• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 04 / 12 / 2011

---

Administration turns down visas for traditional Irish artists By Madeline O'Connor - 11/04/11. Obama bans Irish musicians from travelling to Cuba. The Obama Administration has refused to allow Irish American traditional musicians (and Irish musicians resident in the US) to take part in the Second Annual Celtic Festival in Cuba, April 15-26.

The festival is organized by Irishman Kilian Kennedy, who discovered during a holiday to the country that immigrants and descendants from Gaelic provinces of northern Spain sustained a lively Celtic tradition there.

Last year, he arranged for musicians from Ireland and Canada to come to Cuba for a week of performances, workshops and seisiuns based in Old Havana.  This year's festival is receiving support from Culture Ireland as well as Havana's Office of the Historian, Dr. Eusebeo Leal.

John McAuliff, who served in the 1980s as president of the Philadelphia Ceili Group and assistant editor of that city's monthly Irish Edition, applied for a license for traditional musicians from the US under the auspices of his 25 year old not-for-profit organization, the Fund for Reconciliation and Development of Dobbs Ferry, NY.
 
At first the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department refused him on the grounds that he had not given enough detail as stated in 2004 guidelines.

McAuliff provide the requested information, only to be told last Thursday, just a week before the Festival is due to start, that his application was "beyond the scope of what was authorized," citing again the 2004 guidelines.

McAulif has written to Adam Szubin, the director of OFAC challenging the use of guidelines, "issued at the direction of President Bush in 2004 that were intended to destroy purposeful travel as a concession to his political supporters in Florida "  He asked, "How can Bush Administration criteria be relevant to implementation of the policy of President Obama who wants to do just the opposite, foster purposeful travel?"

Festival organizer Kilian Kennedy reports that, "The main societies with Celtic music are from Galicia and Asturias in Northern Spain. In Havana, the two largest societies are the Agrupación Artística Gallega de La Habana and the Centro Asturiano de La Habana. Both of these societies have bands that play gaitas (bagpipes), drums, flutes and other Celtic instruments.

“They also have groups of dancers who wear traditional outfits when celebrating the music and dances of their ancestral Celtic homelands in Spain. These are not the only societies in Havana with Celtic origins - there are also the Monterroso y Antas de Ulla and the Rosalia de Castro Galician societies, all of whom performed at CeltFest Cuba 2010."

Source: www.theirishworld.com/article.asp?SubSection_Id=1&Article_Id=18532