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:
“Better and safer is an assured peace than a victory hoped for. The one is in your own power, the other is in the hands of the gods.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.... Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to.”
—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)