WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mario Biaggi, D-N.Y., Saturday accused the State Department of 'discrimination and gross censorship against thousands of Irish-Americans' by denying a visa to Owen Carron, a member of England's Parliament from Northern Ireland.
The State Department declined comment on Biaggi's accusation.
Biaggi, chairman of the bi-partisan Ad Hoc Congressoinal Committee for Irish Affairs, said the State Department indicated to him its decision was influenced 'more by 'belief' that his visit would strain relations between the United States and the Republic of Ireland. There are no facts to sustain either of these contentions.'
Carron, from Northern Ireland, is a member of Parliament from Fermanagh-South Tyrone. He began as the political manager of IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands and organized Sands election to that seat from the Maze Prison.
When Sands died from self-imposed starvation and the British Parliament barred convicted felons from running for Parliament, Carron ran instead and won the seat. He refuses, however, to take the parliamentary seat.
Biaggi noted the department has given a visa to the Rev. Ian Paisley, who, said the congressman, 'regularly preaches violence and hatred against the Catholic minority in the North.'
He said he was told Carron's visa request was denied because he has a close relationship with Sinn Fein, the political wing of Irish Republican Army. Biaggi said the department also denied the visa 'partially on the belief that Carron was raising funds ... This is the height of selective morality.'
