Senator Mary O'Rourke, perhaps the most serpentine personality in the Irish political swamp, thanked her supporters for "working like blacks" to get her back on the Fianna Fail ticket after voters turfed her out four years ago.
Queue the rally-round. The Irish Times did put the story on the front page, not that you'd notice, being an inch or so from the bottom, and the "blacks" remark buried in the story with no reference to it in the headline.
The Indo led with it, and included reference to the 'kebab' problem of her nephew, Conor Lenihan.
The Indo also - unlike the Times - included comments from Rosanna Flynn of Residents Against Racism, who was the only person in the mediaverse this morning to unambiguously suggest that O'Rourke should apologise, adding:
"I am really surprised at her. It is very offensive to a lot of people," she said. "It's a real gaffe."
The Indo also included comments from Labour TD Michael D Higgins defending her, and all parties mention her work with asylum seekers in Athlone.
The Examiner found a middle ground, sort of, and also included this:
But Philip Watt, director of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, said: “Some terminology that would have been in common use a long time ago is clearly unacceptable now.”
However, he said there was a difference between people deliberately using racist language and doing so unintentionally.
“Mary O’Rourke has never been known to make any negative comments towards people of immigrant backgrounds ... But we all have to watch the language we use.”
Then on RTE's Morning Ireland we heard reporter Conor Hunt in what would have otherwise been a shameless and stomach-turning puff piece following Mary through her big day. But his microphone got the actuality of O'Rourke making the "worked like blacks" comment in full, and what Liam Reid in the Times describes as "a wave of murmurs, apparently of disapproval, among the delegates".
Morning Ireland finished up the report by quoting Philip Watt, and that - we were to take it from that - was meant to be the end of the matter.
Gerry Ryan picked up the story at 9 in his inimitable way. My wife was apoplectic as she heard Ryan teasing out callers who rang in to defend Mary O'Rourke and rail against "political correctness gone mad". Ryan let one moron explain that the word "nigger" actually meant, "to wallow in their own self-pity", explaining that this term arose to describe not the Africans being hauled off the slave ships, but their emotional state.
Sen O'Rourke then took to the airwaves at 10 on Pat Kenny, he as reliably soft and buttery as a trusted Chardonnay.
She began by saying, "It's a very well known phrase in Ireland, as you know yourself Pat." Then she added that "no offence was intended", that her "three slaves" (campaign workers) were "quite chuffed about it all". Then she went to her prepared language, "It is a well-known phrase in Ireland. But perhaps in a different Ireland it is not appropriate. I intend to continue my work for asylum seekers."
At no time did Pat Kenny ask her directly if she regretted the comments or if she thought she should apologise.
A few minutes later she went on Newstalk 106 to be interviewed by Orla Barry, and the slithering began.
O'Rourke repeated her comments; if anything, amplified them, having been reassured by her Pat Kenny experience that this was going to go away quietly. In fact, by this point she's reckoned she's safe and is now racking up points, based on text messages going into radio stations and her own mobile, which never stops beeping during the interview.
Asked about the audience reaction in Athlone, she says "the gasps are inaudible".
Orla says that the "working like blacks" remark derives from referring to slaves or historically oppressed black workers. O'Rourke cuts her off, saying, "It didn’t come from there – I explained that on an earlier show and I’m not going to repeat myself."
First mistake. It was probably too much to ask of anyone after being blindsided by their interviewee like that, but Orla might have asked what show Mary was talking about, and what the "real" origin of the phrase was. Perhaps that might have uncovered that what really happened was that a text message had been read out by Pat Kenny, with a listener claiming that the phrase originates in the West of Ireland as a reference to blacksmiths.
She went on to complain about "the daftness of trying to set me up". So the media, in other words, was "setting her up" by reporting her comments. She complained that they were hoping she would be defeated for nomination in Athlone, and when that didn't happen, "we have to have a story".
"You won't apologise for the remark, I take it?" asks Orla. "There's no need to," replies O'Rourke.
O'Rourke again goes on to harp on her work with asylum seekers.
