Barack Obama describes Northern Ireland as 'blueprint' for peace
US President uses opening of G8 to deliver impassioned speech urging young Belfast listeners to 'face the future united'
In his speech, Barack
Obama noted it had been 15 years since the Good Friday agreement that
paved the way for power sharing. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
In an address made inside the Waterfront Hall, in Belfast, the US president urged his mainly young audience from a range of secondary schools in the city to break down the barriers that still divide Catholic from Protestant in the city.
Speaking before the formal opening of the G8 summit at the Lough Erne resort, in county Fermanagh, Obama argued it was up to individuals to decide whether "your communities deal with the past and face the future united, together," which, he added "isn't something you have to wait for someone else to do – that's a choice you have the power to make".
He said it was up to people to choose whether to act as good neighbours or let their children "play with kids who attend a different church", before making one last plea: "And whether you reach your own outstretched hand across dividing lines, across peace walls, to build trust in a spirit of respect – that's up to you."
Obama also singled out a community project in Alexandra Park, north Belfast, which has helped create a breach in one of the 30-plus barriers that for the last 20 years has separated a public park into Catholic and Protestant zones. Last year community activists on both sides of the divided park agreed to put a gate inside the wall which is opened during the day to allow the public access to the entire park. Community workers from either side of the line have a set of keys and close the gate at night.
Politicians who were once bitter enemies, like the Democratic Unionist MP Sammy Wilson and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, sat together in the hall, laughing and joking before his speech. They heard him praise them too, with the president noting that it had been 15 years since the Good Friday agreement that paved the way for power sharing at the devolved assembly.
"Understand how extraordinary that is. For years, few conflicts in the world seemed more intractable. And the world rejoiced in your achievement. Especially in America. Pubs from Chicago to Boston were scenes of revelry, folks celebrating the hard work of Hume, Trimble, Adams, Paisley, and so many others," Obama said.
Michelle Obama introduced her husband to the hall after 16-year-old Hannah Nelson read a poem for peace. The first lady said: "Wherever we go, no matter what's on our plate, we do our best to meet young people like you. You are the most important people we talk to on our visits because in just a couple of decades you will be the ones in charge. When I look around this room I just don't see a bunch of teeangers, but future world leaders."
Security was tight around the riverside venue and only one demonstrator picketed the event, holding up a poster stating: "Obama is the anti-Christ".
Inside the hall the reaction to the president was little more than rapturous. Euan Loughrey, 15, from St Malachy's College, in Belfast, had a copy of Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, hoping to get it signed.
"I loved that part of Michelle's speech when she reminded everyone that she and her husband came from nothing. That was a wonderful point to make and gives us all hope we can do anything," he said.
Later Obama and David Cameron visited an integrated primary school in Enniskillen where Protestant and Catholic pupils are taught together
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