[caption id="attachment_69684" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Grant Lally."]
Sensing an administration that lately looks wrong footed on Northern Ireland, the Irish American Republicans lobby group has fired off a missive aimed at U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and indeed the broader Obama administration.
In a statement, the group called for the "Obama/Holder subpoena" to be quashed in the Irish Archives - Boston College case.
"We condemn, in the strongest terms, the actions of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder in trying to take private property and invade the private research archives of an American University, and then turn them over to a foreign intelligence service," said Irish American Republican co-chair, Grant Lally.
"The actions of the Obama administration are an utter disgrace, and a betrayal of the United States Bill of Rights and American national sovereignty," Lally said.
The IAR statement said that The Obama administration, by way of Attorney General Holder, had issued subpoenas to Boston College, directing the university to turn over its extensive research archives on the Irish Troubles to the intelligence services of the United Kingdom, "a foreign nation."
The Obama administration, the statement said, had chosen to act pursuant to a Mutual Legal assistance Treaty between the U.S. and UK.
"The Boston College Research Archives contain many personal interviews with participants in the Irish Troubles, and were obtained by Boston College under agreement that the archives were to be sealed until the death of the testators. The matter is before the United States District Court in Boston, subject to appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals, 1st Circuit."
The IAR left no doubt as to its position in relation to the case.
"The research archives of an American University are sacred, not to be delivered to foreign despots, by the government of the United States," said Irish American Republicans co-chair Jeffrey Cleary.
"Nothing could have a more chilling effect upon America's First Amendment rights to free speech, right to petition and due process, and the western tradition of academic freedom, then this cowardly stunt by the Obama administration to deliver a private American research archive to a foreign power," Cleary said.
"The Irish American Republicans call upon the United States Court of Appeals, 1st Circuit, to uphold America's constitutional rights, and reject the subpoena to Boston College," added IAR national president, Kevin Hanratty.
