February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The association recently debated as to whether the dinner, this year set for a hotel just outside Cork City, should take place at all. Some members were angered by what they saw as excessive anti-Americanism on display in protests against the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
“There was a body if opinion of the view that we should cancel the dinner,” said one member of the association.
At a meeting earlier this month attended by about 50 members at the Cork Lounge in Queens, the issue was put to a vote.
Most in attendance abstained. Those who voted opted by an 11-7 majority to go ahead with the visit in August as planned.
“We took a vote on it and we’re going ahead,” said Mary Waters, president of the association.
She indicated that those who felt most strongly about anti-Americanism were the ones unlikely to travel.
Waters said that she had been talking to friends in Ireland and her impression had been that most people there supported the U.S.
Association member Pat Hurley, a columnist for the Echo, said that he had been one of those most concerned about anti-American sentiment. But he is planning to attend the dinner since it coincides with a planned family holiday in his native county.
“Democracy is democracy,” Hurley said.
The Cork Association has been traveling to Ireland for a dinner every second year since the early 1980s. The event usually includes Cork-based relatives and local politicians are regular attendees.