Irish Hotel Reportedly Cancels 70 Rooms for Antisemitism Conference Attendees

A Dublin hotel refused to host an international conference on combating antisemitism and later canceled roughly 70 rooms reserved for delegates after its general manager asked whether the Israel Defense Forces would be involved, according to a Jewish community leader who attended a planning meeting.

Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, told News Media that he and an event organizer met with officials from the Herbert Park Hotel—including its general manager—on May 7 to explain the gathering and discuss logistical arrangements.

The meeting concerned an event linked to this week’s Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism Conference, which brought Jewish leaders, diplomats and government officials responsible for addressing antisemitism to Dublin, Ireland.

Cohen said organizers had received written confirmation that approximately 70 rooms were being held for conference participants.

At the meeting, Cohen explained that the conference would include Jewish community representatives, diplomats and government officials, many of whom were not Jewish. He said the manager’s demeanor changed before she asked whether the IDF would be involved.

“I was completely taken aback by that question,” Cohen told News Media. “I said, ‘What would the IDF have to do with a conference on antisemitism?’”

Cohen said the hotel did not provide an explanation at the time. Instead, the general manager said she would consult the owners before determining whether the event could go ahead.

Organizers received an email on May 8, the day after the meeting, saying the hotel could not accommodate their “event,” Cohen said. Two or three days after the May 7 discussion, they also asked whether the approximately 70 rooms set aside for delegates were still available.

The hotel replied that the rooms were no longer available, telling organizers they had automatically been released one week before the meeting, according to Cohen. He said that explanation was never raised during the conversation with hotel management.

“Why would you hold a meeting seven days after the rooms had been canceled without mentioning them?” Cohen said. “To my mind, that excuse was a retrospective excuse.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told News Media, “If the reports from Dublin are accurate, this is a disgraceful example of the very antisemitism the conference was organized to combat.”

“Seventy rooms had been booked. Seventy people had been welcomed as guests,” Cohen said in an Oct. 13 address at Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. “The only thing that changed was what they were understood to be.”

The incident carried particular personal significance for Cohen, who said he had attended meetings, New Year’s Eve celebrations and his mother’s birthday celebrations at the hotel through her 93rd birthday.

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“How quickly does the word ‘Jewish’ change a conversation?” Cohen asked during his address.

The hotel dispute is the latest incident to fuel concerns among Jewish leaders about antisemitic discrimination in Ireland. The country has no official state system devoted to tracking antisemitic incidents, leaving community organizations to document cases and raising fears that many experiences are never formally reported.

Ireland’s Jewish community has about 2,200 members. During its first six-month reporting initiative, the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland recorded 143 self-reported antisemitic incidents, ranging from verbal abuse and threats to vandalism and discrimination. The council said the figures reflect only part of the problem because antisemitic incidents are frequently underreported.

Cohen said conditions for Ireland’s small Jewish community have worsened since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. He described the broader environment facing Jewish and Israeli people in Ireland as “ambient antisemitism.”

News Media sent questions to the Irish government asking whether it condemns the hotel’s reported actions and whether any review or investigation is being considered. The office of Prime Minister Micheál Martin, the government departments responsible for foreign affairs and justice, and the Irish Embassy in Washington, D.C., were contacted for comment. None had responded at the time of publication.

In an exclusive interview with News Media in September, Martin said, “We have no toleration for antisemitism, none.”

“It’s all around us,” Cohen told News Media. “If you say you’re Israeli, you may not get into certain places. The narrative is so one-sided.”

When News Media reached the Herbert Park Hotel directly by phone and asked about Cohen’s account, the decision to reject the event and the subsequent release of approximately 70 rooms, a hotel representative responded, “No comment.”

Cohen said the hotel’s management should speak directly with Jewish community representatives and receive training on contemporary antisemitism.

“They need training on what antisemitism is,” Cohen told News Media. “They need to be cognizant of the fact they are promoting antisemitism. They need to understand why they’re so wrong.”

Cohen said several Irish lawmakers and civil servants contacted him personally after his Oct. 13 address, though he had not seen a broader public condemnation from the Irish government.

“I, like most people, don’t want to be in a place where I’m not wanted,” Cohen said.

News Media also reached out to the owners of the hotel through its corporate entity but did not receive a response by the time of publication.