The Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias de Rossa, has accused the US authorities of action "verging on international piracy" following its confiscation of funds raised for Cuba in Ireland, including contributions from TDs.
An estimated £1,500 was raised over recent weeks in Ireland by the Irish Friends of the US Pastors for Peace group to assist with a shipment of food and medical aid to Cuba later this month.
It emerged yesterday that the money, sent from an Ulster Bank account at Dublin Airport to the pastors account at the Fleet National Bank in New York, had been impounded by the US authorities.
The contributors are believed to have included Mr De Rossa, Ms Liz McManus, and the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruairi Quinn.
They were responding to an appeal from members of the group, including Father Austin Flannery, the Rev Terence McCaughey, Dean Victor Griffin, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, Father Sean Healy, Sister Brigid Reynolds, Father Brendan Forde, Father Peter McVerry and Father Michael O'Sullivan. They had appealed for help with aid and with the sponsorship of two people to accompany the US Pastors for Peace eighth Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba, which is due to arrive on July 23rd. The pastors group is made up of clergy representing all the main Christian churches in the US.
Its first "friendshipment" to Cuba was in November 1992. Since then, it has sent thousands of tonnes of aid there, where it is distributed by an ecumenical group to churches, hospitals, and grass-roots organisations.
Apart from the practical help involved, the "friendshipments" are part of a campaign by the pastors group to "directly challenge the immoral embargo of Cuba [by the USA]".
In a letter seeking support for the caravan, the Irish Friends group, as well as seeking funds, also sought support for Irish participation in the caravan "as an act of non-violent civil disobedience [which] will send a strong message to the US government that it is time to stop using food and medicine as weapons of war against Cuba".
The two Irish people who plan to join the caravan when it arrives in Mexico from the US on July 20th are the former general secretary of the Irish Communist Party, Mr Michael O'Riordan (80), and Ms Bernie Dwyer of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign - Ireland.
A letter seeking support was signed by Father Flannery and the Rev McCaughey. They asked those willing to help to contribute to current account number 82759043 at the Ulster Bank at Dublin Airport.
In his statement yesterday, Mr De Rossa called for "the strongest possible reaction from the Minister for Foreign Affairs" to the "seizure of Irish funds sent to the United States for onward transmission to Cuba for humanitarian purposes".
"It is bad enough that the US authorities should inflict considerable hardship and suffering on the people of Cuba by the imposition of a strict embargo for a period of almost 40 years, but it is totally intolerable that they should also seize the money of others who want to alleviate that hardship."
