Hillary Clinton can add another line to her endless resume. On Friday, she was installed as chancellor of Queen’s University in Belfast, U.K.
But not everyone was happy about it — and her big weekend was ruined by hecklers.
Before the ceremony, one attendee took a video of Clinton walking in a long robe whose tail was held up by a small girl. Audience members heckled, screamed “war criminal”, yelled “shame on Queens” and told Hillary to, “Go f**k yourself!”
Clinton tried to ignore that her audience was jeering at her. In fact, she waved at them. Maybe she’s grown used to hostile feedback over the years.
The hecklers belonged to a pacifist group protesting against U.S. foreign policy, the BBC reported. The United Kingdom fought alongside the United States in the Iraq War, which Clinton defended until 2014.
Some Twitter users were ridiculing the bizarre image of the child dragging the robe. One user joked that the child looked like the environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
They won’t be able to walk down the street…
Hillary being booed and called a criminal over and over again outside Queens University. pic.twitter.com/kAF6PHJOY1
— suzy (@Suzy_1776) September 24, 2021
https://twitter.com/Oddgeir18/status/1441697611581362178
https://twitter.com/Markgsparrow/status/1441673827243597830
Even after all the jeering, Clinton bloviated about foreign policy onstage.
“Northern Ireland has become a symbol of democracy’s power to transcend divisions and deliver peace, and we need that beacon of hope now more than ever,” Clinton said during her inauguration ceremony.
Belfast suffered sectarian violence during the Northern Ireland Conflict — known as “The Troubles” — a war spanning from the 1960s until a 1998 peace agreement.
In the U.K., a university’s chancellor serves as its ceremonial head. The chancellor usually presides over graduations but stays out of the day-to-day executive decisions. Most chancellors live away from their universities.
Clinton was first appointed chancellor in January 2020, but was unable to travel internationally because of the pandemic. Most students at Northern Irish universities spent the last school year in online classes.
In 2018, the university granted Clinton an honorary law degree. While installing Clinton as chancellor, the school gave honorary degrees to fourteen more people — most notably Lisa McGee, creator of the Netflix series Derry Girls.
The university President Ian Greer defended Clinton’s chancellorship. “Secretary Clinton is an internationally recognized public servant who has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to Northern Ireland,” he stated last week. “She has an enormous amount to offer the University and will continue to work as a key advocate for Queen’s on the international stage.”
If you say so!
The Horn editorial team