ABSTRACT
In the 1992 presidential campaign, the Democratic political consultant, James Carville, delivered his cryptic advice about the central issue in a note that was posted on a campaign office bulletin board, "It's the economy, stupid". In a New York hotel conference room where Jerry Brown and Bill Clinton met separately with a panel of Irish journalists and community leaders, Clinton was asked whether, if elected, he would appoint a peace envoy to Northern Ireland. In the summer of 1969, Catholic groups, modeling themselves on the American civil rights campaign, protested discrimination in Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland. In January of 1996, Mitchell's international committee issued a report proposing a parallel process. Mitchell's report was a series of recommendations, and they received a mixed reception from the British government and various prospective participants in the peace process. John Hume, the moderate leader of the largest Catholic party in Northern Ireland and a long time critic of Irish Republican Army (IRA) violence, immediately accepted.
