Chairman Engel very first to confirm McCord-Caucus meeting
Posted By: January 10, 2020
Follows in the tradition of the late, great Congressman Ben Gilman
CAPITOL HILL. Thursday, January 9, 2020— During the week of Sunday, February 9 to Saturday, February 15, the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus is sponsoring, for the third time, a visit of the legendary victims’ campaigner Raymond McCord, Sr.
to Capitol Hill. Mr. McCord—a Belfast Protestant Unionist— will brief individual Members of Congress on the case of the 1997 murder of his son, Raymond, Jr., near Belfast.(In 2009, the Caucus twice brought Raymond, Sr. to lobby and to testify at a Congressional Hearing).
Fr. Sean McManus, President/Founder of the Irish National Caucus, said: “The very first Member of Congress to sign up to meet Raymond was Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. House of Representatives. That, of course, is in keeping with his long and exemplary record on Irish justice and peace. And, to me, very touchingly, it is in the splendid tradition of my dear friend—the late, great, beloved Congressman Ben Gilman (R-NY), also a former Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Although Ben was a Republican, and Eliot is a Democrat, there is no division between them when it comes to justice and peace on the island of Ireland…. And that brings me back to my most vivid and enduring awareness in my work for Irish justice since I came to America on October 2, 1972: No group in Congress has a better record on Ireland than Jewish-Americans. This has made a powerful, deep, and very personal impression on me—and I will be eternally grateful.”
Like Congressman Gilman, Congressman Engel is a long-time Congressional Friend of the Irish National Caucus.
Fr. McManus very often emphasizes the key role played by Jewish-Americans. See, for example, his keynote speech in 2009, in New York City Hall, on the 25th. Anniversary of the MacBride Principles (which he launched on November 5, 1984)—http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/25th-anniversary-of-macbride-principles This speech has been termed, ‘In effect, a panegyric to Jewish-Americans.’ (The speech is also published in Fr. McManus’ recent, new edition of his Memoirs: My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland [Third U.S. Edition 2019]. Available at IrishNationalCaucus.org and on Amazon).
Raymond McCord expressed delight and honor when Fr. McManus told him that Chairman Engel had confirmed the meeting.
Because some of those responsible for the murder of Raymond Jr. were police informers/British Agents, the crime has been and still is covered up. In 22 years, there has not even been an inquest into his brutal murder. END.
