United States visa ban on Tim Pat Coogan removed after Senator Schumer steps in

The madness has ended but it leaves a nasty taste as to why and by whom Tim was denied a visa

America - Land of the free; home of the brave...... and employer of the INEPT!!!

Who/What was behind the refusals. This American Irish needs to know. I think it would be very revealing...that is...as is UN-usual for Ireland.....that the Irish are given the truth...................ML

Incongruously, Ireland hosted war criminal George W Bush.

I am most grateful to Irish Central,Irish Voice, Nial O' Dowd & Sen. Schumer for both publicizing this travesty and resolving it. Tom Ryan

HMMM... be interesting to know the reason for previous 2 responses from Dublin. Maybe someone with the same name on a ' no fly' list ? Glad it was resolved.

Resolved! Fixed! Now get to the bottom of this obstruction and report on the initial causes of such a rejection of TPC.

I would urge the State Department to find out who the person or persons were that denied Mr. Coogan his visa. To deny a visa to a historian of Mr. Coogan's stature without offering an explanation just doesn't smell right. It seems like a gratuitous insult to those of us who admire the kind of truthfulness that Mr. Coogan brings to the Irish historical record.

Maybe not: I read edmundburke's comment and decided to check it out: "This quotation was well-known in the nineteenth century, and was in fact used by a number of famous figures, including Frederick Douglass, James Buchanan, and William Henry Harrison. It is most often traced back, ultimately, to John Philpot Curran's statement, 'The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.' While the form in question, 'eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' is most often attributed to Wendell Phillips, this form is in fact far older. The earliest appearance in print that we have been able to locate is 1809, and it is clear that this source is quoting yet an earlier (unnamed) source. Several nineteenth-century sources claim that this was a quotation from Junius, an anonymous political writer who wrote a series of letters to the London Public Advertiser between 1769 and 1772, but we have not found this exact statement in his writings, either" (from the Jefferson Encyclopedia).

Though in general I consider Schumer a great grandstander,I applaud him for this. Maybe the public perception of Washington politicians will go up to 12%!

Throughout US history, several people have quoted and rephrased Jefferson's (not Lincoln's) words about eternal vigilance being the price of liberty. Perhaps Lincoln used these words also, but the idea originated, I believe, in Thomas Jefferson's writings. (It's one of my favorite quotations too.)

As a long time fan of Coogan's, I am pleased with this result. But I am SHOCKED by this Irish historians mistaken attribution of the famous aphorism "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" to Lincoln. IN FACT, the author of those words was the famous 18th century Irish barrister JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, who defended many Irish freedom fighters in the Four Courts before the 1798 Rising.

Coogan = O' Cugain in Irish

I am thrilled to learn of this as iit waw an outrage that he was denied in the first place. Thank you Senator Schumer for stepping up to the plateon this one.

I'm very glad for Tim Pat Coogan and for justice prevailing in the end. It is a shame it required the intervention of a powerful U.S. Senator to make it happen. Mr. Coogan should have been granted a visa as a routine matter. Shame on the US State Department and the US Embassy in Dublin!