The National Concert Hall (NCH) found a planned Israeli ambulance charity event presented security issues akin to a “high-risk public order event” when deciding for a second time to cancel a booking made by Alan Shatter, the former Fine Gael minister.
Shatter is chairman of the Irish branch of Magen David Adom (MDA), which runs ambulance services in Israel and is recognised by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The NCH accepted, revoked and reinstated the booking for an MDA fundraising event planned for May 11th before finally scrapping it in April.
The move prompted Shatter to accuse the NCH of “anti-Semitic censorship”, but the venue said it had not been told the event would feature a play about the surprise Hamas attack on Israel of October 7th, 2023.
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The attack, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed, prompted Israel’s war on Gaza, which has claimed more than 72,000 lives in the Palestinian territory.
“The scale of security required is exceptional and more consistent with a high-risk public order event than a private booking in a cultural institution,” said an NCH paper partially released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The note went on to cite reputational, operational, legal and stakeholder-related risks, but large extracts were redacted on commercial sensitivity grounds.
The files include Shatter’s engagements with the NCH since November, leading to a February agreement to host an MDA event in May.
However, the NCH revoked that decision on grounds of political neutrality. In correspondence with Shatter, an NCH official said the MDA was “also the national emergency medical service organisation in Israel”.
The NCH soon changed its stance, reinstating the original booking, but the row with Shatter was reported by The Irish Times on Monday, March 30th. In a message early that morning to NCH officials, chief executive Nigel Flegg cast the report as an “unfortunate article”.
At 8:03am on the Tuesday, he told officials: “We are currently being hit by a barrage of the same wording in protest of the event.” Flegg briefed an impromptu NCH board meeting that day “on the public reaction and staff experiences” in the wake of the newspaper report’s publication, and expressed concern about security and other risks.
The NCH and Shatter met on April 7th. An internal note said the NCH was told only then that the planned MDA event would involve the Unreported Story Society (USS), the group behind the October 7th play.
“This play has attracted controversy and necessitated a police presence when staged in the US,” the note said.
“NCH is concerned that the involvement of USS brings a politically engaged theatre company into the project, who will publicise the event in advance, during and after their performance at NCH, causing reputational and security issues.”
