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Date Posted: 13:35:34 12/15/07 Sat GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: Paisley, McGuinness encouraged by U.S. reception (NYNewsday)


newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--paisley-mcguinnes1205dec05,0,1984625.story

Newsday.com

Paisley, McGuinness encouraged by U.S. reception

By DEEPTI HAJELA

Associated Press Writer

2:47 PM EST, December 5, 2007

NEW YORK


With the media back home agog at their first-ever joint visit to the U.S., Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness visited the Nasdaq stock market Wednesday as part of their trip to drum up foreign investment for their homeland.
The once bitter enemies who now head the Northern Ireland government have been portrayed in press reports in the United Kingdom as laughing and smiling together on their visit to New York City.
Standing next to McGuinness in Times Square after visting the stock exchange, Paisley appeared to tamp down expectations.
"We're not in a love-in, we're in a work-in," he said. "That sums it up. We have a job to do, we have a solemn responsibility to discharge. We have an opportunity to do it and we're going to get on with it and do it."
Both men said they were pleased with the reception they have received since arriving in New York on Sunday.
"All the doors we have knocked on have been open to us," McGuinness said. "People are really committed to investment in the north of Ireland, taking a very serious look at that."
Paisley agreed. "We're very, very encouraged," he said. "The people of Northern Ireland should be encouraged."
Paisley, 81, and McGuinness, 57, formed an alliance in May after decades of bitter enmity.
Paisley, head of the Democratic Unionist Party, which represents the British Protestant majority in Northern Ireland, is first minister of the Northern Ireland cabinet.
McGuinness, deputy leader of Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party that represents most of the province's Irish Catholics, is deputy first minister.
The two men came to New York to drum up investment in their homeland, meeting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and also with billionaire and real estate developer Donald Trump.
Trump has proposed building a $1.2 billion golf course in Scotland but, after running into resistance, said he was considering moving the project to Northern Ireland.
When asked if he had invited Trump to visit, Paisley said, "We want more than a visit, we want a big investment."
The visit has made headlines in Northern Ireland, as has the seemingly friendly relationship between the once bitter enemies. McGuinness was quoted as saying that their cordial relationship reflects the changes underway in Northern Ireland since their historic alliance last spring.
After the Nasdaq visit, Paisley and McGuinness were scheduled to go to Washington, where they are expected to meet with President Bush on Friday.
The economy of Northern Ireland has improved greatly since rival paramilitary groups declared ceasefires in the mid-1990s. Today's unemployment rate is at 3.8 percent, making it the best-performing region in the United Kingdom.
But the region is also heavily dependent on government jobs. There are more than 30,000 civil service jobs funded by British taxpayers, making the civil service the region's biggest employer. Economists agree that Northern Ireland's economy remains too dependent on them.



Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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