Actor Fionnula Flanagan has pulled out of a US-Ireland Alliance event in a row over the undocumented Irish.
The US-based Irish actor was invited to be an honoree at the Oscar Wilde: Honouring the Irish in Filmpre-Academy Awards party next month in Los Angeles.
The event was set up by the US-Ireland Alliance three years ago to bring together people in the film industry in the US and Ireland.
The actor, whose credits include The Others, Transamericaand Some Mother's Son,accepted the invitation from Trina Vargo, president of the alliance in November.
She later learned of a controversial opinion piece Ms Vargo had written in The Irish Timesearlier that month. In it, Ms Vargo said that it would be morally wrong to support a special deal that would single out illegal Irish immigrants for preferential treatment, while leaving behind millions of others.
The article quickly drew the ire of Niall O'Dowd, founder and chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.
Ms Flanagan wrote to Ms Vargo last week explaining her reasons for pulling out of the event. She said she must "respectfully decline to be honoured by your organisation which appears to have taken such a strong position against the most vulnerable of my countrymen".
The actor said that Irish immigrants had resorted to organised lobbying on their own behalf because they were disillusioned by the repeated failure of governments to solve the issue.
Ms Vargo told The Irish Timesshe regretted Ms Flanagan's decision. "Ms Flanagan supports a special deal for illegal Irish immigrants. I support legalisation of all immigrants," Ms Vargo said.
