Racist Irish Cartoon In Aus Newspaper

Kermit.de.frog

A lot of the Irish stereotypes are true - that's the sad thing.


Instead of shooting the messenger maybe we should sort out our own issues.

Kenny Logins

It's about as racist as the corks hanging from my hat and the tinnys in the back of my ute.

brooke 2

conorhal wrote: »

The only place I ever encounter girls called Colleen or Erin tend to be places like America and Australia where those of Irish descent call their kids names vaguely refrencing 'the old country', thus calling them a bastardizations of Gaelic words for things like 'girl' Cailin or Ireland 'Erin'. It's the the Irish American equivalent of African Americans giving their kids a strong 'African name' like Shaniqua....

Alannah is another popular one. I actually met an Australian girl of that name.
It turned out that her Australian mother had called her daughter after an Irish
friend of hers who happened to be..............a nurse!!

WilyCoyote

Give me a Colleen before a Sheila any day.
The only culture that Aussies have is around their enlarged orificia.

Skullface McGubbin

I find the comic to be rather tame (and unfunny) but that's probably because politically incorrect humor doesn't offend me (and my own sense of humor can be quite un-PC at times too )

darkpagandeath

Good to see People perceiving alleged Australian Racism, Are above it themselves.... :pac:

Billy86

I reckon Colleen is like Erin, a name used by loads of Irish Americans down the years but that you never really see used by people from Ireland. But the Aussies can be really over the top for that at times too, I'll never forget a guy called Patrick Oscar McMurphy who insisted on signing everything as "Paddy O'McMurphy" (I worked in sales over there).

I absolutely loved it over there and came in for pretty much no hassle for being Irish. In my experience spent mostly in Sydney I tended to find that the people complaining about Aussies not liking the Irish were the same ones who spent all their time surrounded by just Irish people, living around Bondi and never really straying from Bondi beach/Junction while working for/with almost exclusive very Irish people and spending pretty much all their nights out in the three main Irish pubs (Tea Gardens, Cock and Bull, Scruffy Murphys) getting sh*t faced beyond the point most of the locals found tolerable (because surprisingly they aren't actually very big drinkers and have tight regulations on this), and then straight down one of the safe bets for a "full Irish" the next morning. A huge portion of the Irish population over there is very closed off, which is always going to lead to issues with the locals... I remember some Irish people I met shortly after I arrived there giving me stick all day over talking with a bunch of Aussies for most of a night out, for no other reason than them being Aussies. It was a bit surreal, so I cut ties there fairly quick sharp.

As for the cartoon, meh. They are pretty bad about Aboriginals, Lebanese and to a lesser extent Asians at times (more so the older generations), and the cartoon here is just dumb (and to be fair, their attempts at wit can sometimes fall incredibly short like seen here) but while they like to give some 'banter' it's typically not with bad intentions - I guess you could call it casual racism/xenophobia which we have often been guilty of since migrants started coming here too, but it typically comes over worse than intended.

If anything, a lot of companies prefer to hire Irish/British people since we have a reputation over there of working harder, and socially it works as a bonus as well. The amount of times I got any real grief over being Irish twice, I think.

Billy86

brooke 2 wrote: »

Alannah is another popular one. I actually met an Australian girl of that name.
It turned out that her Australian mother had called her daughter after an Irish
friend of hers who happened to be..............a nurse!!

And Liam, there's a bunch of Liam over there. Tell them their name is also Billy and watch their brains explode inside their heads.

shruikan2553

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

A lot of the Irish stereotypes are true - that's the sad thing.


Instead of shooting the messenger maybe we should sort out our own issues.

Because all Irish women are nurses called Colleen and working in Australia. We will ban the name and woman nurses. There, issue solved.

JONJO THE MISER

If you look at the last words on the captions, it says colleens the lot of em, can you not see the bitterness here, swap the word colleen with something else.

RichardoKhan

What would have been funny is if instead of nurses it had been the last couple of Ministers for Health.........

Wibbs

If someone could work up offence over that they shouldn't be let out on their own without adult supervision.

Duggy747

I'm offended that people are offended at such a shìte joke.

darkpagandeath

Love the caption "sparks anger online"...

Mike1961

Skippy: tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh

Mike: Yeh yer right skippy .. them Oirish are a sensitive bunch o' dingos

lightspeed

From what i was listening to on newstalk, the Aussie government are looking to recruit nurses from Ireland and the media seem to be taping to or attempting to serve the anti immigrant feelings of "They're taking our jobs" mantra.

Similar to here and UK the way people comment about polish people taking our jobs here. Pretty poor standard of comedy and journalism and shines a poor light on Australia.

I've never understood the pull people have to that place.

Barely There

TheChizler wrote: »

Can racism be directed at a nationality?

Nope, it's xenophobic.

Valetta

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

If you look at the last words on the captions, it says colleens the lot of em, can you not see the bitterness here, swap the word colleen with something else.

Why would you swap the word with another one?

darkpagandeath

Valetta wrote: »

Why would you swap the word with another one?

Because if it's not Racist now you can make it, Twist the words make up stuff that's not there.

El Weirdo

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

... can you not see the bitterness here...

Oh, I can see the bitterness alright. Just maybe not where you're seeing it.

Diabhal Beag

So journal.ie wants us to nuke Oz over this aye?

SEPT 23 1989

a shower of transported convicts is all they really are

whisky_galore

It's a pretty crap joke/cartoon, I've seen 5 year olds come up with better.

Plus can't think of any Irish girl anywhere named Colleen. Maybe they existed back in the 1800's.

TheChizler

Barely There wrote: »

Nope, it's xenophobic.

Exactly.

I am pie

Of course it's not racist because Irish is not a race, it's a nationality. It's mildly xenophobic and I suppose mildly amusing if you're into that whole 1980s Jim Davidson schtick that most people are fairly embarassed about.

I've no idea, but I suspect this the Australian version of Daily Mail/Express is it? Probably don't need to close the embassy just yet.

juniord

RichardoKhan wrote: »

What would have been funny is if instead of nurses it had been the last couple of Ministers for Health.........

would have to use a very wide angled lens to fit the last two in

The Drunken Destrier

I wonder if those offended are the same people who don fake ginger beards and leprechaun hats every March 17th. There must be some overlap.

Gandalph

OP you probably cry when you put on clothes that haven't been washed with your favourite fabric softener...talk about sensitivity.

RDM_83 again

This reminds me, I was monitoring with a team of 4 builders last summer. Their names were
Paddy
Mick
Mick
And Polish Mick

There's a joke there some where :-)

jimgoose

Is this supposed to be offensive? Like a cartoon of a bunch of Australians arriving at a hostel here in standard Bogan wife-beaters and shorts, and one of them being a kangaroo? Am I missing something??