THE Home Secretary used to be responsible for Northern Ireland, but that ended when the "troubles" got bad in the early 1970s, and a separate Secretary of State was appointed.

So my trip to Hillsborough for this week's US/UK summit was my first.

Hillsborough is a small 18th century stately home.

It was the seat of the Governor General of Northern Ireland until direct rule and is now home from home for Ministers in the Northern Ireland Office. It turned out to be the ideal place for a summit - secure and quiet.

These things are important. Some historians claim leaders have little influence over the course of events determined by external forces. I don't accept that.

In a democracy all leaders have constraints on them. Quite right. But how they get along matters. Interestingly, whether their political philosophy is the same is of relatively minor importance.

What is crucial is whether they trust each other's judgment and even more, trust each other's word.

All American Presidents are controversial, especially outside the US, because they are the executive chiefs of the most powerful country in the world.

Whether President Bush's political standpoint is your cup of tea is a matter of choice. What I know for certain about him is that he is a man of his word.

If he says something, he'll do it. So I came away from Hillsborough greatly encouraged by two things.

One, his commitment to the United Nations playing a "vital role" in the reconstruction of Iraq: Two, his pledge to implement the Road Map on peace between Palestinians and Israel, and to devote the same energy to that as our Prime Minister has done to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

This summit followed a roughly similar pattern to that of Camp David two weeks before; and the business of course was very serious indeed.

So I'm having an intensive conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powell after dinner on Monday evening, when one of the Hillsborough staff came rather timidly into the room with an official looking message for me.

It was on "White House Situation Room" paper. "Fulham 3 (Boa Morte 23, Malbranque 47, Saha 82), Blackburn 1 (Duff 73) it said. I groaned. I had had a ticket for the game at Loftus Road, to go with my son and daughter, but had to attend the summit instead. Now this. Another stuffing to follow that from Newcastle.

No point seeking commiserations from Colin Powell. Great man though he is, he doesn't do soccer (or cricket); nor from my own Private Secretary who hails from Salford and supports the unmentionables at Old Trafford.

When Powell and I finally finished talking about the future of the world another member of my staff came up to me to say that Rovers had in fact won 4-0. She is another fan of the team which lost the championship in '95 (also from Salford), so I thought it was another wind-up. I called my kids who had been at the game, and they were in celebratory mood.

So I re-examined the "White House Situation Room Report" and noticed the handwriting on it looked suspiciously like that of the notorious Burnley fan, Mr A Campbell. He later confessed all, as I asked him to remind me of the current score last weekend between Burnley and Watford.

There was a third issue on the agenda -- the Northern Ireland Peace Process. President Bush, like his predecessor Bill Clinton, has been immensely helpful in this. As the peace process enters its final phase I think we can be hopeful about its outcome.

And, who knows, in the not-too-distant future maybe Northern Ireland will be tranquil enough for the Home Secretary to take it back again.