February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
After a meeting with the White House’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, Kenny also lashed out at Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for holding “secret meetings” with Sinn Fein.
“It’s wrong for the taoiseach to tell us one thing, to say he is taking a hard stance against the IRA and do something completely different,” Kenny said in an interview outside the U.S. State Department.
The Irish government confirmed last week that Ahern had met three times since last January with Sinn Fein leaders in private.
“We’ve heard all this before, we’ve had secret meetings before, and what has it gotten us?” Kenny said.
Kenny said the time for behind the scenes negotiations were over, and the moment had come for the Provisionals to undertake “clear and unambiguous actions.”
Kenny said Ambassador Reiss had a good understanding of what would make “the IRA stand down” and that the U.S. had constructively applied pressure on republicans by withholding visas and constricting fundraising for Sinn Fein in America.
Recently, Sinn Fein spokeswoman, Rita O’Hare, was denied a visa to enter the U.S. Sinn Fein has failed to raise any significant funds in the U.S. in the last four months.
The U.S. Government and the Irish American community has the potential to exert huge pressure on the Provisional movement, Kenny said.
He welcomed what he called the clear messages which have been sent from Washington in recent months following the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney.
Kenny said his visit would be the first of several to the U.S.
“Up until now, Fine Gael has not had a presence in the U.S. and many of the public and politicians did not understand there was another approach in Ireland than what has been presented,” he said.
He said that unlike Fianna Fail, his party would not accept “constructive ambiguity” when it came to republicans laying down their weapons.
While in Washington, Kenny also had discussions with officials from the National Security Council, a delegation of visiting Irish politicians concerned over undocumented Irish immigrants, and with former taoiseach and Fine Gael colleague John Bruton, now the EU’s ambassador to the U.S.