Sinn Fein's Paddy Holohan and homophobia

Boggles

hawley wrote: »

Very surprised at those homophobic comments from Paddy. I saw him on the Tommy Tiernan show and he came across as quite a thoughtful guy.

Thought he came across quite badly actually, Tommy got irate at him at one stage, first time that ever happened.

Gay people can adopt. I don't see the homophobia here.

v638sg7k1a92bx

osarusan wrote: »

You can make the argument that a person with kids has a particular insight into aspects of life in Ireland that a person without kids does not have, but you could make that argument about many other aspects of life too.

Do we need previously homeless politicians for their insight into homelessness, former drug addicts for their understanding of addiction, etc.

Everybody has numerous perspectives that add value, while lacking numerous other perspectives.

I don't think it's much of an argument really.

Yes but some perspectives are more relevant than others. The vast majority of people will have children, so this perspective is more relevant to people than somebody who doesn't have children because for a society to function we need to accommodate the vast majority of people i.e. going to work, having children, buying a house and all the problems that come with those things.

blanch152

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Twatish OP - Gay people can have kids too you know. If anyone is coming across as homophobic its that article. Obviously a smear on SF.

His words are completely taken out of context and I would question the credibility of a journalist who cannot understand basic comprehension.

kingbhome wrote: »

1million percent nothing wrong with what he has said. It's his opinion a d not once did he mention anything about Leo being gay! Anyone thinks different needs their head looked at.

marieholmfan wrote: »

It's deliberate misinterpretation by the FG spinners.

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

I doubt it tbh, seems more hope on your part. Most posters here see your post exactly for what it is.

Bishop of hope wrote: »

This is just a Sinn Fein bashing thread lads, that's all the opening poster wants, a deflection.

I think some people should reflect before they post, and not just post knee-jerk defences of all things Sinn Fein.

https://www.rte.ie/news/election-2020/2020/0116/1107829-sinn-fein-holohan/

"Sinn Féin has said one of its councillors should apologise and withdraw remarks after he said that a "family man" should run the country and Leo Varadkar's Indian heritage meant that he is "separated" from the history of this country.

The party said the comments were not the views of Sinn Féin."

"In a statement, Sinn Féin said: "Paddy Holohan has made comments on his podcast that have caused offence and are quite obviously not the views of Sinn Féin. He should apologise and withdraw these remarks.""

Very surprised, but pleased that Sinn Fein have moved so quickly to disassociate themselves from this odious person.

This thread really has been an eye-opener to the types of attitudes prevalent in Irish society with so many unable to see the offensive nature of the remarks and dismissing them so readily. Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves, allowing your political blinkers to blind yourselves to the reality. Fair play to the Sinn Fein leadership for showing some courage on the issue.

CrankyHaus

gmisk wrote: »

Ah come on now read the direct quotes it's pretty clear what he was saying.

Sinn fein have asked him to apologise btw...
"He should apologise and withdraw these remarks"

Honestly, the direct quotes don't contain the words you said. The direct quote is very strange, with its focus on "blood" which in any case ignores Varadker's mother, and could well be a racist dogwhistle but it doesn't say Varadker is not Irish, in fact it says that he is. I can see why you could infer that he's hinting thar Varadker isn't "really" Irish though, it's very similar to the language used by racists. I'm not convinced that Holohan's racist though, I'd say he's just an eejit.

v638sg7k1a92bx

Does anyone know which podcast the comments were made on? Has anyone actually listened to the podcast?

Plumbthedepths

blanch152 wrote: »

I think some people should reflect before they post, and not just post knee-jerk defences of all things Sinn Fein.

https://www.rte.ie/news/election-2020/2020/0116/1107829-sinn-fein-holohan/

"Sinn Féin has said one of its councillors should apologise and withdraw remarks after he said that a "family man" should run the country and Leo Varadkar's Indian heritage meant that he is "separated" from the history of this country.

The party said the comments were not the views of Sinn Féin."

