Gay Mitchell Forced to Apologise for Racist Comments on RTE

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday March 21, 2003 17:09 by Dominic Carroll - Clonakilty Against the War clonakiltyagainstthewar at eircom dot net

The Fine Gael deputy, Gay Mitchell, has apologised for comments made on RTÉ 1’s Marian Finnucane programme on Thursday morning (20 March 2003).

The Fine Gael deputy, Gay Mitchell, has apologised for comments made on RTÉ 1’s Marian Finnucane programme on Thursday morning (20 March 2003).

The following is the text of a letter sent by Mr Mitchell to Marian Finnucane:

Dear Marian

During the course of my exchange on your programme today, I apparently made
reference to a large population of immigrants and mentioned the difficulty of
defending Shannon airport and the fact that a woman had already attacked a plane
with a hatchet.

At least one listener took this to be a racist comment. I would like to make it
clear I have been among the leading advocates of integrating immigrants and I
would not deliberately utter any word with deliberate racist connotation. If my
words implied anything to the contrary in any way, I want to withdraw them
immediately and apologise to anybody who may have taken offense.

Incidentally, I have for some time been seeking the appointment of a Minister to
co-ordinate the integration of immigrants.

With Kind regards
Yours sincerely
Gay Mitchell T.D.
Fine Gael Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs

Mr Mitchell made the apology following a complaint made to the Irish Refugee Council by Dominic Carroll, PRO of Clonakilty Against the War.

The following is the text of a letter sent by Mr Carroll to Mr Mitchell:

Dear Deputy Mitchell,

I contacted the Fine Gael Press Office earlier regarding the comment made by you on RTÉ 1’s Marian Finnucane programme this morning (20 March 2003). During your discussion with Marian Finnucane, you made the following comment (this is an exact transcription, made from RTÉ’s Website where the programme can be replayed):

‘Also what has to be weighed is this: we have now a very large immigrant population, we have no certainty that Shannon won’t be the source of some attack from somewhere. We couldn’t protect Shannon against a woman with a hatchet, for God’s sake. The Germans and the French are quite capable of protecting themself [sic]. Go back to the … [interrupted by Mariane Finnucane]’

This comment, in my opinion, clearly infers that immigrants to Ireland constitute a security threat to Shannon Airport. I contacted the Fine Gael Press Office to challenge this statement. The press officer I spoke to claimed that you were beginning to make one point and were interrupted, thus giving the erroneous impression that you were inferring suspicion of immigrants. The transcription shows otherwise, and the response of the press officer was simply an excuse without proper consideration of my complaint.

I phoned the Marian Finnucane show and stated that ‘the slanderous comments by Gay Mitchell that immigrants constitute a security threat to Shannon Airport should be withdrawn and he should apologise.’ My comment was not broadcast.

I consider your comment, at best, a careless statement and, at worst, a deliberate aspersion towards immigrants in Ireland – an aspersion that can lead to hostility and worse.

I await your response.
Dominic Carroll