Newly released National Archives files reveal that former Prime Minister John Major was advised not to accompany US President Bill Clinton on his historic 1995 visit to Northern Ireland due to concerns about a potential handshake with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. The advice warned that Major would have to “hide behind potted plants” to avoid the encounter.
Relations between the UK and US were strained after Clinton granted Adams a visa in 1994 and shook his hand at a St Patrick’s Day lunch in March 1995. When Clinton announced he would visit Belfast in November 1995 to “encourage the peace process”, No 10 faced a political dilemma. Major was working on a twin-track peace initiative with Dublin and expressly did not want to meet Adams until it was agreed.
An official reception for political leaders during the visit meant Adams would certainly be invited. The Northern Ireland Office wrote to No 10: “We cannot see a way of the prime minister avoiding Gerry Adams without reverting to the undignified hiding-behind-potted-plants scenario, which creates almost as valuable a news story as the first handshake.”
Major heeded the advice and did not go to Northern Ireland. His private secretary noted: “The prime minister does not think that Clinton’s visit is the right occasion or context for him to meet Adams for the first time. Sinn Féin will need to earn such a meeting.”
There were also behind-the-scenes remarks about Clinton positioning himself as peacemaker. A Foreign Office briefing note stated: “There will be a tendency for Clinton to seek the limelight as an Irish peacemaker.” A No 10 note to Major from his private secretary, Edward Oakden, said of Clinton: “What he wants is a demonstration that the peace process, which he (according to the Clinton gospel) helped launch, is still in being.”
