Labour’s Helen Ogbu Stayed In Leonardo Hotel, Breaking BDS

Labour Party by-election candidate and Galway councillor Helen Ogbu stayed in the Leonardo Hotel on 10-11 June 2026 in Dublin. 

The Leonardo Hotel, which has 8 locations in Ireland, is a subsidiary of the Fattal Hotel group, which owns and operates hotels in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OTP), particularly in East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights. It is owned by Israeli billionaire David Fattal. In addition, the chain is known to host events for Israeli soldiers, and their families. For these reasons, the Dublin hotel has been the subject of protests, including by trade unions, and a call for boycott by the Irish BDS movement, which was initially started in Galway, Ogbu's home constituency.

"There are stark links between the genocidal Israeli army and the Israeli-owned Leonardo Hotel Group, which has 8 locations around Ireland - in Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Galway, " according to an Instagram post from BDS Belfast, which also stated that "in April 2024, seven months into the Gaza genocide, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli billionaire hotel owner, David Fattal, had held "a heartwarming initiative to host IDF soldiers" from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in his Leonardo Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem".

Ogbu paid € 346 for an overnight stay with breakfast included at the hotel. Travel expenses for councillors are covered by the local government allowance scheme. These payments are governed by the Local Government (Expenses of Local Authority Members) Regulations. In 2024, she received more than €20,000 under this scheme, while having a spotless attendance record. 

She lost the Galway West by-election in May 2026, but “made history”, according to the bourgeois press. If elected, she would have been the first woman of colour in the Dáil, which led to her facing racist abuse owing to her Nigerian-Irish background. “Labour is back with a bang. At the next general election just look out. We deserve not just one seat, but two seats, “ she commented at the time. Members of the Labour Party, which has in recent times fondly taken to claiming the legacy of socialist James Connolly, and its leader and Dublin Bay South TD Ivana Bacik, were seen campaigning alongside her. 

Many on the Left, however, have been questioning the Labour Party’s progressive credentials, arguing that its stint in government has seen the implementation of brutal austerity on working-class communities in the 2010s, as well as the betrayal of a promise made to students to reject fee increases.