"In a statement, Sinn Féin said: "Paddy Holohan has made comments on his podcast that have caused offence and are quite obviously not the views of Sinn Féin. He should apologise and withdraw these remarks.""

Very surprised, but pleased that Sinn Fein have moved so quickly to disassociate themselves from this odious person.

This thread really has been an eye-opener to the types of attitudes prevalent in Irish society with so many unable to see the offensive nature of the remarks and dismissing them so readily. Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves, allowing your political blinkers to blind yourselves to the reality. Fair play to the Sinn Fein leadership for showing some courage on the issue.

No defence here lad couldn't give a shiny one for SF, but many fail to see the homophobia you allude to. Your inability to show it is not the fault of posters here.

osarusan

Marjorie Huge Stockbroker wrote: »

Yes but some perspectives are more relevant than others. The vast majority of people will have children, so this perspective is more relevant to people than somebody who doesn't have children because for a society to function we need to accommodate the vast majority of people i.e. going to work, having children, buying a house and all the problems that come with those things.

The majority of politicians have children, plenty are teachers, plenty are solicitors, some are doctors, doesn't stop them f**king up loads of stuff they should have insight on.

I said earlier that every perspective added value, but that value is often pretty limited I'd say, or the extent to which a particular perspective influences party/government policy is limited.

It doesn't really 'qualify' people for much at all in terms of government policy.

seamus

facehugger99 wrote: »

It's either a dog-whistle to attract the homophobic vote for SF or yer man in a complete fcuking moron.

SF can be accused of a lot of stuff, but homophobia is definitely not one of them. They would make a point of not trying to attract them.

Which only leaves option #2

super_furry

Honestly I don't think there's anything that the Shinner-bots wouldn't try to deflect or defend on here - even when their own party calls him out for it.

Hoolahan has made an undeniably racist statement and it's not like we're dealing with a genius here. This is a lad who was punched in the head for a living and who has spent the best part of the last decade hanging on the coat-tails of Conor McGregor.

sbsquarepants

blanch152 wrote: »

Let's hope that Mary-Lou gets on top of this, apologises to the Taoiseach for the remarks, and removes this odious man from her party.

Paddy is a bit of a gobshíte at the best of times, but there is nothing homophobic there.

We all have opinions on the type of person we'd like to run the country!

What is wrong with wanting a family man, or someone who understands what the realities of raising kids is like?

I think those things could only be positives for the big job, so would lots of people.

osarusan

After reading his comments about the passion of his grandfather coming through his blood and all that, I just think he's as thick as a plank and has no idea what he is trying to say.

In fact the bit about Leo's blood running to India is the most damaging part of all, as it's more difficult to interpret that in any other way.

sbsquarepants

He's a prize idiot, thick as pig shít to be honest. But that doesn't make what he said homophobic.

Bannasidhe

Deleted User wrote: »

Gay people can adopt. I don't see the homophobia here.

And female gay people can and have given birth.

I see the homophobia and the sexism tbh. It's pretty low grade, typical unthinking stuff of the 'but...but... that's not what I meant kind'. It's the 1950s calling kind of homophobic sexism.

Holohan apparently thinks a 'family man' (which let's be honest is code for a married straight man) whose grandfather told him about Setanta, and Meabh, and Finn the Cool should lead the country.
So no unmarried men, women, or those whose granddads knew feck all about the Fianna or Bulls from Cooley ...

Stupid statements for many many reasons:
- apart from the current Taoiseach every single 'leader' we have had fit that criteria and some of them were dire.
- did Leo never hear any stories from his Irish grandparents or doesn't his Mammy's Daddy count?
- It's the view of a narrow mind that can only consider people just like him as possible leaders.

Next week - why dancing at the crossroads will solve the obesity crises and housing of clay and wattle made as a solution to the homeless crises.

super_furry

Deleted User wrote: »

Gay people can adopt. I don't see the homophobia here.

