ENNISKILLEN’S Clinton Centre was at the centre of a political storm in Washington this week as presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came under increasing fire for keeping close ties with the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State.

United States President Bill Clinton opened the William Jefferson Clinton International Peace Centre in Enniskillen in 2002. It is overseen by four local Directors who act as Trustees for the building and seek to secure customers who will provide rental income for the premises.

The ongoing controversy surrounds Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served in the State Department. A conservative American advocacy group called Citizens United successfully applied under Freedom of Information to see her emails. The security of these emails is now being investigated by the FBI.

This week’s Washington Post reports that, in 2012, Amitabh Desai, the Foreign Policy Adviser for Clinton family charity The Clinton Foundation, consulted Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff and other Clinton aides about establishing a not-for-profit organisation called Friends of The Clinton Centre to fund the Enniskillen-based Clinton Centre.

Mr. Desai’s email read: “Stella O’Leary [President of the pro-Clinton Irish American Democrats political action group] called to say she saw HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] this week and that HRC ‘firmly instructed’ her to urgently form a 501c3 called Friends of the Clinton Centre.

“I also asked if the new org could be flexible so that any funding raised could be used in whatever manner WJC [William Jefferson Clinton] and HRC wish in Ireland and Northern Ireland and not restricted to support only the current iteration of the Clinton Centre in Enniskillen.” Long-serving Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin replied to Mr. Desai’s email, saying: “HRC had said she made no commitments to [Stella O’Leary].” Citizens United has suggested that this was an Irish “slush fund” for the Clintons. This claim was flatly denied by Mrs. O’Leary, who told The Irish Times it was “the funniest thing I have ever heard”, adding: “I don’t think the Clintons need a slush fund in Enniskillen.” In an interview, Mrs. O’Leary said she had set up the charity but it is now largely “stagnant.” She said she could not recall ever discussing the charity with Hillary Clinton. Mrs. O’Leary’s charity has no ties to the Clinton Foundation, according to a foundation official.

Asked to clarifiy the Clinton Centre’s current financial position and if it received money from a fund called ‘Friends of Clinton Centre’, a spokesman from the Clinton Centre told The Impartial Reporter: “Currently a feasibility study is being undertaken with regard to assessing options for the future utilisation of the Clinton Centre. The social economy hub and the gallery space continue to be fully utilised and generate rent accordingly. In essence this constitutes the income for the Clinton Centre.” A successful Clinton Summer School which gave students from Northern Ireland the opportunity to increase their global awareness by examining sectarianism, segregation and racism with students from Kosovo and America was held for a number of years in the Clinton Centre. However now takes place at the William J. Clinton Leadership Institute at Queen’s University Belfast.

Hostelling International Northern Ireland had a youth hostel on the top two floors of the Clinton Centre for a number of years but they pulled out in December 2012.

A cafe on the ground floor has been rented out to a number of different operators since 2012 but is currently unoccupied.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council rents the Higher Bridges Gallery.

The Council is also operating a First Stop Shop and social enterprise hub on the ground floor that had previously been tendered to the South West College.

Various conferences and meetings are held in the basement floors.

A £20,000 feasibility study is underway into the possibility of the Clinton Centre becoming The Clinton International Literature Centre.

Run by Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival Director Sean Doran, the centre would symbolise the potential of the arts to heal, to transform, and to encourage creative collaboration in a post-conflict environment.

It is understood that any future plans for the Clinton Centre would have to get the go-ahead from the former President.