US attorney general Janet Reno blocked Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams from fundraising months after the IRA’s ceasefire in August 1994 because the IRA was then still trying to source new weapons, State papers reveal.
Ms Reno’s opposition to US president Bill Clinton’s decision to grant visas to Mr Adams and the former IRA chief of staff, Joe Cahill, in January 1994 has long since been publicly known, but her later opposition is revealed in this year’s State papers.
The president refused to heed her guidance and granted a three-month visa to Mr Adams with permission to raise funds for Sinn Féin, which provoked fury from British prime minister John Major.
In a February 1995 letter to Mr Clinton’s national security adviser, Tony Lake, Ms Reno was clearly irritated “by the latest effort” to modify restrictions placed that year, which stopped Mr Adams raising money from Irish-American donors.
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She said she had looked at the matter “barely six weeks” earlier in January and had then decided that the fundraising restriction should stay because conditions had not changed sufficiently.
“No evidence has been brought to my attention [since] that suggests progress has been made towards the disarmament and demobilisation of the IRA,” the attorney general told the national security adviser.
“In addition, I am aware of evidence that suggests that [the IRA] has continued to identify potential sources for arms procurement and to make inquiries concerning availability and terms of purchase,” she declared.
In a clear rebuke to Mr Lake, the attorney general, annoyed by the pressure that she was facing on the matter, went on: “I believe that these collective efforts could be undermined by removing the Adams visa restriction at this time.”
Nevertheless, the Sinn Féin leader applied for a visa, including fundraising permission, on February 22nd. Refusing his attorney general’s advice for the second year in a row, Mr Clinton granted the visa permission because of the progress made.
However, Mr Clinton’s visa decision and a subsequent decision to invite Mr Adams to the White House for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in 1995 infuriated London, the national security adviser later told the Irish ambassador, Seán Ó hUiginn.
In a note later to Dublin after spending an evening with him at a Chieftains concert, Mr Ó hUiginn said Mr Lake expressed “strong surprise” at “the over-the-top British reaction”, including Mr Major refusing to take a call from Mr Clinton.
Meeting in February with Ulster unionists in Washington after the publication of the Anglo-Irish Framework Document agreed by Mr Major and taoiseach John Bruton, Mr Lake was warned “that crowds might take to the street” in Northern Ireland.
Interestingly, the Americans reported to Irish officials that the unionist delegations “had a lot of negative things to say about the British government”, but the Irish government “was not the subject of any particular strong comment, or criticism”.
