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Gabriel Byrne in hot water over election endorsement

Hollywood star endorsed candidate on national TV one week before poll


Published Monday, July 13, 2009, 10:39 AM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 6:08 PM

 

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Gabriel Byrne in trouble over election endorsement
Gabriel Byrne in trouble over election endorsement
Photo by EMPICS Entertainment/PA

Hollywood star Gabriel Byrne is in hot water in his native Ireland after he endorsed a candidate on national TV before the recent local elections.

Speaking on the Late Late Show just one week before the poll, Flynn endorsed Mannix Flynn, a well-known critic of the Irish child abuse scandals.

Flynn attended the infamous St. Joesph's Industrial school in Letterfrack and has been outspoken in his attacks on the "culture of denial" around the abuse suffered by him and thousands of other children in Ireland.

Flynn topped the poll in Dublin City Council but one of his opponents, Labor's Kevin Humphreys, is claiming that RTE gave Flynn an unfair advantage although both won their respective seats.

RTE is more or less claiming that the entire complaint is a waste of time seeing as both candidates won their seats.

However, Humphreys says that RTE broke his own rules and should be punished.

The controversy started when Byrne appeared on the Late Late with a pro-Flynn election pamphlet visible in his jacket pocket.

The pamphlet slipped out of view during the show but host, Pat Kenny, referred to it as a flyer for "our old friend Mannix Flynn," before Byrne endorsed him.

The director of elections for Humphreys then lodged a complaint after the program claiming that RTE had failed to be fair objective and impartial.

 RTE says that it believes that the matter be considered resolved while the Broadcasting Complaints Commission has yet to rule on the matter.

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