VOA常速英语2007年-Bush, Northern Ireland Leaders Meet at White Ho

By Scott Stearns
White House
07 December 2007

U.S. President George Bush met at the White House Friday with the First Minister of Northern Ireland Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.

 

This is the first time Paisley and McGuinness have traveled together to the United States since agreeing to a new power-sharing arrangement earlier this year.

President Bush says the protestant cleric Paisley and the former pro-Catholic Irish Republican Army militant¹ McGuiness are writing a hopeful chapter in a troubled history.

"These two men are dedicating themselves to bettering Northern Ireland through their courage and conviction and desire to put aside the past and focus on a hopeful future," he said.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly follows the 1998 Good Friday Peace Accords, which were brokered² with help from the United States. The assembly was suspended in 2002 and restored only with intensive efforts by Britain and Ireland.

Paisley says the challenge now is to keep the peace they have found.

"We have had our political squabbles and fights," he said. "I think we have come to the end of that. I think that peace has come. There will be a fight for peace. If you want peace, you have to fight to keep it."

Both men are hoping for more direct investment from the United States, which McGuinness says is key to the nation's future.

"We have transformed the political situation," he said. "What we now need to do, as you have correctly identified, is transform the economic situation so we can give our young people in particular a better future."

President Bush says he is encouraging American business leaders to take a good look at the economic opportunities in Northern Ireland.

The Irish Republican Army fought a nearly 30-year guerilla war against Britain, including numerous terror bombings in a campaign to unify³ with Ireland. Most of Northern Ireland's Protestants want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 brokered   

adj.由权力经纪人安排（或控制）的v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的过去式和过去分词 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• a peace plan brokered by the UN 由联合国出面协商的和平计划
• Your husband brokered the deal to go in, transfrer the assets and get our man out. 你丈夫后来插了一脚，把生意都抢了过去，我们的人也被挤了出来。 来自电影对白

3 unify   

vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致

参考例句：

• How can we unify such scattered islands into a nation?我们怎么才能把如此分散的岛屿统一成一个国家呢？
• It is difficult to imagine how the North and South could ever agree on a formula to unify the divided peninsula.很难想象南北双方在统一半岛的方案上究竟怎样才能达成一致。