A SUMMIT HOSTED by a US software company with ties to Israel that was due to take place in Croke Park has been postponed.

The postponement has been welcomed by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), with the organisation noting that several prominent figures within the GAA spoke out against the summit.

The event, Red Hat Summit: Connect 2024, was due to be held in Croke Park on 17 September and hosted by the aforementioned Red Hat, a US software company owned by IBM.

Intel, EY, HP, and eir evo are among the summit’s sponsors.

However, the webpage outlining details of the summit has been updated to state that the event has been postponed and that a “new date and location will be announced when confirmed”.

Current and former Dublin Gaelic footballers, including Jack McCaffrey, Philly McMahon, and Michael Darragh MacAuley, told the Business Post that the event should not go ahead.

Red Hat has offices in Dublin, Cork and Waterford but has been criticised for its links to the Israeli Defence Forces.

For example, a 2022 case study on Red Hat’s website explains how the company “enables critical defence and security advantages” for the IDF and provided it with a “stronger platform that incorporates the newest techniques in modern military operations”.

McCaffrey said “a lot of members of the GAA feel it (the summit) shouldn’t be happening” while MacAuley said the GAA should not be associated with the event.

The IPSC’s National Chairperson Zoë Lawlor said it “would have been unconscionable for an event hosting a company which provides material support to the Israeli military to be held anywhere in Ireland, not to mind in Croke Park”.

Meanwhile, former Dublin Gaelic footballer and rugby union player Dr David Hickey said he was “very happy and relieved that the GAA has stood up and let itself be counted on the side of humanity, no matter the cost.

Hickey thanked the GAA and said he was “so proud of Jarlath Burns and his colleagues”.

“Lux in Tenebris Lucet,” Hickey added, which is a Latin phrase that translates to “light in darkness”.

Meanwhile, Michael Darragh MacAuley tonight said that “showing solidarity with the Palestinian people is hugely important at the moment, and I am delighted that Croke Park has understood in this instance that some things are more important than money”.

Elsewhere, campaigner Michael Doherty of the group Gaels Against Genocide said the postponement “should also encourage Palestinian solidarity activists not only in Ireland but across the world that if we exert enough collective pressure in boycott campaigns and protests, we can be successful”.

The IPSC also noted that there have been protests by staff of the South East Technological University, demanding that the University cut ties with Red Hat due to its work with the Israeli government and the IDF.