Ireland's example to the world in trying to "make peace real" and the "perils of indifference" in relation to the Balkans were the twin themes of Mrs Clinton's address at NUI Galway yesterday.
Delivering the inaugural address in the university's millennium lecture series, to mark 150 years of student enrolment, Mrs Clinton quoted two former Nobel Prize winners, including Seamus Heaney, in a 30-minute speech entitled "Our obligations to each other: the continuing quest for peace."
Mrs Clinton paid tribute to the communities endeavouring to make peace in the North, and singled out the contribution of women on both sides of the divide, in advance of her engagement with the Vital Voices women's group in Belfast.
Indicating her tacit support for the NATO campaign in the Balkans, she said those who stood by in the face of suffering were "not only bystanders" but also "in danger of losing their own soul".
Exhorting against apathy and indifference, she said people must constantly nurture hope. It was only when they could let go of their past and their old hatreds that hope could flourish.
Mrs Clinton told the 1,000 guests in Aras na Mac Leinn, where she was given an honorary doctorate in laws and the freedom of Galway city, that the tragedy of ethnic cleansing struck at all generations.
She said there was a constant challenge to peace at the end of an all-too-violent century.
"We live in a time at the end of the century when we know that peace is a constant challenge to us - how we obtain it and how we maintain it. We know even as we meet today that it is a challenge in the Balkans, the Middle East, parts of Africa and elsewhere.
"It seems that all of us, as we honour the past and imagine the future, have an opportunity to think harder about what our obligations are to other people and the obligations we all have for peace. Given the situation in the world today, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the once-again-live conflict among ethnicities, religions and tribes, we all have a role to play in the continuing quest for peace.
"But peace will more than ever depend on what each of us does, and whether we can overcome our past on behalf of a common future."
Mrs Clinton referred to Ireland's first intake of refugees from Kosovo - "You are offering them your hearts and your homes, just as you have always done" - and said she had met the first group taken to the US.
She had been impressed by their desire to return home and build their lives in peace and harmony.
Referring to Ireland's record in international peacekeeping, she said this State had given a clear lead to the rest of the world.
