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A political party established in 1996 to promote women in politics, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, drew inspiration from Hillary Clinton's words and example. Voters weren't as convinced; the party folded in 2006 after all its candidates lost in two straight elections.

''It's crazy for Hillary to say she played a role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. ... She seems to be confusing her record with her husband's,'' said Robin Wilson, founder of a Northern Ireland think tank, Democratic Dialogue.

In a December 2007 interview with ABC News, Clinton said: ''In just the last few weeks, the new leaders of the Northern Ireland government, Dr. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, made a special effort to see me. Why? Because I helped in that process, not just standing by and witnessing, but actually getting my hands into it, creating opportunities for people on both sides of the sectarian divide to come together.''

Clinton's longtime claims to have played a difference-making role in Northern Ireland attracted no criticism until the buildup to St. Patrick's Day this year. To some ears, her most recent comments have raised a false impression that she helped produce the landmark Good Friday peace accord of 1998.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern came to Clinton's defense, meeting with the senator in Washington -- and making his first phone call to Obama.

''I think for anyone to try to question the Clintons' huge support (for Ireland) and start trying to nitpick and saying, 'But she wasn't sitting down at the negotiation table' -- sure, we know she wasn't sitting down at the negotiation table,'' Ahern said.

After suffering criticism from rival Obama's campaign and Protestant politicians in Northern Ireland, Clinton this month backed off language that suggested she was ever involved in the 22 months of negotiations that preceded the Good Friday pact.

But Clinton still suggests that she wielded a hidden hand over the diplomatic triumph.

''I wasn't sitting at the negotiating table, but the role I played was instrumental,'' she said in a March 13 interview with National Public Radio.

Clinton's campaign has distributed statements backing up her claim from Nobel laureate John Hume, the Catholic intellectual heavyweight of the peace process, who credited her with making ''countless calls and contacts,'' and leaders of Sinn Fein, the party that former President Clinton helped to bring in from the diplomatic cold caused by Irish Republican Army violence.

In Northern Ireland, the endorsements from Hume, Sinn Fein and Ahern are broadly recognized as reflecting Irish Catholics' desire for maximum international sympathy, specifically from the U.S. The retired Hume, in particular, boosted his clout by carefully cultivating friendships with U.S. politicians, chiefly Democrats.

For them, a President Hillary Clinton offers the best chance of a return to the pro-Irish policies of her husband, who broke with decades of State Department deference to Britain, an approach resumed under George W. Bush.

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EDITOR'S NOTE -- Shawn Pogatchnik has reported on Northern Ireland for The Associated Press since 1991 and covered most of the Clinton visits. Associated Press writer Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report.

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