RTE star Emer O’Neill has hit out at comedian Tommy Tiernan over a “racist” joke during a gig she attended at the weekend.
Emer was at the Navan native’s set in Dublin’s Vicar Street on Friday night with friends, who bought her a ticket for her birthday. Having never seen Tiernan before, she was excited to watch him on stage for the first time.
But she said her “heart sank” when he opened by telling the audience a joke about Dublin Zoo – after claiming: “My daughter told me not to tell this joke.” Mum-of-two Emer said: “A lot of people have said to me ‘you should have known before you went that this is his thing?’
Read more: Tommy Tiernan opens up about pain of losing his mother to suicide
“Like what do you mean, ‘this is his thing?’ Who in this day and age is still writing comedy where racism is supposed to be funny?
“He starts the joke, and he starts talking about penguins looking like nuns with the rosary beads and I thought ‘nice one’ and I’m laughing. Then he talks about the wolves and their fierceness or their strength [reminding him of the Irish] – this is all paraphrasing because this just happened – and then he goes ‘then I went to the African Savannah’ and my heart sank a little bit as soon as I heard the word Africa.
“I just thought please don’t do this to me. I’m literally one of the only people of colour sitting here in a room full of white people. And then came the [African] Savannah and taxi drivers.
“He acknowledged the room was ‘full of white people’ and said everyone is laughing so it mustn’t be a racist joke. I was like a statue. I was processing what was said.
“When he said, ‘I’m here in a room full of white people’, I wanted to say ‘well hey, I’m not white’ but nothing came out. I wanted to stand up because what he said was not right.
“Not everybody who is African is a taxi driver. I have a degree in education. I wanted to leave but I was scared because I felt that if I stand up now after him saying, ‘see you are all laughing, it’s not racist’ and I stand up...
“I already could hear two women beside me saying ‘oh look at her, she does not seem happy with that’ so
I already knew that people had spotted me in a room.”
Keep It Up host Emer from Bray ended up walking out of the gig with her friends a few minutes later. The anti-racism activist highlighted the incident on her Instagram account.
Emer told us what is important to her is that the joke is “acknowledged” and removed by Tiernan, adding: “We have done enough of sweeping things under the rug. For me, this is the perfect example of ‘there is no racism here in Ireland’ and this is Exhibit A because I sat in a room full of my fellow Irishmen and they allowed for that joke to happen and be laughed at.”
Emer added of Tommy: “I’ve never met the man. I don’t have a personal vendetta against him. I’m not calling him racist. What was said was racist and stereotypical – that is a completely different thing. For me, what my concerns are is that Vicar Street be held accountable, that it is an act of theirs that they have on stage, they’re giving him a platform.”
Emer is drafting up an email to Tommy and Vicar Street for a response. We have contacted reps for RTE and Tommy Tiernan for comment.
READ NEXT:
- Colin Farrell honoured at US film festival ahead of Oscars
- Dermot Bannon says his colleagues were 'shocked' after learning of killer Graham Dwyer's double life
- Dublin celebrities and where they went to school - from Conor McGregor to Colin Farrell
- Aldi 17L air fryer hailed 'best thing ever' at just €40
- Sister of Natasha Richardson shares stunning photo spotted in Dublin hotel
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
