Government stalled ‘global greening’ last year amid Ukraine invasion

Turning buildings around the world green last year for St Patrick’s Day would have been “inappropriate” and an unbecoming “celebratory message” amid the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

The Department of Foreign Affairs sent emails to Tourism Ireland to inform the organisation that Irish embassies around the world had been told to hold off on any “greening” activity because of concerns over its “appropriateness” last March.

Concerns were also raised over the “possible sensitivity” of the tourism promotion agency’s high-profile Pushing the Green Button campaign in the context of a major war.

Records detail a flurry of activity involving the director general of Global Ireland John Concannon, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Tourism, and Tourism Ireland on how to manage the “toning down” of last year’s St Patrick’s Day promotion.

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Government concerns around the issue were first raised in early March when the Department of Foreign Affairs told embassies and missions to postpone any “global greening” plans.

An email from John Concannon to Tourism Ireland and the tourism department said: “[Global greening] has been an enormous success in recent years. However, given the wider context, significant concerns have been raised about the appropriateness of this year’s programme.

“The possibility of incorporating the colours of the Ukrainian flag is being actively considered at senior political level, and we will issue an update this week.”

In an email to staff, Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons said they had decided to postpone a planned launch around St Patrick’s Day.

He wrote: “There is a general view between us that to push such a celebratory message would be inappropriate in the current climate.”

Tourism Ireland’s current director of markets Siobhan McManamy later emailed staff globally to make sure “partners” around the world knew not to go ahead with turning landmarks and buildings green.

“You should send the statement accompanied by a personal note to whoever you were arranging the greening with, thanking them for their support and encourage them to get involved again in 2023,” she wrote.

Mr Concannan mailed all embassies on March 9th, with the diplomatic missions asked to light up in the yellow and blue of Ukraine “where appropriate and practicable”.

He also suggested they could ask partner organisations in those countries to do the same “but not required if locally inappropriate”.

Tourism Ireland had also been told that several locations had already opted out of promotional activity around St Patrick’s Day.

One email from Ms McManamy to Mr Gibbons noted “we have a number of sites pulling out of the Global Greening this year as they are committed to staying in the Ukraine flag colours for the foreseeable future.

“A number that we were close to getting over the line have also now said they will wait until 2023 to get involved as they don’t feel it’s appropriate,” she wrote.

On March 7th she wrote that Tourism Ireland needed to decide on what their plans would be, or else bills could start mounting.

“We could do with making a final decision on this tomorrow as we and partners will start incurring costs from Wednesday on set-up and photography on dummy runs eg, Nelson’s Column and one or two in the US,” she wrote.

Concerns continued later that week with comments on social media and feedback around the “possible sensitivity” of the wording of Tourism Ireland’s Pushing the Green Button campaign.

“So, to be very cautious can you please plan to use Ireland or Tourism Ireland banners for any ministerial photos over St Patrick’s Day?,” Ms McManamy warned.

A statement from Tourism Ireland said: “As a mark of respect to the situation in Ukraine, Tourism Ireland took the decision not to promote the Global Greening initiative for St Patrick’s Day [in 2022].

“However, other promotional activity around St Patrick’s Day continued, as part of our overall marketing programme to restart overseas tourism in 2022, for an industry that had faced extremely difficult circumstances over the previous two years.”