McGuinness hopeful of U.S. investment

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CAHIR O'DOHERTY,

IrishCentral.Com Staff Writer

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Martin McGuinness

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Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness visited Washington, D.C. and New York last week to mark the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

In Washington, McGuinness and First Minister Peter Robinson held a series of high-level meetings with President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other administration officials.

Before traveling to the White House McGuinness and Robinson discussed a number of potential investment opportunities in the North with U.S.-based firms, with McGuinness expressing confidence that jobs would flow to the North as a result of the joint U.S. visit.
The two ministers briefed President Obama on St. Patrick’s Day on recent political developments in the North, including the vote to transfer policing and justice powers from Westminster.

Both men sported green ties for the White House visit and thanked President Obama for his continued support of the peace process. They also discussed the administration’s efforts to secure further American investment in Northern Ireland.  The top-level meetings underline that the administration will work to promote Irish issues on an ongoing basis.

“The first thing to say is there is a very strong, very powerful relationship between the administration in the United States and political leaders in the North,” McGuinness told the Irish Voice in New York on Thursday.

“But the bonds between Irish America generally and the Irish people have never been stronger. We’re all very conscious that when there was a state of war in the north of Ireland that in the Irish American community people had different opinions and different ideas about what was the best way forward and there was a certain level of division.

“What the peace process has done is united everybody. All the main sections of Irish America are rock solid behind the peace process. The influence they have brought to bear through the Clinton, Bush and now the Obama administration is quite incredible, I have to say.”

McGuinness stated that the top-level access is granted not just on St. Patrick’s Day, but also on an ongoing basis. It is, he said, is testimony to the friendships between the two nations that quite clearly exist.

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