Spurning of Irish leader detrimental to plans for peace

House Editorial

For the first time since 1995, the leader of Northern Ireland’s most prominent Catholic political party will not be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the White House.

Gerry Adams, head of the party Sinn Fein, was not invited to the traditional luncheon after a Dec. 20, 2004 bank robbery in Belfast that has been blamed on the Irish Republican Army and a Jan. 30 murder, also in Belfast, reportedly committed by IRA members.

Sinn Fein and the IRA, while not officially affiliated, have been thought of as collaborators, and these crimes have put pressure on the IRA to disband and Sinn Fein to reform its practices.

Spurning Adams is a move calculated to add pressure on Sinn Fein but instead moves the peace process in Northern Ireland a step backward by neglecting a goodwill gesture toward a key political player.

No mistake should be made — the IRA has resorted to terrorism in the past, and continues to operate outside of the law. Adams has been accused of being an IRA commander, but he vehemently denies the charge. Sinn Fein is a legal political party, however blurry the line between it and the IRA can be at times, and the most influential Catholic group in Northern Ireland. As such, its leaders deserve to be recognized and afforded respect in order "to bring about a comprehensive peace agreement" — the Bush administration’s goal according to a press briefing by Press Secretary Scott McClellan on March 15.

McClellan said that the Bush administration does not believe that violence and paramilitary activity are conducive to peace, which is true. However, refusing to meet with representatives from one side will not send a message that the Administration is prepared to work out a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Bush is not the only politician to refuse to meet with Adams this St. Patrick’s Day. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who has met with Adams on the holiday since 1998, also will not talk with Adams.
Prior to 1994, Adams was forbidden from traveling in the United States by the State Department. In 1994, President Clinton lifted the ban, a move that helped in the negotiation of a cease-fire in Northern Ireland in 1995 and the Good Friday Peace Agreements in 1998. The Good Friday Agreements provided for an elected assembly and made an effort to disarm the paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.

Future agreements that continue the peace process will be difficult for the United States to broker if U.S. politicians cannot bring themselves to meet with all the concerned parties, but instead send clear statements that they are not welcome.

The Bush administration has sent such a message to Adams, not only by leaving him out in the cold, but by inviting the family of the Belfast murder victim. The administration has drawn a line in the sand that shows where its political sympathies lie. While personal sympathy for the victim and his family is in order, the political message his compassion sends is one that should tell Adams the administration has no desire to hear his views on the peace process in Ireland.