Boston Mayor Angers Hometown Ice Hockey Fans During Sister-City Visit
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh Boston Mayor's Office
Marty Walsh clarifies his overseas comments amid social media mess.
A controversy that suddenly ignited in Boston on Friday while Mayor Marty Walsh was traveling on an overseas sister-city visit to Belfast, Northern Ireland, shows how comments made an ocean away can be quickly amplified into social media mess back home.
In an interview with the BBC in Belfast, Walsh expressed his interest in having Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University and Northeastern University—schools that face each other in the 62-year-old annual hometown Beanpot ice hockey tournament—play a hockey tournament in Boston’s sister city.
Local hockey fans back in Boston interpreted those comments as the mayor’s desire to have the Beanpot tournament itself in Belfast, which inked a sister-city agreement with Boston earlier this year.
"I don’t know who twisted that but the Beanpot is not going to Belfast," Walsh said on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland, according to MassLive.com.
Walsh tweeted out clarifying comments from his press secretary, Kate Norton, stressing that the mayor is interested a Beanpot-like tournament in Belfast, not moving the existing tournament to Northern Ireland.
Statement from @norton_kate on the Beanpot: pic.twitter.com/b71oXr5hcu
— Mayor Marty Walsh (@marty_walsh) September 26, 2014Despite the mayor’s clarification, the public relations damage was already done.
According to The Boston Herald:
The mayor’s latest slip of the tongue comes on the heels of another retracted remark last week, when he told the Herald he wanted to meet with U2’s manager in Dublin to bring the legendary Irish band to Fenway Park, saying, “I’m going to try and make that happen.”
Once again, Norton issued a backpedaling statement, telling WBZ-TV (Ch. 4) that his remarks were “taken out of context,” and adding, “Mayor Walsh did not announce that he was taking active steps to bring U2 to Fenway, and his trip to Ireland has absolutely nothing to do with this idea. Mayor Walsh is not a concert promoter.”
But Norton’s denial fell flat the next day when former Mayor Raymond L. Flynn said that Walsh had in fact sought his help in bringing U2 to Fenway.
Walsh arrived in Ireland on Sept. 19 for an 11-day visit, the first trade mission by a Boston mayor in 16 years, The Boston Globe reported.