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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Olympic hero Daley Thompson’s anti-Irish slur a reminder of the bad times -- Black British superstar should really have known better given his race

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Olympic hero Daley Thompson’s anti-Irish slur a reminder of the bad times -- Black British superstar should really have known better given his race

Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 at 08:14 AM

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Daley Thompson (Credit: PA)

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, anti Irish sentiment in Britain ran high, linked to the IRA campaign in Britain.

It was a very tough time to be Irish there. I worked for close to a year in London in the 1970s and anti-Irish jokes, a steady stream of comedians on TV indicting us as stupid and lazy and a constant sense of being under suspicion when an Irish accent was heard, was part of everyday life.

Those bad old days, post peace process, are gone – but there has been an unwelcome echo of the old days these past few days – and from a very surprising source.

Daley Thompson is roughly the British equivalent of Magic Johnson, a widely adored and respected former athlete who accomplished amazing feats and has had a successful post- sporting career.

He has been honored three times by the Queen and is an official ambassador for the London Olympics. It has long been rumored he will light the Olympic torch at the opening ceremony.

Thompson is also black and he won Olympic gold at two different Olympics. In a country starved of top class athletes, that made him a superstar. The fact that he won them at the decathlon event, one of the toughest events at the games, made his achievement all the greater.

So it is deeply surprising that Thompson jeopardized all that goodwill with the type of racial stereotype that he, a black person, above all, should have been wary of.

Daley, 53, made his screw up on live TV on BBC when he was shown a photograph of a torchbearer with the words ‘OYLMPIC torch bearer’ (sic) tattooed onto her arm.

Images of the miss-spelt tattoo have gone global on the Internet but Thompson took an anti-Irish stance when he commented on the photo and said: “The tattooist must have been Irish.”

Jenny McShannon, chief executive of the Federation of Irish Societies, stated the comment was "unnecessary and totally out of keeping with the spirit of the Olympics."

The BBC issued an official apology and stated, "Daley's comments about this were clearly meant as a joke but we apologize if any offence was caused, it certainly wasn't our intention."

It may cost Thompson the opportunity to light the Olympic torch according to some reports. While that may seem an over reaction to some, Thompson, son of a Nigerian father and Scottish mother, really needs to class up his act if he is chosen for such a role.

Compared to legends like Muhammad Ali, who has lit the flame in the past, he has a very long way to go indeed.

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82 Comments

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Cherball | Sep 08, 2012, 09:59 PM EDT

What part of English didn't you all understand, we are Irish we have good cause to dislike them. Just because he's black, you think he's Obama. Wake up!

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Briandee | Aug 11, 2012, 04:49 PM EDT

hes black...why is he in Europe?

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ciaradexy | Jul 31, 2012, 06:17 PM EDT

Francis, he meant Irish not Americans.

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Ron | Jul 31, 2012, 12:22 AM EDT

Get over yourselves! It was his idea of an Irish joke ferchrissake. There are other Irish jokes around based on the Olympics. The Irish athlete carrying a roll of barbed wire is a beauty. When asked what event he represents, he replied 'fencing'. Bloody hilarious.

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curtisjohnson | Jul 29, 2012, 10:34 PM EDT

Whinging would not be inaccurate but I was referring to nation rape.

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seanomelb | Jul 29, 2012, 07:10 PM EDT

What pastime is that Curtis whingeing??

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curtisjohnson | Jul 28, 2012, 11:14 PM EDT

Maybe british patriotards like Daley and towntroll are just venting their frustration that their most prominent national past time has been ommitted from the Olympics.

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americelt | Jul 28, 2012, 07:50 PM EDT

I don't get it??? I have spent a lot of time in England as well as Ireland and have never before heard of stupidity being attributed to the Irish. A certain Euro County? Yes. As tasteless as it would be had he sad the tattooist must have been P____ I would have gotten that. :D

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jaysuscarrot | Jul 28, 2012, 05:37 PM EDT

Who can forget Daley Thompson parading around the arena at the 1984 Olympics wearing a T shirt saying "Is the world's 2nd greatest athlete gay?" - a reference to the sexuality of Carl Lewis. He has always been a crass, ignorant bigot.

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curtisjohnson | Jul 28, 2012, 11:35 AM EDT

It was not long ago that the teutonic/nordic master race psychosis was popular in the anglo maintstream. Due to the mass immigration/cheap labor project, this has been made taboo (with only nutbags like the recent Liverpool protesters openly advocating them) but are still unofficially followed and manifest themselves directly and indirectly. The desire to equate the "Celts" with "aryans" (lol) probably played a role in the excess emphasis on the Halstatt culture as the origin of the culture (based upon inaccurate physical descriptions contained in selected Roman texts).

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curtisjohnson | Jul 28, 2012, 11:28 AM EDT

Schon have you actually read the book? It copiously supports the premise and includes and carefully considers the contra theory. The issue will never be 100% proven but the weight of the evidence certainly supports their position. "'Celtic Culture' is based on Celtic or proto-Celtic language, their art and literature" What is the Celtic literature to which you refer?? What is your definition of what a "Celt" is??? What are the specific genetic markers (both patrilinear and matrilinear)?

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FrancisKy | Jul 28, 2012, 10:32 AM EDT

I always felt that the Irish could laugh at themselves better than anyone else. That's what makes us so lovable. I think we really have more important things to worry about right now.

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Schon | Jul 27, 2012, 11:50 PM EDT

Nope, I agree with you regards nationality and race but then you need to put yourself into the mindset of the politically correct English ma ,,, person. 15 years ago a lecturer in one of the northern English universities was awarded £15000 because his colleagues called him 'Paddy'. His forename was Patrick.

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Schon | Jul 27, 2012, 11:18 PM EDT

curtisjohnson The idea of a 'Celtic Culture' is based on Celtic or proto-Celtic language, their art and literature WRT Cunliffe & Koch, their premise regards the arrival of Indo-European circa 5000BC on the atlantic coast with Celtic language developing and spreading into europe. However, there appears to be a dearth of archaeological evidence to be found in the Iberian Peninsula to support this theory. Languages leave little archaeological evidence. Further, there is an attempt to redefine what a Celt is in the book and the time when the Celtic language developed is ambiguous but slanted towards the pre-Hallstatt D, the Urnfield.

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curtisjohnson | Jul 27, 2012, 09:22 PM EDT

Preliminarily, as stated, "Celtic" has never been definitively demonstrated as anything beyond a cultural term. The current thinking is that the Celtic culture spread from the Atlantic zone during the bronze age as evidenced by the publications resulting from the most recent conference of scholars on the issue (reproduced in the 2012 publication by Cunliffe and Koch "Celtic from the West"). The Halstatt region did produce most of the prodigous metal artwork identified with Celtic culture, most likely due to the vast mineral wealth of the area.

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