February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The dinner, being staged tonight at a top Manhattan restaurant, is being organized by a group calling itself the Friends of Great Britain & Northern Ireland.
The controversy is less centered on the dinner itself than on the name of the man who signed the invitations, on part of the text of a covering letter sent out with them, and on the links between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Orange Order.
The covering letter, on a page headed by a depiction of the Union Jack above “Friends of Great Britain & Northern Ireland,” is signed by Ronald Lauder, former New York City mayoral candidate and one of the top executives in the Estee Lauder cosmetics company.
The letter includes biographical details on Trimble, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and highlights the UUP leader’s role in the Northern Ireland peace process.
The letter says that the aim of the UUP is to build a peaceful society where the conditions are right for commercial and economic development.
“This dinner will be the first such occasion in the United States for the Ulster Unionist Party which represents a large segment of the Ulster community, and is supported by a large section of the protestant and catholic populations,” it states.
It is the reference to Catholic support for the UUP that is in large part responsible for a flurry of protests from Irish-American activists and organizations, including the Brehon Law Society and the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
In a letter to Lauder, the Brehon Law Society said that it was “puzzled” by his involvement in the $1,000-a-plate dinner at Cipriani in midtown.
“As a former Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, I am certain that you are attuned to, and opposed to, political organizations that tolerate or promote religious intolerance,” the letter, signed by the society’s president, Jim Wrynn, said.
The letter went on to outline the links between the UUP and the Orange Order, which it described as “an avowedly anti-Catholic organization.”
The letter, co-signed by attorney James Cullen, used statements from unionists and Orange Order leaders to back up this central contention.
One of them was a 2002 Trimble statement in which the UUP leader stated that “if you took away the Catholicism and anti-Britishness,” there was no reason for the Irish Republic to exist.
The letter urged Lauder to reconsider his effort.
“We have all worked too hard in this city to stamp out bigotry to allow such a display to occur without criticism,” it added.
The Brehon letter also took issue with the Lauder-signed letter’s assertion that the UUP was supported by a large section of the Catholic population.
In a separate letter to the Conference of presidents of Major American Jewish Organization, AOH national president, Ned McGinley, voiced similar concerns and compared Catholic support for the UUP to “chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.”
The Lauder covering letter was also paired with separate sheets that included statements from political leaders praising Trimble.
One sheet, with a Downing Street letterhead, included an apparent three-sentence statement by British Prime Minister Tony Blair praising the UUP leader.
The statement was followed by a depiction of Blair’s signature.
The letter was dated Sept. 8, 2002. However, the Blair “statement” is in fact an amalgamation of three separate statements, one from March 2002, the second from September 2003, and the third from October 1998 after Trimble was awarded his Nobel.
A spokeswoman for the British Consulate in New York said that the British government was in no way associated with the Friends group.
“We have nothing to do with any party fundraising,” the spokeswoman said.
The address given on the covering letter for the Friends was that of a leading midtown law firm, Hogan & Hartson.
An attorney with the firm, who preferred not to be named, said that the firm was not involved with the group and had merely provided a mail drop.
A spokeswoman for Ronald Lauder said that Lauder was not hosting the dinner but had “just lent his name” to the event.
She said that the primary organizer was another Estee Lauder executive, Alan Roth. Roth could not be contacted by press time.
Asked if the Friends of Great Britain & Northern Ireland was currently listed, as required, with the U.S. Justice Department under the provisions of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a department spokeswoman replied “no.”