Taoiseach will pay women no mind in Lackawanna

BERTIE AHERN will get a special welcome on his way to St Patrick’s Day ceremonies in Washington next month when he stops off in the Pennsylvanian county of Lackawanna.

Or should that be Lackawoman?

The Taoiseach will be guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Friendly Sons of St Patrick who, as their name suggests, are a men-only outfit which has successfully resisted female involvement for 103 years.

Their annual St Patrick’s Day dinner, moved to March 16 to suit the Taoiseach’s schedule, is heralded as a “distinctly father- son event” which the state governor and other political luminaries, the Catholic Church, law and education generally attend.

Bertie will be the third taoiseach to speak at the event; Garret FitzGerald attended in 1986 and Albert “That’s wimmin for ye” Reynolds attended in 1997.

But since then, the exclusively male enclave has come in for unfavourable attention. Lackawanna County’s first female judge, who was invited because of her position, refused to attend if her sisters couldn’t.

Matt Haggerty, the president of the Lackawanna chapter of the Friendly Sons and who boasts Ballina blood, said the group felt under no pressure to change its membership rules.

“The issue comes up every once in a while but we have never had a very big problem with it. People look at it as a strong tradition that’s worth preserving,” he said.

Besides, he added, a Society of Irish Women set up locally about 10 years ago and they had their own St Patrick’s celebrations.

“I would love to bring the prime minister [Taoiseach] over to their dinner and let him meet them but their dinner is on the 17th.”

Mr Haggerty added that the Sons were “very pleased” that the Taoiseach would be their guest as they had been trying to entice him over for more than a year.

Fine Gael’s Seanad leader, Frances Fitzgerald, a former chair of the National Women’s Council, was none too pleased, declaring male-only outfits relics from another era.

“My strong preference where a head of state is visiting another country would be that at all times the groups he meets and invitations he accepts would reflect the ethos of equality,” said Ms Fitzgerald.

“It’s a somewhat surprising choice of engagement in the United States, where a woman is running for president, that he should choose to speak to a group that excludes women.”

The ban on women didn’t bother Gerry Adams and John Hume who have previously addressed the group, seeing no irony in speaking about building bridges of peace while reinforcing the gender gap.

The Taoiseach’s spokesman declined to address the gender question, confirming only that Mr Ahern had accepted the invitation.

“The event will also be attended by civic and political leaders from the area which is 40% Irish-American,” he said. Apparently the 100% male part didn’t warrant an explanation.