- Congressman Donald Payne.
Congressman Donald Payne, one of the nation's leading African American legislators who died this week from colon cancer aged 77, had an extensive record on issues of concern to Irish Americans.
The 12-term New Jersey representative died Tuesday.
"God rest the noble soul of Don Payne. He was a lovely man who hungered and thirsted for justice, in America, Africa, Ireland and throughout the world," said Fr. Sean McManus, president of the Washington. D.C.-based Irish National Caucus.
"Don had an amazing interest in Ireland. I used to tell him he had been to the North more often than I," said McManus.
In his recently published memoir, "My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland," McManus wrote of Payne, against the setting of a congressional hearing on the MacBride Principles in March, 1995: "Congressman Payne, the first speaker after Chairman Gilman's introduction, quickly set the scene: 'As an African American, I and eight other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are Congressional Friends of the Irish National Caucus can easily identify with the Catholic minority [in Northern Ireland]... The MacBride Principles were modeled after the Sullivan Principles.
'In the campaign for a free South Africa, we received a lot of help from Irish Americans. For example, Father Sean McManus, president of the Irish National Caucus, was the first white Catholic priest to go to jail overnight for protesting outside the South African Embassy.'"
Payne was recognized at one point in his congressional career as having the most pro-Irish American issues voting record on Capitol Hill.
Among the legislative measures he introduced was a bill to spur a ban on the use of plastic bullets by the British Army, and a bill to support an inquiry into the deaths of attorneys Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
Payne championed the cause of the Irish deportees, urging that they be permitted to remain in the U.S. A frequent visitor to Ireland, he accompanied former President Clinton on his historic trip to the North. He also traveled to South Africa to support the work of Irish volunteers building homes to replace shacks in the townships, this with his friend, Niall Mellon, founder of the charity, Niall Mellon Township Trust.
Payne joined in the monitoring of Orange Order parades on the Garvaghy Road. A supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, he delivered the Frank Cahill Memorial Lecture in Belfast and was a recipient of the Pat Finucane Award by the Irish American Unity Conference in recognition of his support for human rights.
