Gorta dismayed by opening of fundraising shop by Oxfam

CHARITY SECTOR:THE OPENING of a first Irish charity shop by British development aid organisation Oxfam in the 1970s was strongly opposed by development agency Gorta because of an agreement reached with the government 10 years earlier not to fundraise in Ireland.

“Oxfam are again poaching in an area which should properly be the concern of the national freedom from hunger campaign body Gorta,” an internal note by a Department of Foreign Affairs official said in 1973.

The note said the question had been dealt with “at high government level” in 1963/1964 and “if Oxfam persist, it may be raised at higher level again”.

This was referring to a previous attempt by Oxfam to fundraise in Ireland 10 years earlier as part of the UN’s Freedom from Hunger Campaign.

This had caused great concern in the government and development agency the Red Cross (whose Freedom of Hunger Campaign arm became Gorta in 1965).

In January 1965, an “understanding” was arrived at between minister for agriculture Charles Haughey and Oxfam to refrain from promotional campaigns in Ireland as long as the freedom from hunger campaign would continue to operate, papers from the Department of Foreign Affairs show.

In 1973, Gorta conveyed to Oxfam its “disappointment” at the failure to live up to the undertaking.

The opening of a shop is “considered by our authorities contrary to the undertaken given”, MP Sheeran, general secretary of Gorta, wrote in a letter to Oxfam’s international secretary, Marilyn Sanders.

The Irish Embassy in London was also in touch with Oxfam for not keeping it informed about its intention to move to Ireland.

The Oxfam shop opened in Dublin in 1976.

Gorta general secretary Ronnie Smiley said he did not think there was room for a fourth development agency collecting funds, according to a report in The Irish Times.

Mr Smiley’s salary was doubled by Gorta in 1976 despite a government decision that there should be no increases for public sector workers, separate Department of Foreign Affairs files released show.

The Department of Public Service wrote to the Department of Agriculture in 1977 to say the increase was in direct conflict with the government’s decision.

It also suggested that the department should consider “suspending, threatening to suspend or terminating the annual grant”.

Gorta contended that it was not a State-sponsored body and not bound by government decisions on chief executive pay.