A four-star hotel in Dublin, Ireland in May canceled the local Jewish community’s reservation of 70 rooms for a conference on combating antisemitism, in what the country’s chief rabbi, Yoni Wieder, called an apparent “disgrace.”
The Herbert Park Hotel gave organizers no reason for declining to host the Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism (SECCA) conference, which ended on Wednesday in Dublin, according to Alan Shatter, a former justice minister of Ireland.
Shatter told JNS that the hotel had confirmed accommodation for 70 delegates in April. Organizers met with hotel management on May 7 to discuss conference facilities, he said. The cancellation was an ”example of the escalating antisemitism in Ireland,” Shatter said. An alternative venue was found, he said.
In his speech to the SECCA forum on Tuesday, Cohen said he explained to the hotel’s general manager that the gathering would bring together Jewish community leaders and government-appointed officials responsible for combating antisemitism, most of whom were not Jewish. He also outlined its association with Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the planned participation of government ministers.
“As I spoke, I noticed her manner change. There was a tension that had not been there before,” Cohen said. “Then she asked me a question I simply was not prepared for.” The question, Cohen said, was: “Will the IDF be involved?” referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
“I remember looking at her and wondering whether I had heard correctly,” he said.
Shatter did not attend that meeting but said Cohen briefed him immediately afterward. Organizers explained that the conference had no connection to the IDF, said Shatter, who is Jewish.
In a May 8 email reviewed by JNS, the hotel wrote: “Further to our meeting and after careful consideration, I’m afraid higher management had decided that we won’t be able to host the event at the hotel on this occasion.” The email gave no reason for the decision.
When organizers asked whether their confirmed reservation for 70 rooms remained valid, the hotel said it had released the bedrooms because they had not supplied credit-card details, Shatter told JNS. He said the hotel had raised no such issue during the preceding correspondence or at the May 7 meeting.
“This was a retrospective excuse for canceling the bookings, basically,” he said.
Organizers subsequently secured another hotel and conference venue. They initially withheld the incident from public discussion to avoid jeopardizing the gathering.
“We didn’t want a controversy to possibly sabotage the holding of the conference,” Shatter told JNS. Cohen disclosed the affair on Tuesday at a reception for delegates at Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, presenting it as an example of escalating antisemitism, Shatter said.
The hotel had not replied to a request for comment at time of publication.
“If things happened as reported, then it’s a downright disgrace,” Wieder, the chief rabbi of Ireland, told JNS.
“How ironic is it that delegates should come to Dublin for a conference on combating antisemitism, only to learn that their original hotel accommodation had been canceled, apparently because of the very nature of the conference they were attending,” he added.
Shatter said the incident was indicative of “a broader pattern of cancellations affecting Jewish events in Ireland.” He added: “We now have a cancel culture to cancel events that have any Jewish associations.”
Earlier this year, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, which is funded by the government, canceled a fundraising event for Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical service, that would have featured a staged reading of the play “October 7.”
Shatter, who chairs Magen David Adom Ireland, said the venue had canceled following pressure from anti-Israel activists. Records that Shatter obtained through freedom-of-information requests showed that the concert hall had consulted Ireland’s ambassador to Israel and government departments before canceling, Shatter said. The substance of the advice was redacted and Shatter is appealing those redactions, he added.
Israel announced in December 2024 that it was closing its embassy in Dublin, citing the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israel policies,” including its support for the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and its recognition of a Palestinian state.
On Tuesday, Jewish leaders from seven of the largest Diaspora communities gathered at Herzog Park in Dublin to show support for Irish Jews and raise concerns about antisemitism.
Ireland recorded 143 antisemitic incidents between July 2025 and January 2026, Cohen told the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism. The group comprises Jewish leaders from Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Ireland’s 2022 census recorded about 2,200 people identifying as Jewish.
The J7 visit coincided with the antisemitism envoys’ conference. Representatives met with Irish government officials and members of the local Jewish community.
Last December, Dublin City Council withdrew a proposal to change the name of Herzog Park, which is named for Chaim Herzog. He was born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, and became Israel’s sixth president. His son, Isaac Herzog, is Israel’s current president. The decision to withdraw the proposal to change the park’s name was withdrawn due to procedural and legal obstacles, city officials said, amid international opposition.
The council’s Commemorations and Naming Committee had supported removing the name by 10 votes to one, with three members absent. Supporters cited opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza, Herzog’s role in Israel’s founding and solidarity with Palestinians. The full council did not vote on the name change.