Bush snubs Adams for 'IRA victim's' family

Plea ... Mr Bush meets Mr McCartney's fiancee Bridgeen Hagans, second from left, and his sisters Paula, left, and Catherine / AFP

Bush snubs Adams for 'IRA victim's' family
By Stephanie Griffith in Washington
March 18, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse

News.com.au
Plea ... Mr Bush meets Mr McCartney's fiancee Bridgeen Hagans, second from left, and his sisters Paula, left, and Catherine / AFP

US President George W. Bush promised to help the sisters of slain Irish man Robert McCartney while encouraging moves to get the Northern Ireland peace process back on track, officials said today.
Mr Bush met the five sisters and fiancee of Robert McCartney after snubbing Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, who has been a traditional St Patrick's Day visitor to the White House.
The McCartney family has been at the centre of intense attention in the US since arriving this week to press their campaign to bring their brother's killers to justice.
Members of the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary ally of Sinn Fein, have been blamed over the January 30 killing.
"The president thanked the McCartney family for their courage," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"He knows that their courage comes from their love. And the president let them know that he shared in their grieving over the loss of their loved one. And he expressed to them that justice will prevail."
The sisters thanked the president for the meeting and said the US leader had promised help to bring the killers to justice.
"He was simply letting them know that we will do whatever we can to assist," Mr McClellan said, while adding he did not know what assistance had been requested.
The spokesman said Washington wanted to see all Northern Ireland parties "get back on the path to a comprehensive peace agreement. The violence and the criminal acts that continue remain an obstacle to a lasting and durable peace."
When asked what the US attitude now is to the IRA, Mr McClellan said: "There is no place for the violence and the thuggery and the criminality. The president made that clear again today."
He said the US sided with the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, in their efforts to rejuvenate the peace process.
In addition to their reception at the White House, the sisters - Catherine, Paula, Gemma, Claire and Donna - and McCartney's fiancee, Bridgeen Hagans, have met US lawmakers and the new US envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss. Mr Reiss has called for the IRA to be disbanded.
Before receiving the women at the White House, Mr Bush met Mr Ahern and expressed gratitude for his "tireless work in the struggle against terrorism on Saint Patrick's Island."
The president also accepted Ireland's annual gift of a crystal bowl of shamrocks.
While the McCartney family has been feted in Washington, the Sinn Fein head has been given the cold shoulder by the White House and leading US campaigners on Ireland, such as Senator Ted Kennedy.
The IRA and Sinn Fein have faced widespread condemnation after the McCartney slaying and a $US50 million bank robbery which the British and Irish governments have said was carried out by the IRA.
Today marked the first Saint Patrick's Day Mr Adams and other Northern Ireland leaders have not been invited to the White House since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, aiming to pave the way for a joint Catholic-Protestant government in Northern Ireland after almost three decades of strife.
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