Former President Clinton will pay a special visit to Derry next week to meet with Nobel Prize winner John Hume during his visit to Ireland.

It is an extraordinary acknowledgement of the role that Hume played in the Irish peace process. The former SDLP party leader has been in ill health in recent years.

Just last week he was named in a nationwide poll as one of the five greatest figures in modern Irish history for his central role in the Irish peace process.

The Clinton visit is seen as a major  endorsement of the extraordinary work that Hume did to bring peace to Ireland.

The former president will also open the Clinton Institute for American studies at University College Dublin on September 30.

He will also be special guest at a dinner honoring Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman of the American Ireland Fund, hosted by Business and Finance magazine.