Former US president Barack Obama to be conferred with Freedom of Dublin award on Thursday
Former US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle are to be conferred with the Freedom of Dublin award in an event on Thursday.
Speaking today at the launch of Dublin City Council’s new water sports centre, Dublin Lord Mayor Ray McAdam said Mr Obama’s team had accepted his invite for the award, which was originally bestowed on the couple eight years ago by Dublin councillors.
His office has indicated that he will accept my invitation
"His office has indicated that he will accept my invitation, and we are in the process of finalising all arrangements for that at the moment,” Mr McAdam said, adding that he would provide further details when he could.
It it understood the event will take place at the Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin city centre on Thursday – the day before Mr Obama’s much-publicised 3Arena chat with journalist Fintan O’Toole.
The Obamas were originally conferred with the Freedom of Dublin award – the capital’s highest honour – in 2017, in a contentious vote by councillors that passed by a margin of just 30 to 23 votes, with four abstentions.
In a letter sent in July, Mr McAdam invited the former US president and his wife to accept the Freedom of Dublin award, citing the “fond memories” Dubliners hold of their visit in 2011.
He said residents of the capital had “long admired your leadership, your commitment to public service and your shared belief in the power of community, equality and democracy”.
But the awarding of Dublin’s highest honour to the Obamas has been anything but controversy-free, with opposition politicians here rounding on Mr Obama’s foreign policy.
“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,” said Dublin People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy after news of the invitation emerged.
Obama is just as complicit in the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as his successors
“Obama is just 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.”
Mr McAdam said the conferring of the award was not a “blanket endorsement” of Mr Obama’s term of office, and that it was a “civic gesture”.
He acknowledged the “legitimate concerns” of some councillors, but saw the invitation as a “symbolic gesture” that recognised shared values such as “hope, equality and reconciliation”.