In the aftermath of the official Grenfell fire report, Shane Lowry has announced the termination of his collaboration with construction corporation Kingspan. This week, Lowry, who is participating in the Irish Open at Royal County Down, made public a short communication that confirmed his relationship with Kingspan, ongoing since 2017, has now concluded.
The decision was reached mutually to sever the sponsorship agreement, deemed in the best interests of all parties involved at the current time. Further commentary from either side will not be forthcoming.
Kingspan has been on the receiving end of severe backlash from survivors and their support groups, and was pinpointed in the recent report as one of the three companies implicated in the occurrences leading to the tragic incident in 2017. While Kingspan was absolved of blame for the fire’s spread on the fateful night, the analysis concluded that the company had wilfully fostered a deceptive market for insulation, employed deceitful methods, and exhibited a total disregard for fire safety.
Given this background, it is reasonable to expect Lowry to sever ties with Kingspan. In the week leading to the report’s disclosure, a representative for Grenfell United had lambasted the 2019 Open winner in The Guardian for ignoring the victim’s group’s appeals to abandon Kingspan.
Edward Daffarn expressed the group’s longstanding sentiments, stating, “We have been repeatedly urging him to relinquish this sponsorship, but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. This situation is highly distressing and highly offensive, and he has failed to respond.”