Irish Deputy Prime Minister skips Savannah St Patrick’s Day celebrations because of Hibernians’ all-male dinner

The times they are a-changin’.

From the Irish Central’s Irish deputy leader snubs Savannah St Patrick’s Day celebrations over ‘men only’ dinner:

Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister has skipped a St Patrick’s Day trip to Savannah to avoid a Hibernian Order ‘male only’ dinner.

Labor Party leader Eamon Gilmore dropped Savannah from his list of destinations as a government ambassador on Ireland’s national holiday.

The country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs did visit nearby Atlanta.

High profile government ministers have attended the ‘men only’ dinner in Savannah according to a report in the Irish Times. […]

He has opted instead to visit New Orleans on Saturday for St Patrick’s Day events before travelling on to Washington DC.

Gilmore insisted he would decline to attend any men-only event as part of any foreign travel programme.

He said: “Count me out – I’m not doing it. I don’t believe in segregation either on a gender basis or on any other basis.”

From the AP’s Irish official skips Savannah St. Patrick’s Day due to men-only dinner:

William H. Bruggeman, president of the Savannah Hibernians, said he never heard any complaints about the group’s men-only membership from Gilmore or his staff.

“That sort of caught us by surprise because he wasn’t an invited guest,” Bruggeman said. “Of course we’d love to have had him and would have invited him if we knew he was going to be coming this way.”

Bruggeman said it’s the first time he’s heard of any government official – Irish or American – avoiding the dinner because it excludes women. Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson has agreed in her two years in office to let the city’s mayor pro tem, a man, attend the dinner in her place, saying she respects the Hibernians’ traditions.

And this:

Gilmore also had supporters back home. Gemma Hussey, former minister of Ireland’s Fine Gael party, said on Twitter the Savannah Hibernians had barred her from their dinner decades ago.

“Well done Eamon Gilmore – those Savannah Hibernians refused to have an Irish woman Minister (me) in the 80’s so now they get none,” Hussey tweeted.