Racism-row mayor reveals fears he could lose his job over 'black African' remarks

Scully afraid to answer door after refusing to represent immigrants

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Darren Scully

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The councilor forced to quit his role as Mayor of Naas in a racism row could now lose his job – and has been subjected to a series of verbal attacks and threats at his family home.

Fine Gael’s Darren Scully had to resign as Mayor of the Kildare town after he told two radio shows that he would no longer represent black Africans in his role as a councilor.

“I will no longer represent black Africans, I have been met with aggressiveness and bad manners. They are aggressive and quick to play the race card,” he said in a radio interview last Tuesday.

Scully has now admitted to RTE radio host Marian Finucane that his job is under threat after his employers, a small structural engineering company whom he refused to name, suspended him in the wake of the controversy.

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Close to tears in his interview with Finucane, Scully also revealed that both he and his family have been threatened in the wake of his remarks about immigrant Africans.

Even though he apologized for the remarks and resigned as Mayor, Scully has been attacked over his comments.

“I have not answered the door since Tuesday,” said Scully. “We have been on the receiving end of some very, very bad things which have been threatening to me and my family.

“I do also fear that I could lose my job now. I will now the outcome this coming week but there is a lot on the line.”

Scully again apologized for his remarks in his latest interview. The young father of two said: “The comments were totally the wrong thing to say. I retract every single word of it and I am so genuinely sorry.

“I am not a racist. What I said was not what I meant in my heart and soul. I didn’t put enough thought into it. Obviously I was expressing my own personal view of dealings I had with regards to council workings with some people but I knew what I said was wrong.

“You cannot, you just cannot paint an entire continent with one brush by saying something like that. You just can’t do that. That’s unforgivable.

“I should have said that I would not deal with anybody who is aggressive. We have aggressive Irish. We have aggressive other nationalities. But what I said was that I wouldn’t deal with black Africans and that’s wrong, you can’t say that.

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