Mr. Speaker. as chairman of the bipartisan 114member Ad Hoc Congressional Committee for Irish Affairs. I have had a longstanding and deep concern about the Department of States visa policies with respect to political figures from Northern Ireland seeking to enter and visit in the United States. It has been a policy of selectivity which has served to exclude certain segments of political thought entirely while permitting others carte blanche privileges to come and go in our Nation. In the past several weeks. the State Department approved the visa application of Rev. Ian Paisley. a militant leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. Reverend Paisley was allowed to come to the United States to participate in a special religious conference at the Bob Jones University in South Carolina. This is one of a host of visas granted to Reverend Paisley by the Department of State. Meanwhile. just 3 weeks earlier. the Department of State denied the visa application of Hon. Gerry Adams. an elected member of the British Parliament. who was invited to address the National Convention of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Buffalo. This organization is the Nations oldest and largest Irish American group and was celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.
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