Fr Ted creator/writer Graham Linehan Arrested over posts on Transgender issues

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018904#Comment_124018904

Add me to your ignore list. We clearly wont agree on any of these issues.

And dont respond to this message.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018887#Comment_124018887

You and me both actually, the amount of human energy wasted on this topic is staggering.

I hate to think of the things we might have accomplished as a species with all the time spent arguing over this utter nonsense that barely impacts anyone at all on either side of the debate.

Rather hilariously I was watching Black Books while writing the above and the man himself popped up on my TV haha

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018881#Comment_124018881

Really? JKR has had a lot of hate and trenchant criticism as well. I'd have said the big difference between them is the $1.2 billion in her bank account.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018950#Comment_124018950

You can disagree with her opinion (and many do!) but she doesn't come across as having lost her mind in the same way Linehan has. I get the impression she has loads of other things going on in her life, whereas every second of his life is consumed by thoughts about trans people.

I remember before deleting my Twitter account I could just think 'I bet if I look at Grahams twitter account right this moment he'll have posted something about the trans issue in the last twenty minutes' and was correct an alarming amount of times.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018853#Comment_124018853

It was a tough hill to die on - but my own belief is that it started very much how that very famous cartoon (well it was famous back in the day on boards anyway) portrays - it was simply a case of man nearing middle age doesn’t understand that you can’t “correct” the internet, and you’re better off closing the phone and laptop and do family things or write funny scripts or whatever it is that you do.

He didn’t- and every time he went back to try and right it, it just got worse. Ironically this picture summarises pretty accurately his descent into internet hell - didn’t help he was on twitter too- the worlds virtual cesspit

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018853#Comment_124018853

I think you're conflating a couple of different things there. His mental state is one thing, which ultimately is his own responsibility. I have wondered about it at times, but he seemed fairly sound there today, and is entitled to feel some vindication. He might even be surprised by the amount of (fair) coverage he got on the RTE evening news about the case.

Another thing is the bullying and the cancellation. It clearly has affected his career and life dramatically. But, that aspect is not his fault. I think it would be victim blaming to suggest otherwise. It seems to me you are criticising him for being obsessive about it, which may be fair enough. But, the way things are turning, maybe he will be lauded for his steadfast persistence some day.

Also, he's certainly not the only person who was cancelled in the last five years. There's been lots. I always remember one gender critical woman, trying to eke out a living as an artist, describing (on Twitter) how the activists got her musician boyfriend uninvited from a music festival, because he wouldn't denounce her publicly (literally true). That case never made the newspapers, and I don't even know what happened to them. It would almost be funny to say 'they weren't expecting the Spanish inquisition' except these things clearly aren't funny to the people affected.

Then there's cases like this one that did make the media. 2021 seems to have been the peak of the hysteria/witch hunt

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/jess-de-wahls-royal-academy-shop-ditches-work-by-artist-accused-of-transphobia-xdlzkf0l7

The academy said that it would no longer stock works by Jess de Wahls. It thanked campaigners for bringing to its attention “an item in the RA shop by an artist representing transphobic views”.

The institution was widely criticised yesterday. It was asked if it would stop promoting the work of artists such as Eric Gill, who sexually abused his daughters, and Caravaggio, the 17th- century Roman painter who fled to Naples after being sentenced to death for murder.

Hamsterchops

… Ultimately, Graham has been AND IS on the winning side of the debate.

Thank you Graham, thank you also FWS, thank you JKR + Sex Matters + Andrew Doyle + too many to mention. Freda Wallace and that other annoying tit with the camera can sling their hooks. The game is up and the activists argument has been defeated on every front.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018916#Comment_124018916

40 chips 😀😀

Tinter Box

Wasn’t there something about his wife deciding the marriage was over when he spent all of Christmas Day on Twitter instead of with the family.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019040#Comment_124019040

That, I did not know about, and I therefore apologise to @o1s1n

That certainly is of the "Someone on the internet is wrong" ilk.

Like I said, Ive not been following the story from the beginning.

