The proposed visit of the controversial historian David Irving to the NUI, Galway Literary & Debating Society has been cancelled.
In a statement the Lit & Deb said the cancellation was “due to security concerns and restrictions imposed by the university authorities”.
For the past number of months, the Lit & Deb has been liaising with Mr Irving, who is highly controversial over his views on the Third Reich and the Holocaust. He has been held to be an “active Holocaust denier” by the English courts and served time in an Austrian prison, accused of “glorifying and identifying with the German Nazi Party”.
Following a long period of planning and consultation with the university authorities to try to organise the event, a communication was received from the vice-president for physical resources, Keith Warnock, in which he stated “the level of risk” involved with inviting Mr Irving “was still significant and unacceptable”.
As a result, the Lit & Deb has had to rescind its invitation to Mr Irving.
