St. Patrick’s Day in Washington

It is a tribute to the gall of Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army that their leadership remains convinced of their inalienable right to be received at the White House on every St. Patrick’s Day – no matter what atrocities they commit. But it would be especially grotesque if Gerry Adams and his camarilla were to gain access to President Bush this particular March 17. Such a mark of esteem would come just months after an IRA unit perpetrated the largest bank robbery in Irish history, removing some $50 million from the vaults of the Northern Bank in Belfast. In consequence, the Ulster peace process has been cast into gloom, and the reconstitution of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive has been indefinitely postponed.