In October 1951 John McAteer, who had been selected by the Irish Trade Union Congress (ITUC) as a member of a team that was to visit the United States under the auspices of Ireland’s Marshall Aid Technical Assistance (TA) programme, had his application for an entry visa rejected. This paper examines this episode of Ireland’s Marshall Plan participation experience drawing upon files in the Irish National Archives. It begins by tracing the difficulties the 1945 split between rival Irish trade union congresses created for efforts to foster joint employer-trade union action within Ireland’s Marshall Aid TA programme. It then turns to the manner in which one of the union congresses, the ITUC, selected the members of its team to visit the USA and the issues raised by the selection for part of its own support base as well as for agencies of the Irish and US governments involved in Marshall Aid administration. Once McAteer had been refused a visa the ITUC decided to combine protest at his exclusion with continued participation in the TA project despite internal demands that it withdraw entirely. Briefing of the press by ITUC officers may have been responsible for press coverage that suggested that the Stormont government was to blame for the US attitude towards McAteer. No evidence to support such a contention has been found in the Irish National Archives files examined.