This has to be seen as progress of course but don't try to oversell this assertion to supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton who has been finding out in recent weeks that North peace is lately like a timeshare with a lot more investors than you might think from looking at the sales brochure.

Just as there is a long standing joke about how many people were crammed into the General post Office in Dublin's O'Connell Street in 1916, there may someday be a yarn about which first ten thousand can stand in the credit line for bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

The truth is that the peace effort was indeed a vast one involving many people over many years and really it is no great surprise that Senator Clinton has been taking it on the chin for placing herself close to the top of the line.

At the same time, Clinton has been doing what all politicians do, most especially when they are running for office. She has been attaching herself to a good news story.

In her case, however, it's been a little more than that. She's been claiming a share of the credit for the good news.

At first glance it would seem that positioning herself in a flattering light on Northern Ireland before a crowd of eager Democrats in Iowa would not resonate all that far beyond the stubble of that state's cornfields in deepest winter.

But of course everywhere is just a click away from everywhere else in this hyper-wired age. Mention Northern Ireland in Des Moines in the final countdown to an election year caucus and before the word is entirely out of your mouth they have heard you in Derry or Dungannon.

Since Iowa, the debate over Clinton and her claims has waxed and waned. It is waxing again in recent days because the lady herself, as Margaret Thatcher might have put it, is not for turning on the issue.

"I helped bring peace to Northern Ireland, Clinton told CNN a few days ago.

Much of the criticism and rebutting of Clinton's assertions have been penned by newspaper columnists on both side of the Atlantic. Dick Morris and Eileen McGann led the early pace in the U.S.

Kevin Cullen, in his Boston Globe column, was a more recent critic. President Bill Clinton, Cullen opined, had actually never been accorded enough credit for his Irish peace work. His wife was in another category, however.

"To suggest Hillary Clinton was a major player in ending what the Irish in their penchant for understatement called the Troubles is like saying Eleanor Roosevelt played a big role in ending World War II," Cullen wrote.

"By saying she helped bring peace to Northern Ireland, Hillary Clinton is a chancer," he added, using a well-worn Irish description of someone who is pulling a fast one, or gilding the lily.

Most recently, the criticism has taken on a political hue, at least in Northern Ireland.

Former First Minister and Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble described Clinton's claim to a peace role as being "a wee bit silly."

"I don't know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill (Clinton) going around.........being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player," the now Lord Trimble, who shared a Nobel Prize with John Hume for his contribution to peace, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The response might be of course be that claiming to help something happen is not quite the same as claiming to be a principal player.

Trimble's dismissal was enough, however, to draw other Northern Ireland politicians to Clinton's defense.

John Hume has been one of her most ferocious defenders and Trimble's jibe drew swift rebuke from the man who was Trimble's nationalist Nobel partner.

"I can state from first hand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade," Hume told the Derry Journal.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness told the Echo that Hillary Clinton was someone who was "extremely well informed" on Ireland and its peace process.

McGuinness described Trimble's remarks as "mean spirited."

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, speaking in New York during his St. Patrick's Day U.S. visit, was reluctant to be drawn into a U.S. political debate, even if Ireland was the subject matter.

Adams explained that Sinn Féin preferred to stay clear of American party politics for the simple reason that it drew support from Republicans and Democrats.

"I've met the three presidential candidates and I wish them well," he said. Trimble's comment, however, had crossed the line.

"I did take exception to David Trimble saying she (Clinton) had played no role. That isn't true. For the record she did play a positive role," Adams said in response to a question from the Echo during a meeting with reporters in a Manhattan hotel last Friday.

Clinton herself has evidently become used to the criticism. Speaking to the Echo by phone last week while en route from Harrisburg, Pa. to Philadelphia, she was ready with her response when the matter of the criticism was raised.

Looking forward to a time when she wants to be a president carrying on a now well-established policy towards Ireland, Clinton described the cause of reconciliation in Northern Ireland as being very important to her "because of my long involvement on behalf of the Irish peace process."

This involvement, she said, had brought with it strong relationships and friendships over many years.

Clinton stated that she had traveled to Northern Ireland seven times and had "worked in a variety of ways to cultivate the conditions for peace to take hold."

She also spoke of her work "bringing women" into the process.

"It was something I spent a lot of time on and remember very well bringing four hundred women together in Belfast," she said in reference to the Vital Voices conference in September 1998.

Not surprisingly, women activists in Northern Ireland have been some of Clinton's most vociferous supporters in the argument surround her peace process role.

In addition to public events such as the conference, Clinton pointed to more low-key efforts on behalf of peace during the Echo interview.

"I held numerous private meetings and calls with negotiators on all sides to help bring them around the hurdles as they continued to negotiate peace," she said.

Clinton made the point that her peace work continued after her first lady years. No sooner had she been elected a senator for New York than she had traveled to Ireland, first to the Republic and then to the North.

She said she had not, and would never give up on people who were working in the North on a cross community basis, or in Ireland on a cross-border one.

"I intend doing everything I can.........to make sure the (peace) process continues and deepens," she said.

Subsequent to last week's Echo interview, Clinton was again pressed on her role in an interview on National Public Radio.

She was asked if she had been in the "center of the room" during peace talks a decade ago.

"What I was was part of a team and that team included obviously the principal negotiators under the direct authority of my husband," Clinton responded.

"I wasn't sitting at the negotiating table but the role I played was instrumental. I guess it was in December when Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness came to the United States.

"I think they met with the leadership of Congress, with the President and with me and they thanked me publicly for the role I had played," she said.

Meanwhile, Clinton continues to involve herself in the North and its peace process while in clear public view.

Late last week she met with British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Shaun Woodward during his visit to Washington. D.C.

"I was very pleased to be able to meet with Secretary Woodward again and to talk with him about the progress that continues to be made in Northern Ireland," Clinton said afterwards.

"I look forward to continuing to work with the secretary as he builds further on the progress that has been made to ensure stability for Northern Ireland."