Former US president Barack Obama is set to receive the freedom of the city of Dublin on Thursday.
Mr Obama is visiting the capital this week for a sold-out event at the 3Arena, An Evening with President Barack Obama, In Conversation with Fintan O’Toole on Friday evening.
Details of the ceremony have remained private. It is understood Mr Obama will be conferred with the award in the Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen’s Green, where Lord Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam was seen entering on Thursday afternoon.
A crowd formed outside the hotel on hearing speculation of the former US president’s arrival, however he was not seen entering or leaving the building.
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Mr McAdam said earlier it was his “firm expectation” Mr Obama would be awarded the city’s highest honour. He said an invitation was extended to the former US president last July, which was recently accepted.
The move has been met with opposition. The Independent Group on Dublin City Council is calling for a boycott, citing Mr Obama’s support for Israel, and his foreign policy interventions in Libya, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere.
“We call on the Lord Mayor to rescind his offer and, failing that, we ask all invitees to boycott the event,” the group said in a statement on Thursday.
The group comprises Independent councillors Cieran Perry, Nial Ring, John Lyons, Mannix Flynn, Pat Dunne and Kevin Breen.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Flynn said “a lot of councillors are uncomfortable with” Mr Obama receiving the award. He believes the event would be held in public, rather than a private ceremony at the Mansion House, if there was more public support.
Mr Flynn said he doesn’t understand how anyone who is “opposed to the war in Gaza and the genocide in Gaza” could support Mr Obama being given the award.
“The Freedom of the City is something that now is meaningless, absolutely meaningless,” he said.
The councillor said the last time it had any “relevancy” was when Bob Geldof returned his award eight years ago because the honour was bestowed upon Aung San Suu Kyi in 1999. In 2017, Bob Geldof called Myanmar’s then-leader “a handmaiden to genocide” in protest over her response to the persecution and killing of Rohingya Muslims. A month later, Dublin city councillors voted to revoke her award.
Mr Flynn said the council should consider giving Mr Geldof his award back, rather than giving one to Mr Obama.
In 2017, a proposal to award the freedom of the capital to Mr Obama and his wife Michelle faced some similar opposition before being approved by 30 to 23 votes.
It had been proposed by then lord mayor Brendan Carr, who cited the Democrat’s Irish roots and support for peace in Northern Ireland, shortly after he was succeeded by Donald Trump.
The then Labour councillor said while he did not wish to “canonise the Obamas” or declare his presidency “a success”, Mr Obama was a “stabilising and moderating” influence on US foreign policy.
“A similar era, unfortunately, will not be experienced again for some time,” Mr Carr said.
People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy said over recent weeks that the invitation should be rescinded over the former Democratic president’s support of Israel and military expansion in the Middle East whilst in office.
