Clinton visit was a highpoint fortown

AS the curtain draws on a very challenging year, this week we have cause to look back at one of the biggest days in local history.

On Tuesday December 12th, 2000 President Bill Clinton arrived into town and spoke to a crowd of approximately 60,000 at the Market Square. It is hard to believe that historic event was 20 years ago this week.

Although the rain had fallen all day and the crowd was wet and cold, nothing could dampen the excitement of the people gathered for the arrival of the American President who was making his third visit to Ireland.

President Clinton was in the final days of his second term of office and while the result of the November Presdiential Election was still somewhat in the balance as the saga of ‘ hanging chads’ in Florida remained contested between George W Bush and Al Gore, he returned to these shores for a final time as President of the United States of America where he had invested so much time and energy during his time in the Oval Office in helping deliver the Peace Process.

For a few short hours, Dundalk felt as if it was the centre of the world as the glare of the world’s media focused on the town.

So often that glare highlighted a darker side of life as the Troubles cast a long and dark shadow over the town for those looking from the outside.

But December 2000 was a different time, the Good Friday Agreement had brought an end to the endless cycle of violence, a peaceful settlement looked to be within our grasp and the economy was bringing jobs and new found prosperity right across the island.

Optimism and hope filled the air. We believed that we had turned a corner and left the bad old days behind. Our future was bright, the future for our children was bright, We could dream of good times ahead and President Clinton coming to town to tell us just that was exactly the message we wanted to hear. We deserved it for all the struggles we had endured, we had earned it and him saying Dundalk was a ‘ boom town’ was music to our ears.

Unfortunately nothing lasts forever and very difficult days returned with the economic crash in 2008 and beyond and again this year we have been pained and challenged in a way no one could possibly have forseen last January.

However that clear, crisp December night as President Clinton had us hanging on his every word, we were proud like never before of our wee town. It was a night to savour, a night to cherish and as 2020 draws to a close certainly a night to look back on with fondness and remember the better days we’ve all shared and a night to share with our children who weren’t born to see such an historic occasion on our streets.

Hopefully these pages will rekindle some of those magical feelings in this most challenging of years.