the Women’s Coalition based in Northern Ireland said they were inspired to get involved in local politics. That speech ultimately led to them being part of the talks. Ms Clinton recalled: "They have told me since that it was received as a clarion call and that it encouraged them to find ways that they could get involved. And it wasn’t easy. There wasn’t a tradition of women in politics to a great extent and so they had to forge their own path, including creating a political party."
On St Patrick’s Day in the White House in 1998, just one month before the Good Friday Agreement was finalised, there was another key moment. Ms Clinton recalls a meeting between herself and two representatives from the Women’s Coalition, Monica McWilliams and Pearl Sagar. At that stage, those women were at the negotiating table back in Belfast, but they felt they needed more respect and attention to what they were saying.
"So when I introduced my husband, Bill, later on that day, I talked about having met with Pearl and Monica and how important it was that women were at the table and how their views and experiences needed to be taken into account….and Monica told me later that that really helped." The women returned to Belfast and to the talks and they said for the first time, they felt like they were treated as participants in the talks.
I asked both of the Clintons about the fact that while the violence of the past is no more, the Stormont Assembly is not sitting and deep divisions remain within Northern Ireland.
Ms Clinton has little tolerance for the DUP’s reluctance to return to the Assembly until the Windsor Framework is clarified more for them. "I’m well aware that one of the parties has said it won’t enter government and I just have a question to ask: You ran for the government, you acquired positions that were elected positions, what is your job then? Your job is to go into government and I know some don’t like me saying that, but I think it’s common sense."
Former President Clinton was more nuanced. "I think we should say, look there’s something to work with here. The party that’s getting the most votes now [Sinn Féin] doesn’t want to jam you, they want to work with you to resolve these things. How can we live together? How can we work together? How can we all put our heads on the pillow at night and feel at peace about what our children are going to face."
I wondered if the former President believed that the British government were honest brokers of late, given Brexit and the impact that that has had on the North. "Well, I didn’t for a while, to be honest because, for example, under some of the prime ministers, their margin was not big enough for them to give enough……the idea that it [the Good Friday Agreement] weathered Brexit is a miracle, because Brexit was aimed right at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement, even if not intentionally……but it happened…..so that’s the way it was. But the peace held, the Irish peace held."
Finally, as we reflect on the agreement, twenty-five years on, I wondered if President Clinton was emotional when he heard all those years ago, after all the ups and downs, that the deal had been done. "Absolutely. I said a prayer of gratitude. I was so happy." He describes the Irish peace deal as a miracle. "There were people on all sides who wanted their children to grow up with normal lives, people on all sides who were willing to trust the next generation and the generation beyond with the power of decision-making, with the moral compass to make compromises. I mean, it was an enormous act of trust."
