Clinton to be honoured at Enniskillen Peace Centre

Former US president Bill Clinton was today set to meet survivors of the IRA Poppy Day bombing massacre and launch a peace project on the site of the 1987 blast which killed 11 people.

But plans to name the £3.2m complex in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, after the former statesman were being criticised by one of the victims who suffered terrible injuries in the atrocity.

The engagement and others later in Belfast were being held on the final day of Mr Clinton’s latest visit to both sides of the border, which has seen him again urging an Ulster public preparing to go to the polls to keep backing the Good Friday Agreement.

Yesterday Mr Clinton told a crowd of 3,000 in Derry to "look to the far side of revenge" and remain behind the 1998 accord which established the devolved power-sharing government now in place in Belfast.

He said: "I came here to reaffirm my beliefs that the Good Friday Accord is still the right path to the future for peace and reconciliation.

"I hope that all of you will continue to work for a peaceful, just, fair, shared future for all the children."

Mr Clinton claims ancestral links to the Cassidy clan in Fermanagh, and the new complex in Enniskillen is to be called the William Jefferson Clinton Peace Centre in honour of his work for a political settlement in Northern Ireland.

Jim Dixon, who survived the bombing and is contesting the Fermanagh South Tyrone seat as an anti-Agreement Independent Unionist, criticised the plan and said: "He wanted peace at any price but all he’s leaving is a trail of tragedy behind him."

Later today Mr Clinton was due to receive an honorary degree at the Queen’s University, Belfast, again in recognition of his work to promote peace.

Former chairman of the Northern Ireland talks and author of the report on Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Senator George Mitchell is Chancellor of the university and will attend the ceremony.

A gala concert in the city’s Waterfront Hall featuring Northern Ireland pianist Barry Douglas will follow and afterwards, Mr Clinton will be guest of honour at a banquet in the Great Hall at Queen’s.