On the Scene

WHEN President Clinton came to Ireland before Christmas, he had to cut short his triumphal visit because of Bosnian obligations. But he promised cheering crowds that he would return in the summer, to play his postponed round of golf in Bal-lybunion, in Kerry, and to celebrate the peace which he had helped bring to Ireland.

The President seemed to have every right to rejoice. American pressure had caused the Irish and the British governments to keep the peace process trundling forward. Round-table talks were scheduled for the end of February, and a special commission headed by special advisor George Mitchell would examine the thorny issue of disarmament, which had been brought to center-stage by British and unionist insistence that talks could only start once disarmament had been begun. This was a demand which Sinn Fein-IRA flatly rejected.

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Kevin Myers

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WHEN President Clinton came to Ireland before Christmas, he had to cut short his triumphal visit because of Bosnian obligations. But he promised cheering crowds that he would return in the summer, to play his postponed round of golf in Bal-lybunion, in Kerry, and to celebrate the peace which he had helped bring to Ireland.

The President seemed to have every right to rejoice. American pressure had caused the Irish and the British governments to keep the peace process trundling forward. Round-table talks were scheduled for the end of February, and a special commission headed by special advisor George Mitchell would examine the thorny issue of disarmament, which had been brought to center-stage by British and unionist insistence that talks could only start once disarmament had been begun. This was a demand which Sinn Fein-IRA flatly rejected.