The secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Paul Murphy, is to accept the peace award on the prime minister’s behalf from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at the dinner on Tuesday.
“I don’t think we’re going to the dinner, because we haven’t received any invitation to it,” said DUP spokesman Richard Bullick in an interview.
When asked for a comment, president of the AIF Kingsley Aikins, responded: “We have invited the leaders of all the political parties in Northern Ireland to the American Ireland Fund Washington Gala. Also, the Northern Ireland office in Washington is providing us with a list of other party officials who will be in Washington next week and we would be delighted if they could join us. We are currently finalizing this list as it has been constantly changing with some officials being invited to different tables.”
Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionist Party, and the Alliance Party had all already received their invitations prior to this week.
When asked about the apparent snub and whether there was any concern about it, a spokeswoman for the taoiseach said: “He [Ahern] is just giving an award; we don’t have anything to do with who the organizers invite.”
The annual American Ireland Fund Gala is a glitzy black-tie event that has drawn thousands of donors for 12 years to its $2,500-a-plate dinner. It’s usually hosted the night before St. Patrick’s Day.
Any reticence about inviting DUP representatives might be connected to an incident at the 2000 dinner, which was attended by President Bill Clinton. On that occasion DUP members Ian Paisley Jr. and Edwin Poots disrupted Ahern’s speech. The two unfurled a banner that read “Keep killers out of government” and shouted and heckled the taoiseach before being escorted from the building by local police.
The DUP will bring over its largest delegation ever to Washington for St. Patrick’s Day this year. Stressing its new status as Northern Ireland’s “largest political party,” having received the most number of seats in the November’s Stormont election, the DUP clearly has changed its attitude toward Washington.
“We want to make our case and to let show people we are not just the ‘No’ party anymore,” Bullick said.
The current review of the Good Friday agreement has been stalled with the walk out of UUP leader, David Trimble last month.
East Belfast Assemblyman Peter Robinson, MP, and North Belfast Assemblyman Nigel Dodds, MP, will be joined by their new party colleague, the Lagan Valley defector from the UUP, Jeffrey Donaldson, MP, for events at the White House and the traditional Speaker’s Luncheon on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, the Campaign on the Administration of Justice and British Irish Human Rights Watch have voiced opposition to Ahern’s presentation of an award to Blair without the publication of the Cory Report’s assessment of possible collusion between elements within the British security system and loyalist paramilitaries. Some members of the U.S. House and Senate have also expressed concerned over the delay of the publication of the report.
President Bush will host two representatives from each Northern Ireland party at the White House for a very small and short 45-minute reception after the taoiseach hands over the traditional bowl of shamrock on March 17.
It’s expected that Bush will officially announce his planned visit to Ireland in June during the festivities. He is also expected to encourage Sinn Fein to join policing boards by highlighting the work of members of the District Policing Partnerships. On Tuesday, the DPP chairman in Strabane was sent a live bomb in the mail.
Chief Constable Hugh Orde intends to highlight the policing issue while attending the various events here.