SOME 500 guests, including Northern Ireland politicians, White House officials and Irish Americans, bowed their heads and observed a moment's silence for peace in Northern Ireland at a White House St Patrick's Day reception hosted by President Clinton last night.
The reception, held in honour of the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and his wife, Finola, made a little bit of history: it was the first time an Ulster Unionist leader and a British ambassador had attended a St Patrick's Day function in the President's mansion. Mr David Trimble and the ambassador, Sir John Kerr, mingled with Mr John Hume and Dr John Alderdice as Irish music was played.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, was excluded from the reception because of the ending of the IRA ceasefire.
Mr Clinton spoke to the guests of the "highs and lows and the roller coaster" of the peace process and of how he had been saddened and outraged by the London bombs. His two days in Ireland, he said, had been the best of his presidency.
Going to the White House on St Patrick's Day was "very appropriate, bearing in mind that Patrick was a Brit. He came from - we're not absolutely sure - from an area known as Cumbria. St Patrick was a Brit who went to Ireland to tell the natives what to do. Most of his mission was in northern Ireland, and in the 5th century AD northern Ireland was inhabited by the Scots.
"The history of St Patrick shows how the British Isles is the natural human, social and, dare I say it, political unit. As a member of the Ulster British community, I'm delighted to commemorate the actual historical St Patrick rather than the inaccurate version of St Patrick that has been put about by Irish nationalists. This is a very positive move."
In his remarks to the reception, where the menu included Boxty, Kerry Pies, Irish Whiskey Truffles and Green Beer Sherbet, Mr Bruton referred to St Patrick as coming from Wales and convincing people in Ireland to do things differently.
Mr Trimble and Mr Adams made another small bit of history the previous evening when both attended the American Ireland Fund dinner in Washington, where the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, received a peace award on behalf of herself and her husband. Previously, Mr Trimble had refused to sit down to dinner in the same room with the Sinn Fein president.
Mr Trimble told the Washington Post: " I'm not going to let the fact that one unmentionable crawled into a corner of the room run me out of it."