Ireland on Sunday, March 18, 2001
This celebrated inscription on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty symbolizes America’s self-image as a welcoming marketplace of ideas. You will note that nowhere does it require these tired, poor, huddled masses must support the Good Friday Agreement.
Over the past few days, every political shade in Ireland has been welcomed to White House luncheons and Capitol Hill cocktail parties. Well, almost. One strand of opinion has been noticable by its enforced absence. Put simply, Osama bin Laden might find it easier to gain entry to America than a republican who has criticized the peace process.
The latest to be turned away is Tommy Gorman, a member of the Irish Republican Writers Group, which has been highly critical of the pro-agreement republicans currently glad-handing their way around the U.S. Gorman was scheduled to speak at a Manhattan debate on sectarianism on Friday evening. A few hours before the debate his visa application was finally refused.
The obvious reason for rejecting Gorman - 13 years in prison for IRA activity - holds no water. If a prison record was a disqualifier then many of the Northern delegation would still be cooling their heels at Dublin airport. That only leaves one reason: his public criticism of the agreement. The fact that Ian Paisley is welcome suggests that only anti-agreement republicans are being singled out.
To wit: Republican Sinn Fein’s Joe O’Neill was removed from a U.S-bound plane last week. Former hunger striker Marion Price once accompanied Gerry Kelly on a bombing mission to London but is today prevented from following him stateside. Ruairi O’Bradaigh and Bernadette Sands Mc-Kevitt are also among those unwelcome in the U.S. This censorship by visa denial is not a Bush-era development - anti-agreement figures were denied access by Clinton too.
The great American tradition of free discourse demands that whatever argument Gorman advances be challenged on its merits in an open forum. That ideal has been laid waste by the State Department and its supporters among Irish America’s thought police. On Monday a message was posted on the Republican Bulletin Board urging activists to e-mail the consular offical dealing with Gorman and demand the visa be denied. The official’s e-mail address was helpfully included.
For years Irish Americans waged a bitter war to get Gerry Adams into the country at a time when his positions were much less fashionable than today. The apathy of those same activists on the question of visas for their opponents smacks of a ‘Free speech for me but not for Thee’ attitude.
The legitimacy of the views put forth by Gorman is irrelevant. Irish America should support his right to speak while reserving the right not to listen.
As of now, those most vocal in demanding parity of esteem appear the least willing to extend it to others.
