Tommy Tiernan has apologised to Emer O’Neill, after she left his gig over an “offensive” joke.
Earlier this month, the RTÉ presenter walked out of the comedian’s Vicar Street gig after he told a controversial joke about taxi drivers.
Emer shared a video from the night to Instagram, and wrote: “A night that was to be fun and full of laughter turned sour with a way too close to the bone joke by @officialtommedian at his @vicar_st gig tonight.”
View this post on Instagram
“His first joke of the night straight out of the gate began with and I paraphrase (please if you were there too, correct me if I am wrong),” Emer added, before revealing what Tommy said.
“‘My daughter told me I shouldn’t tell this joke… So I was at the zoo the other day and looking at the penguins they are like little nuns walking around with rosary beads.'”
“‘Then the wolves so Irish fierce/strong then we went to the African Savannah and ….. it was full of taxis drivers! Ok now I’m looking at a room of white faces and everyone is laughing so I think I’m ok it wasn’t a racist joke.'”
Emer has since revealed she received an email and phone call from Tommy apologising for the “hurt” he caused her.
She wrote: “Thank you for the support, kind words, messages, voice notes, calls etc. Despite the horrendous influx of hate speech and threats received over the course of the last week, I still have hope and believe that these people are the minority here in Ireland.”
“Last week I received an email and phone call of apology from Tommy Tiernan. Admitting ‘you were right to call it out as offensive’ (his joke) and that ‘it was removed immediately from my set’.”
The Bray native continued: “His acknowledgement of this and his genuine reflection of the incident was apparent when we spoke.”
“He candidly expressed that he as a middle-aged white man, did not have the right to decide what is and is not offensive to ethnic minority communities having no understanding or lived experience of what it is like for us day to day.”
“To many this is just one incident but people forget that things like this and worse happen daily in our community. Just last October I attended a gig and a man sitting behind me called me ‘blacky’ and pulled my Afro.”
“I don’t even have the heart to get into the racism my son of 8 has had to endure in his short life so far.”
“’Racism is NEVER comedy’ and there are plenty of comedians out there that are exceptional at their craft and don’t need to attack marginalised groups to get a laugh. So the reference to ‘cancel culture’ and ‘people can’t say anything these days’ is just a cop out.”
Emer went on to say: “I am thankful to Tommy for reaching out to me, taking responsibility for what he said and also having a really positive conversation on the topic.”
“With his permission, I have shared his email which I think is vital for the people of Ireland, our allies and our community to see that standing up for what you believe is the right thing to do, even if it is not the most popular opinion.”
“At the end of the day whether you are an advocate for mental health, women’s rights, the LGBTQ+ community or ANY other community, people some how fail to see the intersectionality between all of the groups.”
“We are all in this together, interconnected by the same types of trauma, hurt and experiences. So it is on us all to rally together for what is the common goal of representation, support, education, allyship and equality.”
