Alliance has supported the announcement in the US that Sinn Fein is barred from fundraising activities during their present visit for St Patrick’s Day.
Allan Leonard, candidate for Belfast City Council and an American by birth, says that this clearly demonstrates the American impatience with Sinn Fein’s lack of progress towards solely democratic politics:
“The Bush Administration has called time on Sinn Fein. It rightly sees the absurdity of allowing Sinn Fein to raise funds while the IRA is implicated in the theft of £26 million from the Northern Bank.
“Furthermore, the snub by US Senator Ted Kennedy, a longstanding left-wing Democrat, shows the cross-party withdrawal of support for Sinn Fein’s practices.
“Sinn Fein say that Senator Kennedy was ‘poorly advised’, but the truth is that it is Sinn Fein who are themselves alone, in thinking they can continue an untenable link to paramilitarism and criminality.”