Decision due on visa for dissident

By Patrick Markey

Speculation is growing over whether the U.S. government will grant an entry visa to convicted IRA bomber and former hunger striker Marion Price to attend a New York fund-raising dinner for a dissident republican organization.

Price, who was convicted with her sister of planting bombs in London in 1973, is scheduled to speak at a January dinner for the Irish Freedom Committee, which claims to represent Irish-American opponents to the Good Friday agreement.

Last week, reports in British newspapers stated that London officials had requested the White House deny Price a waiver to enter the United States. Visitors to the U.S. who have criminal convictions must apply for a visa waiver for permission to enter the country.

But a Clinton administration official this week said the U.S. government had yet to make a decision on her application, which was received at the Belfast U.S. consulate on Friday. A spokesperson for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Price is scheduled for an interview on the waiver application on Wednesday.

The Irish Freedom Committee, which supports Republican Sinn Fein and dissident republican prisoners in Ireland, released a statement condemning any decision to stop Price visiting the U.S.

"The British government is once again dictating to the American government who Americans can hear and not hear," the statement read. "The Clinton administration, while allowing in Gerry Adams and loyalists who support the 1998 treaty, continues to deny Irish Republicans into the U.S."

Republican Sinn Fein, which is linked to the Continuity IRA, split from the Provisional movement in 1986.