The White House expressed concern over a photo of Clinton shaking hands with Gerry Adams

Newly declassified documents have revealed White House concerns over a possible photograph of Bill Clinton shaking hands with Gerry Adams during his historic 1995 visit to Belfast.

The document, released annually by the National Archives in Dublin, details the extensive diplomatic efforts between Irish and American officials to carefully plan Clinton’s trip to the island of Ireland.

Discussions included views on whether the couple should stay overnight in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, a genealogist’s investigation, commissioned as part of the preparations, dismissed suggestions of Mr Clinton’s Co Fermanagh ancestry as “fanciful”, although acknowledging possible roots elsewhere in Ulster.

Clinton’s itinerary saw them visit Northern Ireland before traveling to Dublin, with a reception scheduled for November 30 at Queen’s University’s Whitlaw Hall in Belfast.

A letter from David Donoghue, Irish joint secretary at the Anglo-Irish Secretariat, to Sean O’Huigin in the Anglo-Irish Division stated that “the Americans” originally wanted to hold the reception and “limit” it to 120 people.

He said the British side “insisted” that Patrick Mayhew, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, should host it, which was agreed, and the guest list was expanded to 300 people.

“The aim is to enable the President to meet more people in Northern Ireland,” he wrote on November 28, 1995.

“The real aim, of course, was to emphasize the political nature of the occasion and create a wider ‘community’ event which, the British reckoned, would make it easier for unionists to attend alongside Sinn Fein.”

Mr Donoghue said delegates would form “pods” at the reception – “a UUP pod, a Coalition pod etc” – determined “on a pro rata basis in the light of the respective electoral powers”.

“In other words, each will form a separate group of people who will be introduced to the President in turn (along the lines of a Buckingham Palace reception).”

He also said that Peter Bell from the Northern Ireland Office had indicated that “the Americans would prefer to avoid a photograph of the President and Adams shaking hands”.

He also said that one-on-one meetings were planned with John Hume and David Trimble on a car trip to Derry after the reception at Queen’s, a “typical American reluctance” to meet with Adams, Ian Paisley or John Alderdice.

“However, the general perception is that the President will separate the concerned persons for a separate private conversation on the sidelines of the reception.”

As part of an event to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the two men shook hands for the first time at the White House in March of that year — but only after the photographers had left the room.

According to the New York Times, Mr. Clinton was pressured by then-British Prime Minister John Major not to give Mr. Adams a warm hug.

On the morning of November 30, before the reception in Belfast, Mr. Clinton met Mr. Adams on the Falls Road in Belfast.

As he left his car he stopped to shake Mr Adams’ hand – a moment captured by an official White House photographer.

Mr Clinton would later say of the handshake that it was a “big deal” and that it felt like “the pavement was about to break”.

Planning for Clinton’s visit to Dublin from December 1–2 1995 shows that a US embassy official estimated there was a “50/50” chance the visit would go ahead.

An Irish genealogist claimed that claims that Clinton had Cassidy ancestors, who were from Fermanagh, were “largely based on fantasy” – but the White House still wants to add aspects of Cassidy to the tour.

It was claimed that Mr. Clinton had Irish ancestry through his mother, Virginia Cassidy.

Genealogist Sean Murphy of Bray, Co Wicklow undertook the task of tracing Bill Clinton’s Irish ancestry following “the media circulation of claims about the President’s Irish ancestry, which proved to be unfounded, but left undisputed by any official source”.

He told the Taoiseach’s office that the earliest trace of the president’s maternal ancestors in this line was “probably” Zachariah Cassidy and his son Levi, born about 1750-60 in South Carolina.

“The Cassidy ‘clan’ claims that an early ancestor was Luke or Lucas Cassidy of Roslea, Co Fermanagh, appear to be based largely on fiction,” he wrote on October 16.

“The biblical names Zechariah and Levi suggest a Protestant, as opposed to a Catholic, origin, and perhaps a Presbyterian or Dissenter, and it is reasonable to assume that the Cassidys emigrated to America from Ulster County most likely.”

In notes from a meeting with the US embassy three days later, Irish officials said a planned stop off in Lismore, Co Fermanagh, had been dropped, but the White House was “still keen to use the Cassidy connection in a low-key way”.

They said it could mean “informally” crossing the Cassidy complex.

Mr. Clinton would visit Cassidy’s bar in Dublin for an hour during the 1995 trip.

This article is based on documents contained in a file labeled 2025/115/827 at the National Archives of Ireland.