The absence of a U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland is regrettable. But Irish America is, to a significant degree, filling the void.
This was made evident once again with the just completed visit by a delegation of members of the ancient Order of Hibernians and Ladies AOH to Ireland, North and South. The visitors, 43 of them, hailed from no fewer than fourteen states.
The visit was billed as a fact finding mission. There have been other such missions in the past. But if we have learned anything from the aftermath of the years of violence there are always more facts to be uncovered, more stones to be turned.
A major part of the latest delegation's task was to cast light once again on a particularly appalling murder, that of the GAA's Sean Brown.
Sean Brown was abducted and murdered as he locked up the Bellaghy Wolfe Tone Gaelic Athletic Club on May 12, 1997. No one has ever been convicted of this sectarian assassination, in which, it has been alleged, multiple British agents played a part.
The Hibernians have pledged to stand with the Brown family, and many other families, until justice - at least a degree of it - has been achieved.
This, to say the least, is a vitally important role for the Hibernians who, by virtue of history and action, can pretty much speak for all of Irish America across a specific range of issues.
In Bellaghy, the visiting Hibernians met members of the Brown family and inspected sites where the GAA official was abducted and murdered.
British Secretary of State Hilary Benn is appealing the Brown case to the London Supreme Court, this after the Belfast High Court and Court of Appeals upheld the Coroner’s actions in acknowledging that intelligence reports linked multiple British agents in the murder. This finding prompted the ordering of a Public Inquiry.
Victims’ relatives in Ireland are deeply concerned that Benn’s approach will end their hopes for truth and force them to seek justice in the European Court.
Clearly, a public inquiry would be the preferred next step and pressure has to be applied to the British government in this regard.
Such pressure can come from Irish American organizations such as the Hibernians, and also interested and sympathetic members of Congress - from both parties.
Down the road then there will be more fact finding missions because, as time passes, the darkness hanging over so many acts of violence will continue to linger should the British government remain unwilling to cast light.
Casting of light is a vital mission for Irish America. And it continues.
