A Dublin hotel has offered a 50% discount to anyone who arrives at the hotel with a poster supporting a NO vote in the upcoming Marriage Equality Referendum.
The Charleville Lodge Hotel in Phibsborough, Dublin posted the offer on its Facebook page and encouraged people to "feel free to creatively deface the poster...Draw a devil on it or something”.
It’s not the first time the hotel’s Facebook page has caused controversy. It previously offered a discount to people to make paper planes out of
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Reacting to the post today, the Mothers and Fathers Matter group, who are advocating for a NO vote, have called the post an “attack on democracy".
“Since they were erected last week, our posters have been subject to an orchestrated campaign of theft, defacement, and vandalism,” said Mothers and Fathers Matter spokesperson Keith Mills.
“That this would now be overtly encouraged by a prominent business supporter of the YES campaign is a little bit pathetic, but still an attack on democracy."
The Yes Equality campaign said the removal of any poster in the run-up to the Marriage Equality Referendum is not something they want to see.
“It is an offence to take down any poster. We unreservedly condemn any such act,” said Brian Sheehan, Yes Equality spokesperson.
“Members of the public who witness the removal of posters should report it to their local Garda station.”
A subsequent statement on the hotel's Facebook page, attributed to owner Paul Stenson, described the post as a “joke” and made light of the dangers involved in illegally removing posters from poles.
We asked Stenson some follow-up questions. Those questions and his answers are below:
Q. Firstly, can you just confirm that this is in fact a “joke” post as you have described it?
Q. Also, even if you are joking as you say, organisations representing both sides in the marriage equality referendum debate have condemned the post – have you a reaction to that?
Q. What will you do if anyone does comes into your hotel with a clearly taken down NO poster?
Q. Finally, given that you have made it clear that the hotel is on the YES side of the referendum, even if your post was a joke, do you feel like it is damaging to the YES campaign in anyway?