Yeah, but according to Paddy you have to be able to trace your lineage back through your father to your grandfather who will then teach you history, which you absolutely couldn't learn in school.

Also there's something about blood, because people like that always like to spout on about blood and for some reason the fact that your mother and her mother and her father were born in Ireland doesn't count. You can't learn 'history' through your grandfather on your mothers side.

Like I said earlier, he's a clown who has taken too many punches to the head.

Yurt2

Having listened to the Irishman Abroad podcast with Paddy Holohan, I came to the conclusion he's not the brightest spark.

Don't think the comment is particularly homophobic but was probably best left unsaid, and its wide open to be misconstrued.

Bishop of hope

blanch152 wrote: »

This thread really has been an eye-opener to the types of attitudes prevalent in Irish society with so many unable to see the offensive nature of the remarks and dismissing them so readily. Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves, allowing your political blinkers to blind yourselves to the reality. Fair play to the Sinn Fein leadership for showing some courage on the issue.

If you had a modicum of decorum and opened up the topic with just the topic without resorting to undignified country people and politicians, as a whole I would have accepted your bona-fides,. But instead you threw a very phobic remark about rural politicians in general and the Healy-Raes in particular, thus their voters as well.
Very undignified post, just a muck stirrer.

Quote: "Homophobic attacks on the Taoiseach are to be expected, but you would have thought they would come from a rural politician with the emotional intelligence of a Healy-Rae".

You could do a Sinn Fein and go back and delete and apologise!

Bannasidhe

super_furry wrote: »

Yeah, but according to Paddy you have to be able to trace your lineage back through your father to your grandfather who will then teach you history, which you absolutely couldn't learn in school.

Also there's something about blood, because people like that always like to spout on about blood and for some reason the fact that your mother and her mother and her father were born in Ireland doesn't count. You can't learn 'history' through your grandfather on your mothers side.

Like I said earlier, he's a clown who has taken too many punches to the head.

Which, ironically, is a twisted version of how the Gaelic Irish viewed who people were - if your father's family were An Gael - then you were An Gael, otherwise you were An Gall.
But, obsessed with bloodlines as they were, anyone who was anyone would introduce themselves by telling you their ancestry back 4 generations on both sides.

And no-one had any issues with An Gall (like the Fitzgeralds of Kildare or Burkes of Galway) being the most powerful lord in their region and saw women marrying into those families (so having 'An Gall' grandchilder) as an astute political move.

Holohan's grandfather was obviously not a scholar of Gaelic Ireland if he didn't explain all this to him.

El Tarangu

marieholmfan wrote: »

Maybe Leo could join Gemma as well considering he wants to pay immigrants to leave Ireland. At least that's what he said in 2008.

McMurphy wrote: »

Leo Varadkar before coming out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykQAW9Y7Ros

Is leo homophobic?

Well, perhaps he has made some other public statements in the intervening 12 years that reflect a change of view.

Seriously, you are clutching at straws to have to go back more than 10 years to find some sort of counter-examples to defend a fairly stupid public utterance from someone who happens to be a member of Sinn Féin*

*I'm not suggesting that Holohan's statement is SF policy, quite the contrary; but some posters get a bit of a rush of blood to the head in their enthusiam to defend anything done by any SF member, ever.

jimgoose

marieholmfan wrote: »

It's deliberate misinterpretation by the FG spinners.

Typical of the fuckers. Here's him with General "Mad" O'Duffy after going eight rounds in 1934:

Plumbthedepths

Yurt! wrote: »

Don't think the comment is particularly homophobic but was probably best left unsaid, and its wide open to be misconstrued.

Particularly when there are those who wish to misconstrue for a myriad of reasons.

Woke Hogan

Bambi wrote: »

Paddy wouldnt be the brightest but he's an ordinary working class fella, unlike most SF candidates so he's going to be waaay off message in the whole woke stakes.

Is he running for the Dáil? That's a bit mad.

