IRELAND WATCH : Acceptable Nowhere

When two senior senators, a few dozen House members, an ambassador and a National Security Council official ask that a U.S. visa be issued to a foreigner, it should come as no surprise that the visa is issued.

Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Fein, the political partner of the Irish Republican Army, does not enjoy personal support at that level. He got a visa for his visit last week simply because political progress in Northern Ireland requires a maximally open political debate.

That much granted, nothing that Adams said during his 48-hour visit was as important as what we hope he heard. And what he needed to hear was that there is no Irish American support for any IRA program to bomb the British out of Northern Ireland. On that question, Irish America stands with Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, who said after last year’s Shankill Road massacre, in which 10 died: “Those who perpetrate such actions have absolutely no mandate from the people, north or south, for their vicious campaigns. Excuses such as have been put forward are not acceptable.”

Unacceptable in Ireland means unacceptable in Irish America. No mandate there, no mandate here. If Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) did not make that point to Adams while he was here, they should make it to him the next time they are there. President Clinton’s decision to grant Adams a visa was a defensible move, but it was also a bitter moment in British-American relations and one can only hope it will prove to be worth what it has cost.