The former US president Bill Clinton has said he's concerned about the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland and how it could impact the Good Friday Agreement.
However, he believes the political situation in the North will be clarified as soon as people know the precise terms of the Brexit deal.
Mr Clinton played a key role in the peace process during his time in the White House.
However, speaking exclusively to Pat Kenny, the 42nd US president admitted that the Brexit vote in 2016 led to concerns about the situation in the North.
He observed: "I was most worried about the Good Friday Agreement, because I care so much about Ireland."
Speaking about the vote more generally, he argued: "I was dismayed because there were people, I thought, who voted for Brexit because they thought the European Parliament had gone too far.
"Well, nearly everybody can cite one or two examples where they thought the European Parliament went too far. If that's the test, none of us would belong to any clubs, or anything else - I thought that was overreacting.
"Then there were those, mostly in rural England and Wales, who said they wanted to get rid of the immigrants. they were worried about the Polish immigrants taking their jobs. Well, they were basically going to cities where there was a shortage of employees and an abundance of work. I never thought it made any sense."
Reflecting on the current situation in the North, he said: "Even though Northern Ireland's kept the peace, and there's still cranes in Belfast where work is going in... and the Irish economy is back to where it was before the crisis, as fastest growing economy in Europe... but the Northern Ireland economy's growth is still under 2%, and it's because of all this uncertainty and where we're going to go.
"I'm concerned about it - but I do believe the political situation in Northern Ireland will clarify, once people know exactly what the Brexit terms are going to be."
US politics
During the interview, Mr Clinton also addressed some of the current far-right beliefs that have grown to dominate much of the debate in both the US and internationally.
He suggested: "Yes, there are some reasons for people to feel resentment... there's growing inequality, and yes everybody wants some limits on immigration.
"But this anti-immigrant fervour is a very dangerous symptom of an 'us vs them' world."
Mr Clinton suggested that "America has no real immigration crisis", when compared to other countries like Turkey that have experienced huge influxes of asylum seekers and migrants.
"We act like it's the end of the world when 30,000 people show up at the southern border of the United States," he argued.
He added that it was "a manufactured crisis to take advantage of the global tide of identity politics".
Mr Clinton described himself as the 'ultimate optimist', and doesn't believe the increased polarisation in politics has led to a hopeless situation.
However, he acknowledged the shift towards extremist policies isn't just happening in America - citing Hungary, Poland and Russia as other examples of countries experiencing challenges to traditional democracy and values.
Recalling his own relations with political rivals, he suggested: "We played on a field, and we weren't interested in destroying each other... We were interested in fighting for what we believed in, and attempting to get something that would work.
"Once you lose that, when there's no trust and no limits, it's very hard. In America, we're fighting for the very constitutional right to vote... we're fighting for our history as a nation of refugees, against policies I never thought I'd see - dividing children and parents and all that sort of stuff."
