Anger And Debate After Gabriel Byrne Labels The Gathering A Scam

Government figures were left fuming last week after the actor Gabriel Byrne labelled the massive tourism initiative The Gathering 2013 a "scam".

In an interview on Today FM broadcast live from New York, Mr Byrne said: "Nobody gives a s*** about the diaspora in Ireland except to shake them down for a bit of money."

He went on: "People are sick to death of being asked to help out in what they regard as a scam."

His comments created a whirl of controversy, with senior tourism figures and government ministers quick to reject the claims.

Ironically, the radio show on which he made the comments was sponsored by The Gathering.

"I wish The Gathering the very best of luck," Byrne said, "but they have to understand that the bridge between the diaspora and the people is broken and I tried to fix that for two years and it's still broken."

The actor, was Ireland's Cultural Ambassador for two years, added: "The diaspora has a very powerful spiritual connection to the island of Ireland.

"I remember when I was growing up in Dublin those buses would pull up and those people in Burberry coats would be laughed at because they'd say 'here come the Yanks looking for their roots'.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned one of the most sacred things you can do is look for your roots."

Jim Miley, project manager for The Gathering, said he didn't believe Mr Byrne's opinions were widely shared.

"The diaspora and The Gathering are bigger than any one man, be it Gabriel Byrne or otherwise. In fact, it's bigger than our project," he said.

He pointed out that several other famous Irish emigrants, such as Jean Butler and Fionnula Flanagan, were warmly endorsing The Gathering.

Mr Miley added that Ireland has never reached out before in a systematic way to the diaspora in the way The Gathering is doing.

The whole purpose of The Gathering, he said, was "thinking very deeply about our emigrants", which he hoped would "lay a little foundation stone" for a new way of reaching out to people living overseas.

He also pointed to the success of the Notre Dame/Navy college football game held in the Aviva stadium in Dublin two months ago.

He said 35,000 Americans had come to Ireland, enjoyed themselves, spent money and did not go away with the feeling that they had been the victims of a shakedown.

But Gabriel Byrne's comments struck a chord with the Irish public, many of whom believe the tourism initiative is a PR wheeze.

The Gathering has funding of around €12m, and claims to have 1,150 events already organized under its banner.

However, in truth, many of these events take place annually in any event.

However, there have been hundreds of community initiatives, and family gatherings organised.

Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar rejected the comments from Gabriel Byrne, whom he referred to as "being popular with women of a certain age".

He said Mr Byrne as entitled to his opinion but the reaction to The Gathering had been very positive.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he believed the Gathering was a "very credible" proposal.

"I admire the work of Gabriel Byrne. He has been a fabulous ambassador for Ireland, but respectfully I disagree here."

The Today FM interview with Gabriel Byrne was wide-ranging, but the key passage that angered official figures was this one:

"I was talking the other day to a group of people. One of them was an illegal immigrant. His father died; he couldn't get home. He feels abandoned by the Irish Government. He feels an alien. He can't go back. Then, I talked to two kids - a girl and a boy, who were forced to emigrate because there's no jobs and they blame the incompetence and the, one of them said, the gangsterism of government for the fact that they were forced to emigrate," Byrne said.

"And he said 'now we're being asked to come back? We're being asked to come back to help the economy. We were forced out because we had no job'.

"And then you talk to older people, Irish-American people here, and they say 'We are sick to death of this', because the only time the diaspora, or the Irish-Americans, are ever mentioned is as tourists, and how can we get these people here to boost our tourism, and how can we get people back here so that we can shake them down for a few quid."

Byrne's comments have sparked a debate not just about the merits of The Gathering but also about Ireland's relationship with its diaspora.

In an editorial on Saturday, The Irish Times said the actor had done the right thing by speaking out.

"Gabriel Byrne acted appropriately in emphasising the danger of valuing the Irish diaspora only as a source of ready income," it said.

"His warning that Irish Americans regard next year's major tourism initiative - The Gathering - as "a scam" may be exaggerated, but it should be taken seriously. As a former 'cultural ambassador', Byrne is well placed to judge the disconnect that exists between many of the Irish abroad and this State."