Robbo turns on charm at Clinton summit

MARY ROBINSON and Gerry Adams played starring roles in Bill Clinton’s summit of world leaders and tycoons in New York over the weekend.

The event raised over €1 billion in pledges for projects to combat poverty, war and climate change and launched the Clinton Global Initiative.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds were among a select group to attend breakfast with the former US President. Ms Robinson hosted one of the four key sessions, with the Sinn Féin leader discussing how to break out of religion-fuelled conflict. The audiences included some of the world’s most powerful figures, from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain’s Tony Blair to media mogul Rupert Murdoch. There was a touch of Clinton-era glamour too, with Leonardo di Caprio in the audience for Mr Adams’s round-table discussion of religion as a source and solution to conflict.