This afternoon, accompanied by my friend and colleague Helen Brooker, I attended the Worldwide Ireland Funds dinner at Titanic Belfast.
We were invited by John Toland of the Funds and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the guest speaker. Mrs Clinton was in the city as part of a four-day trip to Europe.
She offered to continue working in developing the peace process, even after she has stepped down as Secretary of State.
“Peace here has proven remarkably durable,” she said.
“However it is being tested. The recent attacks are a sad reminder there are still those who would try to destroy it.
“The promise of peace must be delivered. There has to be an economic return for people here.
“I offer to you, as I stand down from Secretary of State, to continue working with you in developing the peace process as an advocate and cheerleader for the process and to reach out to those who are not feeling part of it.” “We must not use violence as a means of expressing feelings”
“We have seen this week the work is not complete and I join in condemning the recent attacks,” she said.
“There will always be disagreements in democratic society but violence is never an acceptable response.”
Mrs Clinton said all parties in Northern Ireland “need to confront the remaining challenge of sectarian divisions, peacefully together”.
“What we have to do is get out of the ballrooms, out of Stormont and into the communities where people live, where they do not have that lasting hope of optimism,” she said.
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness both paid tribute to Mrs Clinton’s role in the peace process.
Mr Robinson said she had helped build the peace process and that the Titanic building was testament to that process.
Despite attacks on the peace process, he said, “this ship is not going down”.
Mr McGuinness said Mrs Clinton and her husband Bill, the former US President, were vital voices in the peace process.
“They were among some incredible people who walked with us along a difficult road to get where we are today,” he said.
It may be one of Mrs Clinton’s last foreign engagements as Washington’s most senior diplomat.
Her visit came amid tensions over the decision to stop flying the union flag at Belfast City Hall every day and Republican bomb alerts .