BARACK OBAMA WILL be conferred with the Freedom of the City this Thursday, eight years after it was first extended to him and Michelle Obama in 2017.

Dublin Lord Mayor Ray McAdam told The Journal that the former US president is expected to take up the award this week, with arrangements ongoing for the exact location.

“I fully anticipate that we will proceed on Thursday,” he told The Journal.

McAdam said Michelle Obama will not be visiting Ireland this week but that Dublin City Council hope to confer her award the next time an opportunity arises to do so in person.

Obama is in Ireland this week for his 3Arena interview on Friday with Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole. Resale tickets are currently selling for up to €441.

The Freedom of the City is the highest and most prestigious award Dublin City can bestow – but there are mixed views on whether Obama should be awarded it due to measures he took as president, including the authorisation of drone strikes and large scale deportations.

‘Contested legacies’

McAdam said it is not up to him to decide whether conferring Obama with the award is the correct decision.

“The fact is this is a decision that was taken by the elected members in 2017. As Lord Mayor, it’s my job to ensure the wishes of the elected members are complied with,” he said.

He acknowledged that “contested legacies” can come with presidencies, but said he believes the former president’s civic values of “hope and inclusion” resonate with the people of Dublin.

“It’s right to acknowledge that any presidencies’ come with difficult decisions and contested legacies”.

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.

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 this week’s visit to Ireland.

The decision proved divisive amongst Dublin councillors – People Before Profit Councillor Hazel De Nortúin previously said that if the award is not rescinded, she would bring an emergency motion against it.

People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy 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.”

Speaking at a press conference today, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said that although there are “questions” in terms of foreign policy, Obama’s administration were “very supportive” of the peace process in Ireland.

“Ultimately this is a decision for Dublin City Council to make,” he added.

Obama’s 2011 visit

Obama’s visit this week 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.