Taylor apologises for referring to Varadkar as ‘the Indian’

Former Ulster Unionist Party Deputy Leader John Taylor, now styling himself ‘Lord Kilclooney’, has been forced to issue an apology after referring to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as “the Indian”.

Taylor, who once noted the SAS shoot-to-kill murder of IRA Volunteers Brian Campbell and Colm McGirr with the comment “two swallows don’t make a summer”, has made a series of bigoted and offensive remarks online since he discovered social media.

He made his latest comment in response to news that the 26 County Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney hoped to see a united Ireland in his “political lifetime”.

Taylor responded saying: “Simon Coveney is stirring things up. Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian.”

Earlier this week, Mr Taylor said that Donegal was better off under British rule and insisted that the issue of the border after Brexit is not Britain’s problem to solve: “The Irish created the border by exiting the UK and they must now accept the consequences.”

He also declared that the current unionist majority meant nationalists should not claim equality -- and that a majority vote for a united Ireland in a border poll would lead to civil war.

He also refused to apologise to the daughter of a woman killed in the McGurk’s bar bombing for a statement that the loyalist attack was an IRA ‘own goal’, which he again refused to retract.

“You do yourself disservice by politicising the subject and lose sympathy,” he told her.

However, as members of the British establishment criticised his latest outburst, he deleted it, acknowledging that it “caused upset and misunderstanding”.

He claimed calling Varadkar ‘the Indian’ was “not racist” but “shorthand for an Indian surname which I could not spell”.

He added: “This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it. I am no way racist and accept that Varadkar is 100 percent Irish Citizen.”

Urgent Appeal