Colum Eastwood says Bill Clinton understood John Hume’s belief that ‘best peace process is a job’

The SDLP leader was speaking as he prepared to welcome Mr. Clinton back to Derry on Tuesday as he visited to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr. Eastwood paid tribute to President Clinton’s sustained interest in the people of Derry built on ‘a longstanding friendship with John Hume’.

He said: “It’s a great privilege to welcome President Clinton back to Derry, a city he knows well and people for whom he has an enormous affinity.

"Built on his longstanding friendship with John Hume, President Clinton has always been an ally to people here and I know that he will continue to make the case for a peace and prosperity dividend for our people.

“Twenty-five years on from the agreement, people in communities like ours are overwhelmingly grateful for the peace we enjoy, particularly people from my generation who were young at the time and wanted a new future.”

The local MP said that a quarter of a century on from the signing of the peace accord ‘more and more people are rightly asking, what’s next?’

“The revolution in Irish politics that we delivered in 1998 created a wave of hope that we could all feel. I believe we have it in our power to deliver a new revolution – one that sustains peace and creates opportunity in every community across our island.

"In places like Derry that means creating new jobs and finally delivering on the unfinished business of the civil rights movement – a full scale university campus that serves the North West and gives a new generation the chance to build a life for themselves at home. That requires political leaders to do the right thing and restore our government.

“There are fewer people who understand John Hume’s adage that ‘the best peace process is a job’ better than President Clinton who worked hard to encourage US investment in the North at an important moment in our history. It’s time to recapture that spirit and to deliver better outcomes, better jobs and a better life for all our people.”

President Bill Clinton returning to Derry next week to speak at Hume and Trimble tribute