Hillary Clinton In Belfast Amid Bomb Finds

By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has begun her visit to Northern Ireland amid violence on the streets of Belfast and two bomb discoveries.

She is meeting Northern Ireland's First and Deputy First Ministers at Stormont and will then attend a lunch at Titanic Belfast in the city's docklands.

This is her second visit as secretary of state. The last was in 2009 when she encouraged the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast.

Police said a "viable explosive device" was discovered in a car after officers investigating dissident republican activity stopped the vehicle in the Creggan area of Londonderry on Thursday evening.

Two men aged 47 and 49 were arrested at the scene at about 8.40pm. Two others, also in their 40s, were detained later.

Armagh's Mayor Sharon Haughey, then 14, with President Clinton in 1995

Security chiefs believe dissident republicans opposed to the peace process were planning an attack in the centre of the city, next year's UK City of Culture.

Just hours after the device was intercepted, police revealed the discovery of a letter bomb at a postbox in a loyalist area of Co Down.

It comes as tensions have been running high over flags, and the peace that Mrs Clinton and President Clinton helped to build remains far from perfect.

A vote to limit the flying of the Union flag over Belfast City Hall has sparked several days of loyalist protests, some violent. 

The civil unrest had been threatening to overshadow Mrs Clinton's visit.

Mrs Clinton has already visited Dublin and met children at the US embassy

Gavin Robinson, Lord Mayor of Belfast, said: "The US Secretary of State will be no stranger to some of these issues. 

"She's been here in much more difficult times in Northern Ireland and I'm sure she will welcome and mark the progress that has been made and the collective political willingness that we'll not go back to the bad old days of the past."

It was 1995 when the Clintons paid their first historic visit to Northern Ireland. Thousands turned out to greet them and to herald the dawn of the peace process here.

Teenager Sharon Haughey, who had written a letter about 'The Troubles' to the White House, welcomed them to Armagh. She's now the city's Lord Mayor and gives them the credit.

"The Clintons have played a very important role in the pathway that I have chosen in my life," she said. "They gave me a platform as a very ordinary 14-year-old schoolgirl. 

"They gave me an extraordinary opportunity and I decided to use that opportunity to help shape that future that I wanted and that's really why I'm here today."

Mr Robinson has urged loyalists to suspend their protests over the flag issue. "Those who riot and engage in violence do a disservice to the flag they claim to represent," he said.

His statement followed attacks on the homes and offices of politicians belonging to the neutral Alliance Party, which had encouraged a compromise - the flying of the flag on designated days.

Syria topped the agenda when the US Secretary of State visited Dublin during her trip. 

Regardless of recent setbacks, she'll be keen to celebrate whatever kind of peace she finds in Belfast.

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