February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
After outlining a complete denial of any senior Sinn Fein member’s prior knowledge of the December bank raid on the Northern Bank in Belfast in December, he was assured that his party can continue its lucrative fundraising in the U.S. He was also told that the White House has decided, barring any extraordinary new facts being uncovered, that Sinn Fein will be invited to the White House along with the North’s other parties for the annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities next month.
Kelly also met at the State Department with a senior staff and career diplomat, Eric Green. Green was said to have been cool but not confrontational with Kelly over Washington’s lingering concerns over alleged Sinn Fein collusion with the Northern Bank raid.
On Wednesday, members of Congress on the Friends of Ireland committee met with the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, for 45 minutes in Rep. Jim Walsh’s office. Reiss was accompanied by Green.
Whatever concerns over the peace process must have melted away overnight. The meeting, which included New York Republican Peter King, Massachusetts Democrat Richard Neal, and John Duncan, a Republican from Tennessee, as well as staff from several other congressional offices, was punctuated by several rounds of boisterous laughter; there were smiles all around after the participants emerged.
Walsh, the Friends of Ireland chair, said after the meeting that he was assured that Sinn Fein was still welcome here and that the U.S. remained committed to helping restart the political process.
Walsh also said it was difficult to calculate the repercussions of the Northern Bank robbery.
“It’s a real dilemma, he said. “Both the taoiseach and Sinn Fein have always been good at keeping their word. Every promise that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness has made to us they’ve kept.”
Significantly, however, Walsh, a Republican from upstate New York, pointed to a possible ulterior motive for some of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s strongest statements that accused Sinn Fein leaders of complicity in the heist.
“While they’ve always been able to keep the domestic politics aside, there is domestic political pressure now because of Sinn Fein’s growing footprint in the South’s politics,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Ambassador Reiss to step down as the State Department’s head of policy planning.
Reiss will return to his position as a dean at the College of William and Mary in Virginia but will also continue as the North’s special envoy.
For the first time as the Irish foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, will come here next week to discuss with Bush administration officials and members of congress the Irish government’s strategy for reengaging the parties in talks. U.S. and Irish officials said Ahern will help formulate a plan to negotiate some of the possible thorny patches of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day program.