This painting was originally painted in 1995 to celebrate President Clinton’s (and Hilary’s) first visit to my home town of Derry, here in Ireland. This was a big deal at the time. I’m not sure most Americans get to see a serving president in their lifetime but we here in little Derry have had the pleasure of his company five times in twenty years.He first visited Derry in 1995 when he was President of the United States.During that visit, thousands of people turned out to greet him at Guildhall Square.

It was a chilly Thursday afternoon in November when the then President arrived in Derry city centre in a blaze of black limousines, American flags, tight security and rapturous applause.During his speech that day, he told the massed ranks in front of the Guildhall: “I came here because you are making a home for peace to flourish and endure.”He returned to Derry for a second time in the summer of 2001 and was back again two years later.On that occasion, he gave the inaugural lecture at the Tip O’Neill Chair of Peace Studies at the Magee campus of the University of Ulster.During his 2010 visit, again to Magee, he outlined his strategy to help lift the North out of its economic malaise.

Must be something in the air. I’m not sure what he would have made of this if he ever seen it…A good friend of mine, upon seeing it insisted on sending a photo of it to the Whitehouse. We never got a reply…