Anger as American Irish Historical Society to sell 5th Avenue HQ

Liam Neeson is among a group of Irish actors, artists and writers to call for the sale of the landmark building to be stopped.

The Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee has written to Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and to the board of the American Irish Historical Society to express its disappointment at its decision to sell its headquarters on 5th Avenue in New York.

The landmark building was put up for sale last month at a price of $52m, prompting calls for the sale to be stopped by Irish artists, actors and writers including Liam Neeson, Colm Tóibín and Colum McCann. The group wrote to the attorney general of New York Letitia James asking her to stop the sale.

The letter said the building, home to the society for 80 years, was a monument to Irish success. The society has received hundreds of thousands of euro from the Irish taxpayer over the years through the Emigrant Support Fund.

We believe that, like St Patrick’s Cathedral and the St Patrick’s Day Parade, this architectural jewel is a living monument to the struggle and success of our immigrant ancestors.”

It is understood the attorney general's charities' arm would have to approve the sale.

Mr Coveney has called the proposal "disappointing", but Foreign Affairs Committee chair Charlie Flanagan said the society's board should work with the Government to avoid the sale.

The importance of the society and its headquarters in the heart of New York, to the Irish American community, cannot be underestimated.

“The Committee has urged the board to work closely with the Irish embassy, the Irish consulate and the Irish community in New York and the entire US, to make every effort to ensure that this building, as one of the last great centres of Irish American history, artefacts and culture in New York remains available to people of New York, the US, Ireland and the world."

Estate agents Brown Harris Stevens say in the building's listing that it is "largely intact" and that purchasing a home on 5th Avenue is "like acquiring the Holy Grail because such a limited number remain".

It says that the Society has used the mansion "to house a massive library of 10,000 volumes (including the first printing of the Bible into the Irish language in 1685), a huge collection of vinyl records, and letters" from former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was a member".