I'm "an ordinary working class fella" and I wouldn't share Holohan's odious view that Varadkar can't run the country because his "blood runs to India."

What an obscenely stupid comment. That stupid bouncing on grandad's knee, listening to stories of ancient Ireland image is fine for that other idiot Conor McGregor to sell his scuttery whiskey but that kind of prejudiced muck has no place in politics.

Holohan should "tap out" of politics and slither back to whatever rock he crawled out from under. Second grade MMA fighter, second grade McGregor and now a second grade racist. Rubbish.

McMurphy

El Tarangu wrote: »

Well, perhaps he has made some other public statements in the intervening 12 years that reflect a change of view.

Seriously, you are clutching at straws to have to go back more than 10 years to find some sort of counter-examples to defend a fairly stupid public utterance from someone who happens to be a member of Sinn Féin*

*I'm not suggesting that Holohan's statement is SF policy, quite the contrary; but some posters get a bit of a rush of blood to the head in their enthusiam to defend anything done by any SF member, ever.

With respect, I don't think you understand my point.

Leo's comments could have been viewed as homophobic back then too.**

**If you were trying extremely hard to want to be outraged about something, and wanted to misrepresent him.

Btw, never heard of Paddy what's his name in my life before let alone want to defend him.

super_furry

The worst thing about all this is that it lets Fine Gael and Eoin Murphy off the hook. All the focus, the entire media cycle was on Fine Gael's failed housing policies and that poor homeless man who was bulldozed while in a tent with Murphy face leering down on everyone.

Now the entire media cycle has changed to this Yellow-Pack McGregor wanabee.

marieholmfan

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Jesus, man, you’re losing it. This is a thread about SF by the way. Bit of a brass neck to be calling young Leo a sociopath when your own glorious leader for 35 years was disappearing mothers, giving the nod to bombing shopping centers, and sending his fat pedo brother over the border so he could continue to fiddle kids.

I'm not in Sinn Fein and I won't be voting for them.

dobby896 wrote: »

Not defending that comment whatsoever but internalised homophobia has a lot to answer for here.

It's sociopathy.

Plumbthedepths

super_furry wrote: »

The worst thing about all this is that it lets Fine Gael and Eoin Murphy off the hook. All the focus, the entire media cycle was on Fine Gael's failed housing policies and that poor homeless man who was bulldozed while in a tent with Murphy face leering down on everyone.

Now the entire media cycle has changed to this Yellow-Pack McGregor wanabee.

I don't think idiocy from Holahan will push tragedies like this below the radar .



https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/young-homeless-woman-dies-in-dublin-emergency-acommodation-975837.html

The Phantom Jipper

Does anyone recall the details of the Leo Varadkar / Roderic O'Gorman beef back in the day? I believe there was suggestions at the time that attention was being drawn on the doorsteps to O'Gorman's sexuality in an unflattering way, similar to what this bloke is being accused of.

hawley

Leo has never felt the heat like this before. Expect more racist/homophobic attacks from Sinn Féin and their lackeys in the Irish media. Ordinary people need to call this out or else this election is going to be a major sh*tshow.

James Brown

A bit ignorant but not homophobic or racist. Basically thinks you need be from a certain demographic to understand it, which is stupid and ignorant.
I see this features heavily over on RTE with no mention of the boy wonder using the homeless chap for point scoring.

dobby896

hawley wrote: »

Leo has never felt the heat like this before. Expect more racist/homophobic attacks from Sinn Féin and their lackeys in the Irish media. Ordinary people need to call this out or else this election is going to be a major sh*tshow.

SF have removed themselves and condemned the comments made by Holohan.

Therefore, I wouldn't be expecting anything of the sort. SF have been vociferous supporters of both LGBT and immigrant rights in recent years.

Unfortunately, each party will have a belligerent fool making ill-thought comments.

Tarnishing the whole party is rather unfair. However, I will always agree with calling out homophobic and racist behaviour, irrespective of any party affiliations.