Tommy Tiernan has broken his silence and publicly apologised to RTE star Emer O’Neill after he told a controversial joke about taxi drivers during one of his gigs.
Emer told us how she was left upset and walked out of Tiernan’s Vicar Street gig on January 6 after the Navan funnyman made a joke about Dublin Zoo and taxi drivers.
The RTE presenter told us how she had received an apology from Tiernan last week via email and on the phone – but now the comedian has made a public statement addressing the furore.
READ MORE: Ireland in for dramatic weather change as Met Eireann forecast 20C temperature swing
He said in the statement: “On Friday the 6th of January, Tommy told a joke on stage as part of his stand-up routine.
“As soon as he received a complaint, he spoke to that audience member to understand where he went wrong.
"He immediately removed the joke from the set and apologised both personally by phone and email and publicly by addressing it on stage the following night and every night since reiterating his apology.
“Tommy does not condone any negative online comments received by this audience member and most definitely not in his defence.”
The statement was read out by host Claire Byrne on her RTE Radio 1 show while Emer was also in studio on Friday.
Emer – who had no idea Tommy had sent in a public statement – said it was “great to hear that statement”.
“Because that’s the first I’ve heard and that’s the first public statement I’ve heard from anyone affiliated with him.
“But it’s not me who needs it. I believe he has apologised to me and I am very thankful for that but it is not only me that was affected by this.
“An apology to me is one thing but when so many people are affected by this, it is no good to just apologise to me.
“There is an entire community that have suffered from this. This was traumatic for other people because they had to read things like ‘you Africans all need to go back to your own country’.
“Again, I appreciate the apology to me personally., It’s not what I want. I believe it would be ana amazing thing to do for him to make a statement to the rest of Ireland so that our community can heal from that.”
READ NEXT:
Tributes flood in after sudden death of Dublin barman Jamie Boud at 21
Met Eireann issue new warning as bitterly cold front brings more snow before major U-turn
'He text me about show' - Operation Transformation leader friend dies suddenly
TD Holly Cairns installs CCTV at her home after stalker left her 'terrified'
Galway farmer accused of murdering aunt by driving over her in tractor
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
