Irish ‘damaging English virgins’ remark deemed offensive

A suggestion by the fashion designer Paul Costelloe that young Irish men in London are "damaging a lot of young English virgins … and more power to them" was offensive to radio listeners, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has found.

The BAI held that Mr Costelloe's remark, which he made on RTÉ Radio 1's The Business programme on February 1st, was not sufficiently challenged by the presenter George Lee.

The BAI's compliance committee acted on foot of a complaint from listener Barbara Smith, who said Mr Lee had simply "laughed off" Mr Costelloe's remarks which she described as "repugnant to women, and dangerous".

A number of people also emailed the programme complaining about the content.

The committee criticised Mr Lee for not showing “due care in respect” of the sensitivities of listeners by both his tone and his answer to his own question in respect of whether or not his guest had displayed chauvinism.

At the end of the interview, Mr Lee read out a text from a listener complaining about the remark: He put it to Mr Costelloe: “Does that mean you’re a chauvinist?” to which Mr Lee added “Not at all”.

In the course of his interview, Mr Costelloe spoke about all the new Irish emigrants to London.

He said: “The English, they love us and they hate us, you know, you just have to put up with that. Certainly the Irish are never short of chatting up and, you know, we have that skill and I’m sure these young guys are doing great and damaging a lot of young English virgins, so there you are, and good luck to them.”

RTÉ argued that the remark by Mr Costelloe was a “throwaway one” which was completely “unforeseeable”, as the interview was live.

It further stated that the episode does not indicate any lack of due care for the protection of listeners “from undue offence and from harm”.

RTÉ pointed out that Mr Lee later read out a text complaining about the remark.

Mr Costelloe replied that he was not a chauvinist saying: “On the contrary, I just have a sense of humour”.

The BAI compliance committee found RTÉ did not take sufficient care in broadcasting a live programme and they had an obligation “to manage the additional language during live programming, and broadcasters are expected to manage the additional risks that arise from live programming, for example via the use of a mechanism such as a broadcast delay”.