Peace Process
In his later years as honorary life vice-president of Sinn Féin he was a strong supporter of Gerry Adams and the Good Friday Agreement. In 1994, a controversial but central aspect of the IRA's ceasefire was the granting of a limited visa by then United States President Bill Clinton to Cahill, in the face of strident opposition by John Major's government. This was to facilitate a trip to the United States to win support for the new Sinn Féin strategy from Irish American IRA supporters.
In 1998 he stood in North Antrim in the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly but was unsuccessful, finishing in eleventh place in a poll topped by Ian Paisley.
Read more about this topic: Joe Cahill
Famous quotes containing the words peace and/or process:
“Father, hear my prayer. Forgive him. As you have forgiven all your children who have sinned. Don’t turn your face from him. He didn’t know what he was doing. Bring him at last to rest in your peace ... which he could never have found ... here.”
—A.I. (Albert Isaac)
“In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)