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State Rep. Koutoujian goes back to his irish roots
Daily News staff

WALTHAM - The times have changed since state Rep. Peter J. Koutoujian was last in Ireland.
Koutoujian, D-Waltham, witnessed history in the making Monday when Northern Ireland's opposing Protestant and Catholic party leaders sat at the same table and signed a power-sharing agreement effective May 8.

For decades Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionists and Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein refused to hold direct negotiations for peace.

"It is truly amazing to be here right now," said Koutoujian, who coordinated his trip through the Young Leaders Program at the Boston College Irish Institute. "Many Americans thought the Northern Ireland situation had been settled and was working when in fact it wasn't."

Koutoujian spoke with the Tribune on the phone yesterday from Dublin, Ireland, on the final day of a weeklong visit meeting with the country's political party leaders and universities.

In 1981, Koutoujian studied at University College in Dublin. He said not many people know he has Irish roots on his mother's side of the family.

He said the events in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were stunning.

Paisley, an 80-year-old Protestant evangelist who for decades has sought to thwart compromise with Catholics, sat beside Adams, a reputed Irish Republican Army veteran who Paisley long denounced as a "man of blood."

Throughout the tortuous 14-year course of Northern Ireland's peace process, Paisley had never agreed to negotiate directly with Adams before.

According the BC Web site, the Irish Institute on Chestnut Hill was established in 1997 to promote lasting peace in Ireland though professional exchange programs. The institute offers programs for the government, business, education, and nonprofit sectors in the United States and Ireland to share economic, government, and education strategies.

"We must continue to build bridges with other countries," Koutoujian said. "In the U.S. we're so big and so powerful that we think we don't need other countries to exist. But then you realize how much is outside the U.S."

During his stay, Koutoujian met with students at Queen's University, University College Dublin and Trinity College to discuss student elections and leadership.

He talked politics with the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councilor Patrick McCarthy, dignitaries from the Fianna Fail party at their Dublin headquarters, and visited the U.S. Embassy to chat with U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Thomas C. Foley.

"The purpose of the trip is to create strong ties between our countries and create opportunities," Koutoujian said. Stem cell research and how to recruit biotech companies, were two subjects he said he took up with the country's leaders.

Koutoujian gave a talk about universal health insurance at the Institute of Public Administration, the Irish national center for development of best practice in public administration and public management.

While he found discussing policy issues educational and interesting, Koutoujian said one of the most inspiring parts of the trip came from talking one on one with students.

He said many of the students there know more about the American presidential candidates and where they stand than the average U.S. citizen. Some of the students he spoke with had been to the United States as part of the same exchange program.

"One of the young men told me the experiences he gained in America will help him lead and bring peace in Northern Ireland," Koutoujian said.

He returns to the U.S. tomorrow.