TROCAIRE, the Catholic agency for world development, announced last night it was withdrawing from the organising committee of the Ken Saro Wiwa commemorative concert.
It decided to pull out when one of the people involved in organising the event invited the singer Sinead O'Connor to take part.
Trocaire said that it could not be involved because of Ms O'Connor's very public anti Catholic stance in the past. Involvement, it feared, might lose it the support of those who had been upset by Ms O'Connor's stance.
The organisation's statement said: "The decision has been taken in order that this important concert can proceed without distracting from its main purpose, namely to highlight the continuing oppression of the Ogoni people and the threat of execution which hangs over 19 Ogoni leaders."
Ken Saro Wiwa was a peace activist executed by the Nigerian military government.
A spokeswoman for the organisation said she understood the concert, in the Music Centre, Temple Bar, Dublin would be going ahead.