How a US adviser ruffled Irish-America’s feathers

In a new book, Trina Vargo unveils the ‘shenanigans’ behind the US-Ireland relationship as both sides tried to get the peace process off the ground

Trina Vargo: the US foreign policy adviser helped lay the groundwork for Gerry Adams’s first visit to Capitol Hill and the White House

A quarter of a century ago Gerry Adams was banned from the United States. Not only that, but the mere prospect of him receiving a US visa was something the British government was vehemently opposed to, a view their diplomats in Washington made abundantly clear.

Risks had to be taken if a permanent peace was to be achieved, but few in Washington had either the influence or the stomach for a venture that ...