US TO BLOCK ANTI-DEAL FUNDRAISERS
US to block anti-deal fundraisers
THE US Justice Department is set to move against people raising money in the United States to oppose the Northern Ireland peace agreement, Congressman Peter King has claimed.
As President Bill Clinton made a return journey to Belfast, Mr King warned of the sort of action his administration could take against opponents of the Good Friday deal.
New York lawyer Martin Galvin, former publicity director of Noraid, an American-based organisation which once raised millions of dollars for the IRA and who rejected the agreement as a sell-out by Sinn Fein, said be believed Irish-Americans would continue to fund a campaign for a united Ireland.
But Mr King claimed: "I think the government here will first deny visas and will also deny the opportunity to fundraise."
The congressman told BBC2's Newsnight: "I don't see people being arrested in this country. We don't have internment and we do still have trial by jury.
"But I think you will see the justice department taking action if they see anyone who's raising money and attempting to send it overseas to disrupt the peace process."
Mr Galvin, a republican hardliner, said if people in the United States saw the agreement as a vehicle for more "cross-border repression and British rule reforming itself", then he thought Americans who always supported a united Ireland would continue to do so.
He told the programme: "They'll do that politically, they'll do that diplomatically, they'll do it financially. And in the past they've always done so by helping the families of political prisoners.
"We are going forward to look at the political situation in an educational effort to make Americans aware of what the Stormont deal does not do, what it is and what It is not and how it's more essential than ever that we put pressure for a real peace based on an end to British rule."
Meanwhile, the mother of one of the three Long Kesh escapers being held in US jails has pleaded with President Clinton to free the men.
Mrs Bridie Kirby, whose son Terry is in a Californian prison awaiting extradition to Northern Ireland alongside Kevin Barry Artt and Pol Brennan, said the US should make a positive contribution to the peace process.
Speaking to the Belfast-based Andersonstown News Mrs Kirby said;"The British government has released the soldier killers of Peter McBride, so there can be no reason now for keeping our sons behind bars when they have committed no crime in America."
THE US Justice Department is set to move against people raising money in the United States to oppose the Northern Ireland peace agreement, Congressman Peter King has claimed.
As President Bill Clinton made a return journey to Belfast, Mr King warned of the sort of action his administration could take against opponents of the Good Friday deal.
New York lawyer Martin Galvin, former publicity director of Noraid, an American-based organisation which once raised millions of dollars for the IRA and who rejected the agreement as a sell-out by Sinn Fein, said be believed Irish-Americans would continue to fund a campaign for a united Ireland.
But Mr King claimed: "I think the government here will first deny visas and will also deny the opportunity to fundraise."
The congressman told BBC2's Newsnight: "I don't see people being arrested in this country. We don't have internment and we do still have trial by jury.
"But I think you will see the justice department taking action if they see anyone who's raising money and attempting to send it overseas to disrupt the peace process."
Mr Galvin, a republican hardliner, said if people in the United States saw the agreement as a vehicle for more "cross-border repression and British rule reforming itself", then he thought Americans who always supported a united Ireland would continue to do so.
He told the programme: "They'll do that politically, they'll do that diplomatically, they'll do it financially. And in the past they've always done so by helping the families of political prisoners.
"We are going forward to look at the political situation in an educational effort to make Americans aware of what the Stormont deal does not do, what it is and what It is not and how it's more essential than ever that we put pressure for a real peace based on an end to British rule."
Meanwhile, the mother of one of the three Long Kesh escapers being held in US jails has pleaded with President Clinton to free the men.
Mrs Bridie Kirby, whose son Terry is in a Californian prison awaiting extradition to Northern Ireland alongside Kevin Barry Artt and Pol Brennan, said the US should make a positive contribution to the peace process.
Speaking to the Belfast-based Andersonstown News Mrs Kirby said;"The British government has released the soldier killers of Peter McBride, so there can be no reason now for keeping our sons behind bars when they have committed no crime in America."
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0214
Published Date: 03-Sep-98
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