asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if in view of the fact that the main source of IRA funds continues to be the USA he will consider a new and stronger publicity campaign to counter the activities of fund-raising groups in that country and to explain more fully to the US public the true position in Northern Ireland and the aims and objectives of the constitutional nationalist parties on this island.
Written Answers. - Noraid Fund Raising.
477.
The Government have made great efforts, through all available means, to counter the activities of Noraid and other American groups which seek to raise funds in support of terrorism in Ireland. These efforts are an integral part of our campaign to reach out to Irish Americans and explain to them the realities of the Northern Ireland problem and the efforts which are being made by constitutional nationalists towards achieving a solution. The visit of the Taoiseach to the US for St. Patrick's Day and President Reagan's visit here in June focused tremendous interest in the US on these issues. Both leaders availed of the visits to explicitly condemn those Americans who provide moral or financial support for violence in Ireland.
Last month in New York I met Irish American leaders to tell them what our Government are doing to achieve a solution in Northern Ireland and to protect the interests and well-being of the nationalist community there. I also told them that the activities of Noraid have done nothing but promote the campaign of violence and open wounds in a horribly tense and fragile situation. I expressed to them my wish that the adverse impression of Irish-Americans that has been created among some people in Ireland by small unrepresentative groups like Noraid should be actively countered by the vast majority of Irish Americans who I know are opposed to the IRA campaign of murder, destruction and hatred in our country.
It is indeed important to remember that only a tiny minority of the 40 million Irish-Americans are in any way supportive of violence in Ireland or of IRA front organisations like Noraid. This is a point I emphasised in an article condemning Noraid which I wrote in August for a US nationwide daily, USA Today. I used that article to explain to a wide audience in the US why the Irish Government condemned the Noraid visit to Ireland earlier that month. In addition in an interview I gave to the Irish Echo, a leading Irish-American newspaper, last month concerning Noraid and similar groups I stated that “no single factor has more impeded the unity and reconciliation of the Irish people than the murderous sectarian campaign of the Provisional IRA”.
Both the Taoiseach and I have given interviews in recent weeks to major US television networks to press home the message that no American should contribute to subversive front organisations, such as Noraid. These direct appeals to the Irish-American community and to the American public in general have a significant impact and help to isolate the small number who fund violence.
Noraid and other US groups continue to be one of a number of important sources of funds for the Provisional IRA. The Government is committed to ensuring that its views regarding a peaceful solution are fully understood by Irish-Americans who at the same time have been left in no doubt about our total condemnation of Noraid and any other groups which support terrorist violence in this country. The success of our efforts to date has been clearly demonstrated in the overwhelming condemnation by the American media of the IRA and its support groups in the US following the seizure of the Marita Ann and the outrage at Brighton. These most recent murderous activities by subversives serve to reinforce the determination of the Government to expose the true nature of those sympathiser groups in the US to which the Deputy has referred.