Even Kennedy, a tireless broker for peace in Northern Ireland, refused to meet with Adams on this trip to the United States. "We certainly hope that the leadership of Sinn Fein understands what an albatross the IRA is on them and for the cause of peace in Ireland," Kennedy said after meeting with the sisters yesterday.
So the American Ireland Fund dinner, which for years had been dominated by the painful crawl toward peace between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, last night became a referendum on the future of the IRA and the internecine battle for power and justice.
The five McCartneys -- Donna, Paula, Gemma, Claire and Catherine -- with their slain brother's fiancee, Bridgeen Hagans, second from right, at last night's gala dinner.
(Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
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Adams, like the McCartney sisters, was surrounded by reporters and cameras as soon as he entered the building. He forcefully defended his party from involvement in the murder, and said the McCartney family deserved satisfaction in a court of law. The case comes at a time of relative peace and involves "some rogue Republicans," Adams said, and so has "quite rightly" received enormous media coverage. "All I can tell you is that the McCartney family deserves support and deserves to have the issue resolved," he said.
This dinner, said fund president Kingsley Aikins, has become an "interesting barometer" of Irish American relations. "America's giving a hugely strong signal that this won't go on, can't be tolerated. . . . There's no room in 2005 for democratic parties to have military wings. There's no room for criminality. There's no room for gangsters. Every decent person in Ireland, Britain and America wants to see an end."
In his speech, McCain said, "Historians may look back at this time as a defining moment." The courage of the McCartney sisters could ignite courage on the grass-roots level of politics. Like many others, he called for the IRA to disarm and disband, but his characterization of the former freedom fighters as an organized crime syndicate went a step further.
"It had to be said," McCain explained after dinner. He met with the sisters yesterday afternoon on the Hill. "They're the motivation for this speech."
McCain, who is Scots-Irish, was presented with the group's Distinguished Leadership Award for his efforts on behalf of the peace process. Lobbyist and American Ireland Fund board member Paul Quinn received the Peace and Culture Award for almost two decades of work on behalf of the nonpartisan organization. The evening raised $850,000 for educational programs that promote peacekeeping.
"I'm getting old," Ahern told the crowd. "I'm getting gray. I'm getting tired, I'm getting frustrated." Seven years ago, he promised the Irish, North and South, to complete the peace process. "I do hope you keep the pressure on us to do that. I don't want to come back here as an old man to say I didn't succeed in doing this. I really think we should go from this Saint Patrick's Day and promise -- promise faithfully -- that we will deliver. That we will get on with it. That we will do it. And those that get in the way can take themselves somewhere else."
