Letters to the Editor
Irish Voice. November 28, 2005

Niall O’Dowd nailed the U.S. fundraising ban on
Gerry Adams in the editorial “Perils of Megaphone
Diplomacy” in last week’s issue.

The ban was, indeed, a “daft move”. The Irish
National Caucus, making its very first criticism
of President Bush, branded the ban a “deceitful
betrayal and a stab in the back.”

But maybe the real problem with the ban is that
it has trivialized the whole Northern Ireland
policing issue (the single most important issue
of all), reducing it to a matter of dollars and
cents.

If, as appears, President Bush imposed the ban to
put pressure on Adams to join the Police Board,
the only pressure that will be put on Adams is
pressure from his own people not to give in, or
be seen to give in, to such “daft” punitive
measures.

Thus, instead of speeding Sinn Fein’s acceptance
of the new police service, the PSNI, the Bush
administration has maybe only succeeded in
slowing it down. Talk about the law of unintended
consequences!

I have publicly praised Mitchell Reiss, special
envoy for Northern Ireland, many times. But this
daft decision has trivialized the very issue in
which he has invested so much time.
And when vital issues are trivialized, Northern
Ireland is the loser, as history amply
demonstrates.