Visitors to the Mansion House probably did not notice the gleaming brass plaque on a wall in the entrance foyer. It pays tribute to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma for its 1845 contribution to relieve Famine suffering. Dublin's Lord Mayor, Mr John Stafford of Fianna Fail, remarked on the plaque and the connection with Ireland at a Mansion House reception to welcome a group of Native Americans who will participate in a "Sacred Run" in the Republic.
The runners are from a number of tribes across North America, who have covered more than 58,000 miles since 1978, to carry a message around the world that "All Life is Sacred".
They will cover 930 miles in a clockwise direction, averaging 60 miles a day and passing a number of ancient sites from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, Iron and early Christian ages in Ireland.
They start tomorrow, running 55 miles through Co Kildare, ending in Carlow town and completing the three-week marathon in Slane on September 20th.
The group's leader, Mr Dennis Banks, said the runners will treat the entire three weeks they are in Ireland as a "ceremony". Mr Banks, a Chippewa who is also known as Nowa Cumig, said the run served as a reminder that "our land is very sacred to us and we should treat it as a relative."
Mr Banks also remarked on the good and the difficult relations between Native Americans and the Irish - the donations by the Choctaws towards Famine relief and the Irish who fought for the US military against native peoples in the Indian Wars. "I always wonder why the Irish fought for the US Cavalry," he said.
"The Sacred Run is a small effort to remind humanity that we have a relationship with each other and with this earth and we should honour this relationship," said Mr Banks. He accepted that some people would not take the group and the run seriously "but I am sure that many will see that we have a very serious message".
The group is backed by the Earth Wisdom Foundation, an Irish ecological and spiritual awareness group, and will be joined by athletes and musicians from Sweden, Poland, Russia and Japan. The group's own singers and drummers will wear full regalia for social events each evening, starting tonight in the Olympic Ballroom in Dublin with an international "cultural exchange" night. Each member of the group pays their own way but they have some sponsorship from US football team the Cincinnati Bengals and sports company Nike provides the shoes.
Some of the athletes are "ultra-marathoners" who run more than 50 miles, or two marathons, at a time. One of the athletes running for part of the trip is Ms Li Lindstrom, a member of the Same native people who live in northern Sweden, Finland and Norway. "I first got involved in 1990 when the group ran from London to Moscow, a journey of 7,000 kilometres," she said.
