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20th Mar 2016

Details have emerged about why Gerry Adams was refused entry to the White House

Paul Moore

An eventful week for the Sinn Féin leader.

This years St Patrick’s Day celebrations have been eventful for Gerry Adams after the Louth TD was refused entry to an official event in the White House. Adams was denied entry and forced to hang around for 90 minutes, before eventually giving up when it became clear that there would be no immediate resolution.

As we mentioned earlier, Adams released a statement and said that “It is obvious that there remain some within the US administration who seek to treat Sinn Fein differently. Some of our political representatives have been denied access to the USA while others, including myself, have to regularly go through additional searches and scrutiny when we travel to and from the USA”.

The Louth TD even tweeted his official invitation for the event but the Sunday Independent have reported that the initial refusal to let Adams in was linked to an IRA report on criminality that was sanctioned by the British Government in the aftermath of the Kevin McGuigan murder.

A report in the Sunday Independent has stated that Adams’s difficulty in securing access to the White House was directly linked to last October’s report which stated that the Provisional IRA still exists and is actively involved in organised crime.

While any perceived security concerns were previously swept aside in recent years, the murders of Gerard Davison and Kevin McGuigan, along with the PSNI and British Government’s belief that the Provisional IRA is still active, are believed to be the main areas of contention.

An “administrative input error” was the official reason given by the US Secret Service for their refusal to let Adams attend the event.

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