Dissident visa decision held over

By Patrick Markey

U.S. officials have yet to make a decision on whether convicted IRA bomber Marion Price will be allowed into the United States to attend a fund-raising dinner for a dissident republican group next month.

Price, who was convicted with her sister in four 1973 London bombings, is listed as a guest speaker at a New York dinner for the Irish Freedom Committee in January. She was scheduled to meet with officials at the U.S. embassy in Belfast last week to discuss her application for a visa waiver, a document required for those with criminal convictions wishing to enter the United States.

According to a Clinton administration official, Price could not attend the meeting and has yet to file the necessary paperwork for her application. Immigration authorities will not make any decision on her visa until that application is made, the official said.

The Irish Freedom Committee presents itself as an alternative republican group for American opponents of the Good Friday agreement. The group supports Republican Sinn Fein, which is linked to the dissident Continuity IRA. Funds from the January dinner are supposed to support dissident republican prisoners in Ireland.

Speculation over whether Price’s visa waiver would be granted grew after a British newspaper reported that London officials had contacted the White House to request she be denied entry to the United States.