Ahern, Clinton hope for peaceful summer

The loyalist marching season could pass off peacefully for the first time since the mid-1960s following the Orange Order's march in Drumcree, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said.

Speaking alongside the former US president, Mr Bill Clinton, Mr Ahern said the peaceful scenes at Drumcree on Sunday were brought about by months of work by people.

"It requires everybody to give a bit and take a bit. If we can do that for the summer that will be so helpful to trying to deal with the issues.

"If it was the other way around I don't think we would be able to deal with that," said Mr Ahern, who has continued to urge the British government to hold Northern Assembly elections.

A "huge number" of people in the loyalist and republican communities, and the political parties, had worked for months to ensure that trouble was avoided at Drumcree.

"This time last year we were dealing with the aftermath of very vicious trouble there. Three years ago, there were 25,000 people. We dealt with it for five days. A few years before that we dealt with it for six weeks," the Taoiseach said.

"There were huge amounts of people working behind the lines to make it peaceful.

"If it does, it will be the first summer since 1964 ... that it was peaceful. That is hugely important," he added.

Questioned about Northern Ireland, Mr Clinton said he believed that Northern Assembly elections would be held "before too very long".

However, he acknowledged that elections could benefit the Democratic Unionist Party and other opponents of the Good Friday agreement.

"If you do, you run the risk that people who were not for it in the first place could undermine it. I understand that," Mr Clinton told journalists.

He also pointed to the significance of the peaceful Drumcree protest.

"We had a pretty good Sunday. And it was Drumcree Sunday," Mr Clinton said.