Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern yesterday lauded Britain and its departing leader, Prime Minister Tony Blair, for making possible the dream of lasting peace in Northern Ireland and bringing Anglo-Irish relations to a new high.
Ahern made a speech to the joint houses of the British Parliament, becoming the 31st foreign leader -- and the first from Ireland -- to be afforded the honor.
Blair offered an effusive introduction for Ahern, his longtime partner in brokering peace in Northern Ireland, after the two traveled together from Blair's nearby Downing Street office.
"He was a man I could always trust, a man with a vision for the future not just of Ireland but for these islands," said Blair, who noted he had met many great world figures over the past decade -- "but I've never met a bigger one than Bertie Ahern."
Blair and Ahern both rose to power in 1997 and made peace in the British territory of Northern Ireland their shared responsibility. They were on hand last week in Belfast when a Catholic-Protestant administration -- the central goal of the Good Friday peace accord that Blair and Ahern signed in 1998 -- was formed following years of patient diplomacy.
Ahern, who received a standing ovation, noted that Britain and Ireland had endured centuries of conflict, but achieved on Good Friday nine years ago "the triumph of common interests over inherited divisions."
"Now in our day and generation, we've seen the dawning of a new era," he said in reference to the Belfast power-sharing breakthrough.
But both leaders could be out of jobs soon. Blair has already announced he will step down on June 27, while Ahern's Fianna Fail party faces a struggle to retain power following a May 24 election in the Republic of Ireland.
Ahern's audience included about 400 members from both houses, including seven former British secretaries of state for Northern Ireland stretching back to 1972 who today sit in the unelected House of Lords.
There were also about 100 guests, including Sir John Major, Blair's Conservative Party predecessor as prime minister, who helped open the door to a Northern Ireland settlement following decades of bloodshed that claimed more than 3,500 lives.
The predominantly Catholic south of Ireland won de-facto independence from Britain in 1922, months after a Protestant-dominated government was established in the new state of Northern Ireland. The country, initially called the Irish Free State, became the Republic of Ireland in 1949.
Anglo-Irish relations were poor during the 1930s, when the two countries boycotted each others' coal and beef exports; during World War II, when Ireland remained neutral and expressed sympathy to Nazi Germany over the death of Adolf Hitler; and during the 1970s rise of Irish Republican Army violence over Northern Ireland.
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