Hillary Clinton makes grandiose claims in relation to her foreign policy experience. These can be taken with a grain of salt. She has attempted to magnify her role in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Toby Harnden, who used to be the Telegraph's Ireland correspondent:
“Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province. "I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around," he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections. "She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player." Trimble is speaking from a Unionist perspective.
Tim Pat Coogan, an Irish historian who writes from a republican perspective on Northern Ireland, said that the first lady did not play a decisive role in negotiations to resolve the conflict."It was a nice thing to see her there, with the women's groups. It helped, I suppose," Coogan said. "But it was ancillary to the main thing. It was part of the stage effects, the optics.
In short Hillary met with cross community groups but took no part in the peace negotiations. Hillary had no central role in the peace process. Clinton has peddled myths in relation to her alleged foreign policy experience for far too long. Waltermitty springs to mind.
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