ireland, irish, ulster, belfast, northern ireland, british, loyalist, nationalist, republican, unionist

(Andrea McKernon, Irelandclick.com)

US special envoy Mitchell Reiss was in North Belfast Wednesday to learn about the work of two cross-community groups.

He attracted a sizeable media scrum with the main questions centred on the way ahead, the peace process and developments in the IRA.

But the real reason the envoy was was in Belfast was to see the work of Intercomm and the 174 Trust and he said he would like to come back again.

Liam Maskey of Intercomm who met Mitchell Reiss in Washington along with Rev Bill Shaw of the 174 Trust said the US envoy was "very down to earth".

"We brought him in and he met staff and we told him of our work with trying to bring business into the area, our economic survey of the next ten years and the training needed to deal with any new business," he said.

"He also met interface workers like Gerry O'Reilly and how we were prioritising conflict resolution this year on the interfaces.

"He had talked about North Belfast in Washington and Bill Shaw and myself had said the best way was to come to North Belfast and meet the people."

And Liam Maskey said envoy Reiss vowed to return to see more of the area.

"He said he was extremely interested and excited with what he saw and he would like to see the area in more detail and go out and meet more local people."

This article appeared first on the Irelandclick.com web site on May 20, 2005.