Belfast Telegraph pulls racist `jokes'
By Chris Ward
Responding to demands from Irish activists on the
Internet, the Belfast Telegraph has dropped an
offensive St Patrick's Day page on the World Wide Web
that included racist and sexist jokes aimed at the
Irish and women in general. The offensive material
appeared on a link to the Belfast Telegraph's home and
news pages.
Activists from Norway, Ireland and the US contacted the
newspaper on Thursday, 19 February, urging it to drop
the page. The site was amended within 24 hours.
Advertised as part of the ``Paddy's Day'' celebration,
the Telegraph, which bills itself as ``The National
Newspaper of Northern Ireland'' included several inane
jokes aimed at the Irish and featured a caricature of a
stumbling man walking down a lane with a bottle in his
hand. Among the jokes was one that appeared to make
light of rape. The joke described an Irishman being
brought to a police line-up and being confronted by a
rape survivor. When the man sees her, he cries out,
``that's her, I'd recognise her anywhere.'' Another joke
asked, ``how do you sink an Irish submarine?'' The
accompanying reply was, ``knock on the hatch.''
Gerry Coleman, director of the Political Education
Department of the Northern Aid Committee in New York,
called the publication of the material ``outrageous'',
adding that he was surprised at the insensitivity
exhibited by the Telegraph editors. ``English bigots
have been depicting the Irish in offensive ways for
hundreds of years. What's so outrageous here is that
the Telegraph would publish such material at a time
when the Irish peace negoiations are going through
turmoil. I am truly surprised at the insensitivity. Its
editors are clearly out of touch with a good portion of
the community in the North, including both nationalists
and women,'' said Coleman.
As the Telegraph's own site explains, the paper must
both give and seek approval to have another
organisation's page linked to its own.
The Telegraph responded to one activist in Norway,
telling him that the paper did not intend to offend
anyone with their efforts to mark St Patrick's Day. The
paper apologised and said it would remove the offensive
material. Nick Garbutt, the Telegraph's director of
business development, offered ``our sincere apologise if
this has caused you offence.This was certainly not our
intention... Irish jokes are often told and enjoyed in
Ireland. Ours is a site with an almost exclusively
Irish readership, your suggestion of racism is wholly
misplaced.''
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