Mary Ellen Synon, the Sunday Independent writer whose recent column on athletes with disabilities provoked public outrage, made a front-page apology in the newspaper yesterday.
The front page also carried an apology from the editor, Mr Aengus Fanning, and a statement issued last week by Mr Gavin O'Reilly on behalf of the board of Independent Newspapers.
The apologies came as the owner of four Dublin Centra shops boycotted the newspaper and urged other newsagents to follow his example.
In her short apology yesterday, Miss Synon said it was never her intention to "hurt or demean anyone, certainly not any disabled person. I understand now that I did, and for that I apologise".
She said she could say this with "particular personal reason" as she knew "more about legs that cannot walk and a spine that will not hold than I am prepared to say".
It was part of her job, as it was part of the job of all journalists, to be objective, she said. "That comes out sometimes as callousness. It came out as more than callousness last week. I judged my choice of words badly and people were hurt, very badly hurt".
Miss Synon said she had intended to write a longer article yesterday, "but I recognise that, with the hurt and distress, it is time only to say sorry. And I am. Very sorry". Miss Synon's column was not published in yesterday's paper.
The newspaper also published a full page of readers' letters devoted to the issue yesterday, most of which were critical of Miss Synon. According to the paper, 96 per cent of readers were "deeply angered and offended". A letter from Mr John Treacy of the Sports Council called for the newspaper to dissociate itself from Miss Synon's comments. Mr Niall Crowley of the Equality Authority wrote that the columnist's portrayal of people with disabilities "was unacceptable in being dehumanising and belittling".
Mr Seamus Dooley of the National Union of Journalists pointed out that Miss Synon was not a member of the union and did not accept its code of professional conduct.
The director of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God in Shankill, Dublin, said the centre was withdrawing its subscription to the Sunday Independent on behalf of its disabled clients.
Meanwhile, the owner of the Dublin city-centre Centra shops withdrew up to 400 copies of the Sunday Independent from sale in protest over Miss Synon's "disgraceful comments about Ireland's Paralympic heroes".
Mr Seamus Griffin said the boycott would continue indefinitely in his stores in Westmoreland Street, Lower O'Connell Street, Upper O'Connell Street and Lower Dorset Street.
Mr Griffin placed posters in the shops explaining the boycott to customers and urging them not to purchase the paper in any other store. He said he would like to see other newsagents do the same, but he did not see the action as a form of censorship.
"We are taking a big risk by not stocking the paper in that customers might be put out, but the opposite has happened and the customers are very supportive," he said.
The manager of the Westmoreland Street Centra, Mr Jerry Sheahan, said he was outraged and disgusted by Miss Synon's article, especially as his brother-in-law, Mr James Rawson, won a silver medal in the Paralympic Games playing table tennis for Britain in Sydney.