Words to sustain us in tough times
THIS week we celebrate in Dundalk the 20th anniversary of the visit of the President of the United States, Bill Clinton and his family.
It was a memorable occasion for the town, when an estimated 60,000 people turned out from all over neighbouring counties to catch a glimpse of the President.
The visit came at a special time for the town which was starting to reap the benefits of the Good Friday Agreement that came at the end of a long tunnel of despair.
The Dundalk area, more than any other in the Republic, has suffered most from the spill over of violence, intimidation and political stalemate which had infected the northern half of the country over the previous two decades.
As a result Dundalk’s economic development was stunted, almost obliterated as the area became a pariah for direct foreign investment.
The President’s visit coming at a time when the area was starting to emerge from that long tunnel could not have come at a better time for it gave the town a new sense of confidence in it’s future.
The President told the massive crowd assembled at the Market Square ‘you in Dundalk know what it’s like to face fear and isolation with unemployment rising, the economy stalling and hope failing’.
He added ‘in Dundalk you know that violence suffocates opportunity, but today you in Dundalk are the living proof of the fruits of wisdom and peace’.
It many ways it is now ironic that Dundalk should be celebrating a visit that brought new hope at a time when yet again uncertainty hovers over the town because of failure by the British and EU to reach a new trade agreement after Brexit.
While talks are still continuing it is not looking very encouraging, and that uncertainty over the future because of Brexit has hung like a massive cloud over this area for the last four years.
The NI protocol, agreed last week, has been a help in that there will be no physical border on the island and NI businesses will have the best of both worlds with unfettered access to the EU, including the Republic and the UK.
Naturally it will take considerable time for these complicated trade arrangements to resolve themselves but there is a growing fear in this part of the country that towns like Newry on our doorstep will be a much more attractive proposition to foreign investment because of the freedom that NI will enjoy to trade freely with Britain and the EU.
We can only hope that the encouraging words that President Clinton left us on that December night in 2000 will sustain us through the present uncertainty for he said ‘in Dundalk you are part of an amazing Irish economy which though innovation and hard work has reached out to many parts of the world’.