Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has expressed his regret after the U.S. Secret Service refused him entry to the White House's St Patrick's Day reception earlier this week.
Adams accused the Secret Service of "unacceptable and unprofessional" treatment as they stopped him for "security" reasons and was forced to wait 80 minutes before he left, BBC reports.
"I had received my usual invitation to attend the St Patrick's Day celebrations in the White House and was pleased to accept," said Adams after the incident. "When I arrived the staff at the White House informed me that there was an issue of 'security'."
"After two decades of travelling back and forth to the USA and countless meetings in the White House with successive US presidents, this is an unacceptable development," he said.
"It is obvious that there remain some within the US administration who seek to treat Sinn Féin differently."
Sinn Féin issued a statement confirming the incident and announcing that the party "will not sit at the back of the bus for anyone."
The party's deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald, and Sinn Féin's Northern Ireland deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, were both admitted into the event and the U.S. Secret Service said an administrative error was to blame for the hold-up.
"Unfortunately, an administrative input error received by the Secret Service was not able to be rectified promptly," a White House security statement explained.
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