And I lived with someone(she was my partner) who played World of Warcraft morning, noon and night. We are not together anymore. Anyone who does anything obsessively becomes less attractive.

maik3n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018833#Comment_124018833

I'm not sure what his gender has to do with anything. It would be the same problem if this was a CIS woman.
What's inexplicable is anyone throwing away their whole career/marriage, life in general just to win internet points.
He is not Gandhi here, FFS.

Cyclingtourist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018904#Comment_124018904

"Her phone not him or that her."

I posted 'his/their phone' as it belongs to a trans woman.

That's someone born a biological male who identifies as female but I'm sure you're aware of that.

What point are you trying to make?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019040#Comment_124019040

Yeah. Apparently, he tweeted about the trans stuff 50 times on Christmas Day. His child tried to give him a Christmas present but he couldn't care less.

To trade a happy family and a successful career in comedy for… this. I don't understand it.

CatFromHue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018966#Comment_124018966

I agree with you. He is right about most of the stuff he's being saying but couldn't seem to take a break from twitter. Similar to yourself I remember looking at his twitter account a few years back before I really knew what twitter was and I couldn't figure out what was going on as he was tweeting and retweeting so much. Even before the trans stuff he was a heavy twitter user and I don't think that was healthy.

maik3n

The fact that he immediately went back on twitter, after the court case, to post more sh*t about the complainant, just shows how far down the rabbit hole he has gone.
I would love to see the complainant lodge an appeal and just say, harassment your honour, I give you exhibit A.

cj maxx

Maybe I'm missing something in the whole story . GL said men are men and women are women . I haven't heard public outrage directed at the UK Parliament which just months before put a statutory definition on gender defining exactly that in UK law . Wokism gone mad , but he should have kept out of such a contentious debate for his own sake . Nothing else to see there .

Cyclingtourist

I'm not so sure the 'ignore them and they'll go away' strategy would have worked for Linehan once he'd made his position clear.

The trans activists are really nasty people.

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019057#Comment_124019057

That, I did not know about

I wouldn't just assume that juicy allegation is true. The only reference I can find to it is a post on reddit/ireland - that great bastion of free speech and objectivity on the trans issue … 🙄

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019079#Comment_124019079

"I posted 'his/their phone' as it belongs to a trans woman."

Which is wrong. She is a Woman always has been. So it is her.

It would would be they them if none binary or he if the individual was a transman.

"That's someone born a biological male who identifies as female but I'm sure you're aware of that."

They might have been assigned that at birth but it was wrong. No fault of the parents or doctors at the time. These things happen. She was born with the wrong bits and now she is investing in herself and fixing that mistake at birth.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019069#Comment_124019069

"I'm not sure what her gender has to do with anything. It would be the same problem if this was a CIS woman."

Her gender. She is a Woman. It was awoman yes a Trans woman but still a woman that he was and still is harassing and that he hit the phone out of.

Hopefully second time around he will be found guilty of harassment. He might have fooled the judge once but you know what they say

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

Well hopefully second time around the Judge will have learned what a nasty, sad little individual Linehan really is and not let him fool him again.

Cyclingtourist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019413#Comment_124019413

Thanks for the clarification, 'biology is bunkum'.

aero2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019093#Comment_124019093

While I agree with his opinions, I don't think he does himself any favours with the manner in which he expresses them.

Something worth considering is his medication regime- he has said he's on medication and in videos he has some physical symptoms consistent with that. I don't know at what stage the medication began but it's not unusual for people to undergo personality and / or behavioural changes after beginning drug treatment for so-called mental health problems.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019456#Comment_124019456

You are welcome.

Yes its a lit more complex than they would like us to believe. There is more than just XY and XX chromosomes.

There is also XXY and YYX as well as many others. Its not just black and white.

Cyclingtourist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019588#Comment_124019588

Well whatever his medication it's a matter between him and his clinician. I don't believe it was raised as a defence in his recently concluded case and anytime I've seen him interviewed he appears rational. Obviously highly invested in the issue but other less well known figures are as well and that goes for both sides of the debate.

His voluntary exile in the U.S. was a rational decision for someone who, with good reason, feels oppressed by police actions in the UK.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019588#Comment_124019588

I don't but that's fine. We live in a free society. He can say what he wants.

