Motion to boycott US trip voted down by councillors
US president Donald Trump: not entirely popular with county councillors
TENSIONS were high during a discussion about a notice of motion calling on Carlow county councillors to boycott any events associated with the Trump administration during their visit to the United States for St Patrick’s Day at the February council meeting.
The notice of motion was proposed by People Before Profit councillor Adrienne Wallace and she called on any Carlow councillors visiting the USA for St Patrick’s Day to ‘boycott any and all events that associate with the Trump administration following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Peretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis’.
“This is abhorrent and there is no Carlow councillor who can justify going over there and shaking the hands of anyone who does that,” said cllr Wallace. “I think it is very important that we do the right thing here.”
Cllr Fintan Phelan, who opposed the motion, condemned the murders of Alex Peretti and Renee Good and said anyone who witnessed the footage of their deaths would be in agreement; however, he did not think it was the time to close the door to dialogue.
“The reality is that the Trump administration is the government of the United States and I don’t think it’s a time to be disengaging or closing the door to dialogue,” he said.
He added: “I want the councillors going over there to be active; I want them to engage with US officials, engage with the chamber of commerce and the IDA and try to bring funding to Carlow and that’s vitally important, so for that reason I will be opposed to the motion.”
Mayor of Carlow cllr Paul Doogue, who will travel to the USA for St Patrick’s Day, said he agreed with everything cllr Wallace mentioned, except the final line of the motion about boycotting ‘any and all events’ associated with the Trump administration.
“Probably 99% of all events will have something to do with Trump or his own supporters,” he said.
“I won’t be going over to support anything that Trump is doing, but I will be doing my damnedest to speak about undocumented Irish in America and I don’t think sticking our head in the sand is going to do anyone a bit of good,” he added.
One of the councillors in favour of the motion, Independent Ireland cllr John Cassin, said the idea that all events on the itinerary of the delegation would be run by or associated with the Trump administration was “totally fabricated”.
“The notice of motion says ‘associated with the Trump administration’. The St Patrick’s Day parade is not administered by the Trump administration. The Carlow Association is not run by the Trump administration,” he said.
“It doesn’t say ‘don’t go to New York or attend the parade or the IDA meeting’. The IDA meeting is run by the IDA. The Carlow Association over there is run by Carlovians. So to muddy the water to say that all these events are going to be run by the Trump administration is totally fabricated,” he added.
Cllr Wallace added that President Trump had shown the world that he would not listen to anybody and the time for diplomacy had passed.
“The time for dialogue has passed and maybe sometimes diplomacy can work, but that time has come and gone now. This is about making a principled decision and standing on the right side of history,” she said.
Cathaoirleach cllr Ken Murnane asked cllr Wallace if she did not think dialogue was the way forward. “Has it worked up until this point?” replied cllr Wallace.
“Dialogue is not working for the farmers either,” quipped cllr Andy Gladney in reference to the Bord Bia and IFA dispute.
Cllr William Paton said he understood where cllr Wallace was coming from, but he questioned what the delegation would do if they showed up at St Patrick’s Cathedral and there was a large military presence there.
“Do you boycott that? You get to an event and a Republican senator or congressman is in attendance: do you boycott that or do we take the opportunity, like I’ve requested from the delegation that’s going, to bring up the undocumented Irish and remind the Trump administration, through any means you can, that up to 25% to 30% of the people who fought in the continental army to win freedom 250 years ago were Irish and remind them that there is a debt of gratitude owed to the Irish?” he said.
The motion went to a roll call vote and was subsequently defeated, with ten against and four in favour. Cllrs John Cassin, Jim Deane, Andy Gladney and Adrienne Wallace all voted in favour, while cllrs Paul Doogue, Michael Doran, Tommy Kinsella, Ken Murnane, Charlie Murphy, William Paton, John Pender, Daniel Pender, Fintan Phelan and Willie Quinn voted against the motion.
A number of councillors were not present in the chamber for the vote.
