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Dr. No Says No, Again Dublin Wrong to Back Photo

CAPITOL HILL --- December 9, 2004 ----- Irish-Americans are shocked ( but hardly surprised) that The Reverend Paisley has said " no" again. But they are surprised that the Irish Government backed his unreasonable demands for photos of the IRA's historic decommissioning. " Clearly the photos were to be used to try and humiliate the IRA", said Father Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus. " Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who has shown magnificent dedication to, and mastery of, the peace-process, should never have gone along with that impossible demand". "Dr. Paisley has squandered a historic moment, which I pray can be redeemed. But if you spend your entire life preaching hatred and sectarianism it is not easy to have a death-bed conversion. Saying 'no" to God and people can become an unbreakable habit -- and I say this as one who has tried over the years to be kind to Dr. Paisley", explained Father Mc Manus " But Paisley's rejection , like Trimble's before him, surely proves that the issue was never really about decommissioning, but rather about Unionists inability to share power and accept Catholics as equals -- just as slavery and segregation in the U.S. was always about racist Whites being incapable of accepting African-Americans as equals",Father Mc Manus concluded.   Father Sean Mc Manus President Irish National Caucus P.O. Box 15128 Capitol Hill Washington, D.C. 20003-0849 Tel. 202-544-0568