Orla then reads out another text from a listener that makes comparisons to the way Paddies and Micks were treated in the UK and elsewhere. The listener says that she's black and she's offended by O'Rourke's remarks.
Asked for her response, O'Rourke says: "Good for her. She’s got clearly her asylum...or her papers. I wish all asylum seekers could work here."
Oops. Second mistake. In case you missed what it was--O'Rourke's first reactions when told that a black person in Ireland is offended are 1) to patronise the black person and 2) assume that the black listener is an asylum seeker.
Granted, O'Rourke quickly corrected herself.
What to make of this? First, we must remember that O'Rourke is a near-permanent fixture in the national media now, a favourite of every broadcast producer I know and capable ot delivering her venom in an entertaining way; but her gadfly status virtually insures she will be nowhere near the levers of power ever again in Ireland (but never say never). She is a recognised loose cannon who is shameless in her performances - for example dumping responsibility for her failures to do much about transport while minister onto her successor, Seamus Brennan.
She is also in The Club, which means she is a part of the permanent governing class and therefore by definition cannot be censured by other members of that class. She is also the matriarch of an accident-prone political family, whom, with his brother, Brian Lenihan must be wishing he could consign to John-of-God's, Soviet style, to get them to shut up. Each of their gaffes, racist or otherwise, puts more distance between Brian Lenihan and his rightful destiny of leadership befitting his talents.
So here's the takeaways (not kebab ones):
1. Two-and-three-quarters cheers for Orla Barry. I heard Newstalk 106 come into its own this morning. Advertisers take note: they are attitudinally and culturally in tune with at least 50-plus-one percent of under-35 Ireland on issues like this. The first instinct of RTE (Morning Ireland, to a lesser extent Pat Kenny - Gerry Ryan is a special case, because I believe he was teasing out the callers to expose their attitudes, and he later added his own anecdote about Dubs working in England and learning that you can't yell out the word "nigger"; he explained that this was Irish "tolerance of ignorance") and the Irish Times was to circle the wagons, downplay and get her off the hook. The first instinct of Newstalk (and, let it be said, Gerry O'Regan and Frank Coughlan's Indo) was to confront the racist remark for what it was rather than explain it away. This is an interesting thing to observe.
2. Mary O'Rourke IS a racist. One could argue about the provenance, etymology and appropriateness of Mary O'Rourke's phrase, "worked like blacks". One can also argue whether or not she, as an elected official with skin thicker than a T-Rex, should be expected to apologise. But if the word racism has any meaning, it includes prejudice based on race. Mary O'Rourke's first instinct when confronted by a black texter to Newstalk was to congratulate her on getting her asylum, that is, to assume she was an asylum seeker.
It is for that remark, even more than her earlier "off the cuff" remark, that she should apologise. That remark was far more revealing, far more ugly, and far more damaging to race relations in Ireland generally.
Note that I am NOT suggesting O'Rourke be prosecuted under the odious Incitement to Hatred Act, as is bandied about by other loathsome cynics like Michael D Higgins when it suits him (like about Kevin Myers earlier this year), or by other journos.
But I do demand that light be shone on the inconsistencies here.
One final thought. If the remarks were made by, say, a Senator from Mississippi, rather than a Senator from Fianna Fail, would the world simply shrug and say, ah well? Oh wait - we know the answer to that question. The Amercia that Irish commentators of a certain disposition love to brand as racist removed Trent Lott as Senator Majority leader in 2002 when he said nice things about a racist. The Ireland that likes to think of itself as above that American disease is in fact constantly engaged in the most coarse apologias for members of The Club when they make, as only Shawn Pogatchnik of the Associated Press had the candor to describe it in the headline, a "racist comment".
UPDATE -- It's occurred to us that when we mentioned the sudden rediscovery of giving people the benefit of the doubt by such warmhearted folk as Michael D, when last February he was calling for Irish Times columnist Kevin Myers to be pursued for "incitement to hatred". There was someone else...oh yes. Mary O'Rourke, who on Pat Kenny, February 8 or 9 of last year, used the phrase "incitement to hatred" about Kevin Myers' 'bastards' column several times, and repeated the charge on other programmes.
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