Tiernan disappoints Jewish community

A REPRESENTATIVE of Ireland’s Jewish community has expressed disappointment that comedian Tommy Tiernan did not apologised for recent remarks on Jews but chose instead to justify them.

Carl Nelkin, public affairs spokesman for the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, said the comedian had an opportunity to apologise for them but then “tried to justify them by referring to the comic context. Clearly there are boundaries you cannot cross, even in such a context”.

Mr Nelkin also said he was “disappointed so many cheered and applauded Mr Tiernan’s remarks, as reported,” at the Electric Picnic. He did, however, wonder at the state of mind of the crowd. Personally, having lived all his life in Ireland, he had never experienced any prejudice. “Absolutely not,” he said, when asked. He had only experienced “tolerance and respect. It has been very, very positive,” apart from a kid who called him “a Jewman” when he was six.

In a statement yesterday, The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland said it was “deeply saddened and distressed to learn of the reported anti-Semitic comments made by Mr Tommy Tiernan”.

It strongly condemned the comments which were “totally unacceptable”, “insensitive and deeply hurtful to the many Jewish people whose relatives were murdered during the Holocaust”. It also welcomed “the timely interventions” of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Ruairí Quinn TD.