The people of Northern Ireland have given a warm welcome to President Bill Clinton, the first serving US president to visit our country.

At the end of an emotional day that saw Bill and Hillary Clinton visit communities on both sides of the sectarian divide, the president lit Belfast’s Christmas lights from behind a bulletproof screen.

Standing in front of a giant Christmas Tree shipped over from Belfast’s twin city, Nashville, Tennessee he told the thousands of Clinton fans that America and Northern Ireland were “partners for security, partners for prosperity, and most important, partners for peace”.

Along with  the other Belfast City Councillors, I met President and Mrs Clinton at the City Hall. The president and the first lady had spent the day mobbed by ecstatic crowds both on the Protestant Shankill Road and the Catholic stronghold of the Falls Road.