Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness is to address a Boston Irish club, which excludes women, on St Patrick's Day, writes Patrick Smyth, in Washington.
The North's Education Minister will speak for his party to several hundred guests at the Clover Club's traditional St Patrick's dinner in the Park Plaza Hotel, a spokeswoman for Sinn Fein confirmed.
The Clover Club is a decades-old Irish-American society. It will not be paying Mr McGuinness a fee but will reimburse his travel expenses.
