aws.boto run_instances traceback in ireland region but not in frankfurt region

i am using the aws.boto module in python to call up the run_instances method to startup my node. I have been running with this code for a couple of months now in both in the ireland and frankfurt regions. I setup my connection:

conn = boto.ec2.connect_to_region("%s" % region, aws_access_key_id="%s" % aws_access,
                              aws_secret_access_key="%s" % aws_key)

Then I call the run_instances method. In its simplest form I set it up this way:

inst_details = conn.run_instances('ami-XXXXXX',instance_type='c3.xlarge')

In the frankfurt region this works out just fine. But in the ireland region I get this traceback.

File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/boto-2.34.0-py2.7.egg/boto/https_connection.py", line 119, in connect
sock = socket.create_connection((self.host, self.port), self.timeout)File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/socket.py", line 553, in create_connection
for res in getaddrinfo(host, port, 0, SOCK_STREAM):socket.gaierror: [Errno -2] Name or service not known