Kilkee mayor defends Che Guevara link to town

MAYOR of Kilkee, Councillor Claire Haugh has defended the town’s right to host a festival bearing the name of South American revolutionary Che Guevara. This year’s third annual festival will be held on the weekend of September 28.

The festival will be launched by Che Guevara, daughter, Dr Aleida Guevara and Cuban Ambassador to Ireland, her Excellency Teresita Trujilio. It is expected that the Chilean Consul will also be in attendance.
Last year, US representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged Galway City Council to reject the proposal to erect a monument honouring Che Guevara.
“Despite the image makeover, which some try to give him, the real Che Guevara was a mass murderer and human rights abuser. To honour him with a monument would be an outrage and would be a futile attempt to hide the brutal acts which he committed. The romanticising image that this monument would portray would serve to diminish the brutality that was committed by Che and the painful suffering endured by many Cuban-American families and his other victims far and wide. Che Guevara was a ruthless killer who should not be idolised. Instead of honouring a killer, the City Council of Galway should honour the victims of Che and the Castro dictatorship by rejecting this proposal,” Ileana Ros-Lehtinen claimed at the time.
Galway businessman Declan Ganley also claimed at the time that the proposal to erect a statue was to “satisfy a small number of extremists in the Labour Party”.
However, Councillor Claire Haugh told The Clare Champion this week the Kilkee festival doesn’t necessarily “honour” Che Guevara, who visited Kilkee in 1961.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think that the festival will bring tourists into the resort, especially with the main season being over at that stage. It’s good to see people still coming into the town and if this festival brings them in, they’re very welcome.
“Some people obviously have differing views but while the festival recognises a person, honouring isn’t the word that I’d use. You can have festivals but it’s not putting someone’s name on a pedestal or honouring them as such. It’s a festival in his name and if it brings people in here, I’d certainly welcome that,” she reiterated.
Che Guevara and Kilkee might sound like a rather unlikely combination but when one of the world’s most famous revolutionaries, in the eyes of some people, stayed in Kilkee in 1961, the iconic image, seen throughout the world on posters and tee-shirts was created. The world renowned image was designed by artist Jim Fitzpatrick, after he, by chance, served a drink to Che Guevara in the Marine Hotel Bar during that visit more than 50 years ago. The image was based on an already existing photograph by the late Alberto Korda but once it was recreated in that most famous image by Fitzpatrick, it became a worldwide phenomenon, which is still evident on political paraphernalia today.
This year’s festival will concentrate on Latin American culture including music, poetry, dance, film and food.