Freedom of city is taken off Suu Kyi
‘It is no longer appropriate’
DUBLIN councillors last night voted in favour of removing the Freedom of the City from Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The motion was passed overwhelmingly, with 49 councillors voting in favour with just two against and one abstention.
This comes after Bob Geldof last month returned his Freedom of the City scroll to City Hall in the capital in what he said was a ‘small personal gesture’ in protest over the suffering of the Rohingya people in Myanmar.
Councillors also voted to accept Mr Geldof’s request to remove him from the roll of honour.
Dublin Lord Mayor Micheál MacDonncha welcomed the vote result and said the main issue is the Rohingya people.
He told the Mail: ‘I think that sends out a clear message that what’s happening to them is horrendous and the council by a large, a very large majority, agrees that she is complicit in it.
‘And therefore it is no longer appropriate that she is on the roll of the Freedom of the City.’ He said her honour has now been rescinded and she will be informed in writing by city officials of the decision, adding: ‘She no longer has the Freedom of the City.’
Aung San Suu Kyi was bestowed with the Dublin City Council honour in 1999 while she was still under house arrest, but she collected the award in person during a trip to Dublin five years ago.
U2 also entered the public debate about Ms Suu Kyi and the honour this week when they wrote to councillors asking them to revoke the award.
They said: ‘We believe her failure to stand up for the rights of the Rohingya constitutes a betrayal of the principles for which she was so revered.’
The council said the award ‘acknowledges the contribution of certain people to the life of our city’ and ‘also bestows honour to important visitors to Dublin’.
No financial or other benefits are attached to the Freedom of the City however, it does carry significant prestige, as well as some symbolic privileges.
Other high-profile recipients include Brian O’Driscoll, all four members of U2, John Giles and Fr Peter McVerry.