Can Hillary Clinton trump her husband’s success and pull the Northern Ireland peace process out of its present stalemate?

During her run at the Democratic presidential candidacy she was certainly not shy about her contribution to the peace process, describing herself as “instrumental” and boasting that she visited Northern Ireland more often than President Clinton.

For this she was called “a wee bit silly” by the former Ulster Unionist leader Lord Trimble, while one of his senior aides even claimed that she helped to delay the chances of a settlement by becoming a “cheerleader” for Irish Republicans.

When she hugged and kissed Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness during a visit in December 2000 she lost credibility among Unionists.

President Clinton can take credit for getting the ball rolling by granting a US visa to Mr Adams in 1994, before the Provisional IRA called a ceasefire, much to the fury of John Major, then Prime Minister. American input was vital in the eyes of Republicans and Nationalists, who regarded this “internationalisation” of the Northern Ireland conflict as breaking the UK’s political grip on any settlement.

In the later stages of the peace process, when Sinn Féin and its military wing was playing with the weapons decommissioning issue, US intervention again played a vital role. This time, however, it was the refusal by the Bush Administration to give Mr Adams a US visa — in spite of the pleas of Tony Blair’s office — that gave the Republicans a much-needed dose of reality. Soon after that snub the Provisionals folded.

Mrs Clinton can exercise less influence today in Belfast today. She can urge the Democratic Unionists to do the right thing and accept Gordon Brown’s latest sweetener on the devolution of policing and justice powers to the province’s power-sharing executive.

She may even hint that doing so would open Northern Ireland up to US companies seeking to build their businesses here — although a much-publicised US investment conference last year failed to yield any significant results.

The best she can hope for is that her presence, the weight of the office as US Secretary of State, will create the right atmosphere for progress.

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