I don't think that's worth considering. He started this crusade a long time ago. It started over an episode of The IT Crowd that aired in 2008. He then went on to radicalise himself on social media to the point where his obsession cost him his career and his partner. So many people have described him as toxic over the years that I lean towards that than anything about medication.

He turned himself into this and it cost him everything. Nobody made him do this. I've never once seen him express concern about women getting assaulted, murdered/abused by men, sexualised, etc. It's only this which makes me think it's just about a hatred for trans people.

It's desperately sad. The man was probably Ireland's best ever comedy writer. Father Ted is Father Ted and Black Books is damn funny as well. The IT Crowd was grand, better than most stuff today and I've never seen Big Train.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019069#Comment_124019069

Never said he was anything like Gandhi (who BTW had some very dodgy leanings himself, but hey he's an official hero of the left so let's not look too closely at him, right?)

I'm saying that this supposed point of "Why do you care, sure it doesn't affect your life" really only says something nasty about the people using it. What did Josiah Wedgwood or William Wilberforce, or indeed any of the Quakers, care about African slavery, after all? And as a man (and this is where his sex comes into it) Linehan could, like most men on here clearly, decide that he didn't care about women like Rachel Rooney or Sonya Douglas or Birdie Rose and her male partner Doozer McDooze (the singer/songwriter couple you mentioned above, @plodder) or Roisin Murphy or Natalie Bird etc etc, because after all, it wasn't going to affect him.

It's a bit different for women because you never know when it is going to affect you. Andrea Thompson didn't expect it: she didn't initially realise she was competing against a man for the Strongest Woman title because she naively thought only women could compete. You can see her "**** this carry-on" face when she realised Jammie Booker was celebrating getting the title of Strongest Woman as though he had actually won something:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-15326043/Brit-came-second-biological-male-Worlds-Strongest-Woman-competition-speaks-tells-communitys-frustration-trans-womans-dishonesty-deception.html

https://twitter.com/icons_women/status/1993367605923766531?s=20

(FWIW Booker is white, Thompson is black. Funny how he was able to overcome his white privilege and identify into being the MOPE just by uttering the magic words. It's actually interesting how often that happens: Laurel Hubbard, a member of one of the richest families in New Zealand, took an Olympic spot from an indigenous woman who had had to train in her family's back garden because they had no many - but being a trans woman made Hubbard super oppressed.)

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124018651#Comment_124018651

Dermot Morgan brought out his Father Trendy character on national TV in 1980 and was doing his sermon for the pint in 1983

I don't see why him doing Ted in 1985 would have been any more blasphemous or that it was taking on any sacred cow he hadn't already been lampooning by then

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019588#Comment_124019588

Linehan got himself into trouble by tweeting a "joke" while he was in hospital, doped to the eyeballs with painkillers after surgery for prostate cancer.

Then, partly because he was NOT on Twitter whenever he wanted because he was in hospital getting various treatments, he didn't fully realise when it all blew up and so he seemed to think he could "fix" things by explaining rather than making an abject apology and "educating himself". That might not have been enough to satisy the witchfinders of course, but the point is, he doubled down rather backing away.

I suspect that's his personality as much as anything. Whether that's an honourable commitment to truth or an inability to ever back down, I wouldn't dream of speculating. Unlike others here, I make no claim to have inside knowledge of the breakdown of the Linehan marriage.

Although I will point out that excessive use of social media does not actually make him wrong on the substantive issue, just a slightly obsessive/addictive personality, and also that recovering from any cancer, but especially one like prostate cancer can also cause changes in a personality and complications in a relationship. There is, AFAIAA, zero evidence that she left him because she disagreed with him over trans issues. And it's interesting that the "be kind" people are so keen to slag him off over the failure of his marriage. Cos he's literally the only man in that situation. 🙄

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019695#Comment_124019695

My parents were staunch Protestants and I wasn't allowed to watch Father Ted until I was in my teens. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would have considered it blasphemous at the time.

StrawbsM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124019413#Comment_124019413

The Guardian are also not calling them “her” it’s all “they/their” in the below report. Channel 4 news did the same in their report yesterday.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/nov/25/graham-linehan-cleared-of-harassing-trans-activist-but-convicted-of-damaging-phone