Republican News · Thursday 14 November 2002

Adams in successful visit to US/Canada

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams met with President Bush's Special Advisor on Ireland, the Governor of New Jersey, the Mayor of New York City and the Canadian foreign minister last week during a hectic and extensive six-day trip to the USA and Canada.

Adams was greeted with handshakes, hugs, autograph and photo requests and cheers wherever he went.

Last Wednesday in Washington DC he met with President Bush's Special Advisor on Ireland, Ambassador Richard Haass, for what was a constructive one and half hour meeting.

In New York on Thursday, Adams met Mayor Mike Bloomberg and a range of US Congress members; including Peter King, Joe Crowley and John Sweeney, fresh from their successful re-election campaigns.

The Friends of Sinn Féin fundraiser in New York that night was a huge success with 1,000 people packing into the Sheraton Hotel. Adams took the opportunity to present retiring Republican Congressman for New York, Ben Gilman, with a commemorative plaque acknowledging his work for Irish justice and peace.

On Friday, Adams was guest of honour at a reception hosted by New Jersey Governor James McGreevey on a beautiful autumnal day at the governor's mansion in picturesque Drumthwacket. Over 600 people attended the reception, at which Adams was piped in by the New Jersey Port Authority pipe band.

"I will be back in Belfast more empowered, more uplifted because I have been to events like this," Adams told the crowd gathered on the back lawn of the governor's mansion.

"My role here is to give people some sense of their power, their role, their moral authority to reach into 10 Downing Street," Adams said.

Governor McGreevey, a grandson of a Sinn Féin member, is an unabashed supporter of a unified Ireland. He spent the day praising Adams, describing him as a man who will bring justice and peace to the Six Counties.

"It is critical for the Irish-American community and all Americans of goodwill to understand what is at stake," McGreevey said.

Govenor McGreevey said he hoped Adams' visit would serve to raise awareness in New Jersey of the Irish nationalist cause and the problems it has had with Trimble and the loyalists.

"Mr Adams has played a crucial role in both his leadership of Sinn Féin and in moving the Good Friday accord forward," McGreevey said. "Clearly, Sinn Féin and Mr. Adams are committed to the peace process."

He said Adams isn't only an advocate for Irish Catholics but the entire Irish community.

While in New Jersey, Gerry Adams also laid a white-flowered wreath adorned with green, white and orange ribbons at a stone cross honoring the 1981 IRA hunger strikers outside the Ancient Order of Hibernians Hall in Hamilton.

That evening, the first ever Friends of Sinn Féin event in the state was held in Hamilton. It was attended by several hundred enthusiastic Irish Americans.

On Saturday, Adams traveled to Toronto for a meeting with Canada's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bill Graham. The Sinn Féin President praised the positive contribution of eminent Canadian citizens to the peace process in Ireland, as well as updating the Minister on the crisis in the political process.

He concluded his tour with a visit to Montreal, sponsored by Friends of Sinn Féin Canada, set up last year to support the peace process and raise financial support for Sinn Féin. Adams received an enthusiastic reception from about 150 supporters who paid $75 to attend a wine-and-cheese party in his honour at a downtown hotel.

Reject unionist veto

Speaking at a press conference in Montreal on Monday at the end of his trip, Adams said:

"If the unionists wish to walk away from the political institutions that is a matter for them.

"But they cannot be permitted a veto over the rights and entitlements of citizens.

"The British government has acknowledged that it has not implemented the Good Friday Agreement. There are serious problems in the fields of human rights, equality and justice matters, as well as policing and other issues.

"Policing especially is a key issue and there exists in the immediate future an opportunity for the British to return to the objectives for policing set by the Good Friday Agreement. But both governments need to clearly understand that no amount of public hectoring will resolve this matter.

"They know what is required and must concentrate their efforts on achieving that. These are all issues for the two governments, but especially the British government. And they are not matters for negotiation or renegotiation.

"Too often since the Good Friday Agreement was achieved the British government has pandered to unionist demands, to unionist preconditions and obstacles.

"This approach has also suited some elements within the British system.

"This cannot be allowed to happen in the future. A veto over the political institutions cannot become a veto over peoples rights and entitlements."