DUBLIN COUNCILLORS ARE at loggerheads over whether the Obamas should finally be given the Freedom of the City of Dublin when they visit Ireland in September.

The Freedom of the City is the highest and most prestigious award Dublin City can bestow and councillors are split over whether former US President Barack Obama should be admitted to the ranks of recipients.

Dublin Lord Mayor Ray McAdam has invited the Obamas to take up the award, which was first controversially extended to them in 2017.

People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy has asked the Lord Mayor to rescind his invitation due, in part, to Obama’s support of Israel.

Reddy said: “Obama is as complicit in the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as his successors – Biden and Trump. For this reason alone, he should receive no welcome in Ireland.”

Another councillor has said the award has become so lacking in meaning that “you could pick it up in Penneys”.

Keys to the city

Dublin City councillors decided in 2017 to confer Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with the honour following a close vote.

Councillors voted 30 to 23, with four abstentions, in favour of granting the award.

Opponents at the time argued that measures Obama had taken as president, such as the authorisation of drone strikes, large scale deportations and the support of his cabinet to overthrow the Honduran government, disqualified him from being considered for the award.

In a letter to the Obamas, sent 17 July, McAdam, a Fine Gael councillor, urged the Obamas to accept the award at the Mansion House during their visit to Ireland for Obama’s interview in the 3Arena with journalist Fintan O’Toole. 

“The people of Dublin have long admired your leadership, your commitment to public service and your shared belief in the power of community, equality and democracy,” he wrote in the letter.

“It would be a great honour to formally welcome you both as Freeman and Freewoman of our city.”

The Lord Mayor fondly remembered Obama’s last visit to Ireland in 2011. 

“As you return to Dublin, I know that many here continue to hold fond memories of your visit in the spring of 2011,” he said.

The former US President was met by a crowd of 5,000 people when he visited Moneygall, where his ancestors come from, in 2011. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Former Lord Mayor Emma Blain, also a Fine Gael councillor, told The Journal that if she still held the position, she would make the same decision as the current Lord Mayor.

“I fully agree with him extending the invitation. I think it’s a great opportunity. It’s a pity they haven’t been able to take it up until now,” she said.

Blain said the Obamas deserve the award despite the criticism levelled against Obama’s presidential decisions.

“Irish people and Dubliners have a great affection for the Obamas, and I hope they do take up the opportunity,” she said.

Opposition

Fellow councillor Conor Reddy told The Journal that People Before Profit is “vehemently opposed” to giving the Obamas the award.

In a statement released yesterday, he said he has written to the Lord Mayor requesting an urgent re-examination of the decision.

Reddy said the decision should be reviewed due to shifts in global affairs since 2017 and the fact that there have been two local elections since the Council originally decided to bestow the honour on the Obamas.

“In the eight years since Barack Obama was first granted this symbolic honour, the world has become a far more dangerous place and all of these changes can be traced back to foreign policy decisions made by the Obama administration,” he said.

“Tensions with China have escalated, it was Obama who first proposed the US military’s strategic pivot to Asia.”

He said: “Israel’s current genocide in Gaza and their wars on Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen were all made possible by Obama’s decision to double down on support for the Zionist state.”

He highlighted a $38 billion military aid package given to Israel by the US during Obama’s presidency in 2016. He also noted Obama’s involvement in US drone warfare and support of the 2009 coup in Honduras.

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel De Nortúin said that if the award is not rescinded, herself and Reddy will bring an emergency motion against it.

She said: “We have requested that the Lord Mayor reverses his decision to invite the Obamas to the Mansion House. If the Lord Mayor decides to proceed, Councillor Reddy and I will bring an emergency motion to the first full meeting of the City Council at the start of September, calling for the revocation of Obama’s Freedom of the City.”

Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn told The Journal that he thinks giving the keys to the city to the Obama’s is a “misuse of the award” and a “really, really stupid move”. 

He said the people of Dublin do not want a “warmonger” to be handed an award, particularly given the involvement of America in Gaza and EU tariffs.

He said the award has become so lacking in meaning “you could pick it up in Penneys”.

“These gestures are so hollow, the whole award is meaningless and represents political favouritism,” he said.

Obama’s 2011 visit

Obama’s September visit will be his first trip to Ireland since 2011 when he gave a speech at Dublin’s College Green and travelled to Moneygall in Co Offaly.

In his only public address during this brief state visit to Ireland, Obama spoke of the important “friendship and shared values” that bind the US and Ireland together.

Obama was greeted by over 5,000 people when he visited Moneygall in Co Offaly, his Irish ancestral home.

A motorway service area in Moneygall was named the Barack Obama Plaza in his honour in 2014.