Would you take offence if someone called you a Leprechaun for being Irish??

SharpshooterTom · 07-07-2015 11:04AM #1

Not really a big deal, but yesterday you may have heard Rory McIlroy's abrupt injury putting him a cast and possibly ruling him out of the open championship and uspga, Fox News decided to report (I use that term loosely) on it with one of the hosts being overheard saying "He's a leprechaun. I can't stand him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWD_dWPi0U

(I believe its the first host you see in the video who said it)

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/fox-news-anchor-slates-rory-mcilroy-live-on-air---he-s-a-leprechaun--i-can-t-stand-him-073856324.html

I noticed some of the press here, Belfast Telegraph, Independent, Journal.ie etc ran the story and getting a bit miffed over it. I think one of the fox news hosts ended up afterwards ended up having a conversation on twitter with paddypower.

Would you get offended if American, British person or whoever referred to you as a leprechaun? Is it an offensive slur and should someone have repercussion for saying it? Or is it just nothing really?

BattleCorp · 07-07-2015 11:06AM

Begorra ta be sure I would me boyo.

Now I'm off. Top o'the mornin ta ya.

The Backwards Man · 07-07-2015 11:06AM

If a Fox News anchor couldn't stand me, I'd take that as a compliment.

Menas · 07-07-2015 11:08AM

Shure isnt it better than been called a midget or dwarf so it is?
Or a drunken langer.

SpaceTime · 07-07-2015 11:09AM

In that context - yes!

It was a very deliberate and intentional somewhat xenophobic slur that sounds like schoolyard bullying.

She shouldn't be presenting the news if she can't refrain from making nasty remarks about people.

Richard Hillman · 07-07-2015 11:09AM

No. I'd just laugh at the awful putdown

Ush1 · 07-07-2015 11:11AM

Is it supposed to be an insult? I don't even understand.

keano_afc · 07-07-2015 11:12AM

She's just after his Lucky Charms.

DoYouEvenLift · 07-07-2015 11:12AM

If I was Rory McIlroy I wouldn't give a sh!t what any reporter calls me, I'd be richer than them.

speedboatchase · 07-07-2015 11:12AM

Happened before and yes, I was offended. I was working in a retail store in England and when I asked a colleague a question, she was surprised to see me and said "Ooh, you popped up like a little leprechaun there!"

I pointed out that if I wasn't Irish she wouldn't have said that, and that it was a bit messed up to say that. I didn't kick up a huge fuss but it was irritating, especially since she couldn't understand how I might have been offended.

SpaceTime · 07-07-2015 11:14AM

I'd still rather be called a leprechaun than represent Fox "News"!

Bio Mech · 07-07-2015 11:15AM

Leprechauns don't have nationalities.

biko · 07-07-2015 11:17AM

The internet, now you can get offended 77% faster than before.

07-07-2015 11:18AM

Actually I would think it rather cute...

But...

look at the fuss when google (an inanimate programme) misidentified a photo of a black person as a gorilla... or the fuss about using 'indian' in US football team names.. or the political correctness applied to some people who want to kill us....and I begin to wonder if we shouldn't be offended a lot more.

kneemos · 07-07-2015 11:20AM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Not really a big deal, but yesterday you may have heard Rory McIlroy's abrupt injury putting him a cast and possibly ruling him out of the open championship and uspga, Fox News decided to report (I use that term loosely) on it with one of the hosts being overheard saying "He's a leprechaun. I can't stand him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWD_dWPi0U

(I believe its the first host you see in the video who said it)

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/fox-news-anchor-slates-rory-mcilroy-live-on-air---he-s-a-leprechaun--i-can-t-stand-him-073856324.html

I noticed some of the press here, Belfast Telegraph, Independent, Journal.ie etc ran the story and getting a bit miffed over it. I think one of the fox news hosts ended up afterwards ended up having a conversation on twitter with paddypower.

Would you get offended if American, British person or whoever referred to you as a leprechaun? Is it an offensive slur and should someone have repercussion for saying it? Or is it just nothing really?

What was the conversation with Paddypowder.

Boring username · 07-07-2015 11:22AM

I think Peter Griffin speaks for all of us when he says:

hadepsx · 07-07-2015 11:28AM

would they take offence if a leprechaun brought "the pain"

kneemos · 07-07-2015 11:30AM

Have we proof that he's not in fact a Leprechaun?

The Sun King · 07-07-2015 11:31AM

I find it very hard to get offended when others take the piss out of Irish people. My friends and I were saying worse things to each other when we were 13.

I assumed this stuff just rolls off of us.

Harry Palmr · 07-07-2015 11:32AM

Fox should be shot like a fox

NachoBusiness · 07-07-2015 11:35AM

It's just a term use to lightheartedly slag us..

Like calling New Zealanders sheep shaggers, or French people cheese eating surrender monkeys.

speedboatchase · 07-07-2015 11:40AM

The Sun King wrote: »

I find it very hard to get offended when others take the piss out of Irish people. My friends and I were saying worse things to each other when we were 13.

I assumed this stuff just rolls off of us.

There's a difference though, especially if you're comparing joking with friends, or watching a comedian on TV, with someone insulting you to your face. If someone insults you out of malice, rather than as a joke, and insults you on the basis of your nationality, it's more charged than just insulting someone for their behaviour.

SpaceTime · 07-07-2015 11:45AM

That didn't sound like a joke. She said it pretty nastily!

Also note how her colleague just tried to rapidly move on with a slight "wtf? Did she just say that" expression...

lickme · 07-07-2015 11:48AM

It's like calling American people fat when clearly there obese.

SpaceTime · 07-07-2015 11:51AM

lickme wrote: »

It's like calling American people fat when clearly there obese.

How very dare you! They're simply horizontally challenged!

Mr_Muffin · 07-07-2015 11:55AM

To be honest we are all Leprechauns behind it all. We all descended from the same Leprechaun clan so i don't see the problem.

OiL RiG · 07-07-2015 11:59AM

While living in the US as an Irish person, I never once took offence to the many references to leprechauns. Either people use it naively in a light-hearted way, or (in this case) they're stupid enough to think that it's actually an insult. Neither is worth getting offended about.

Also, this wouldn't even make the list for worst things said on Fox that day.

Boom_Bap · 07-07-2015 12:02PM

She was obviously cut off mid scentence. She really said
"He's a leprechaun. I can't stand hymn hummers or leprechauns. Rory is the exception. He is buff and totally rad."

SpaceTime · 07-07-2015 12:04PM

Seems being the school bully qualifies you for a job anchoring on that channel.

LDN_Irish · 07-07-2015 12:09PM

I'd never heard leprechaun being used as an actual term of abuse until watching a video of 3 Americans (I think they were Americans) jumping an Irish guy in a GAA jersey outside a pizza place and him frantically trying to hold on to his pizza while they sucker punched him. I thought it was over for him until they made him drop his pizza and he got the rage and started throwing out drunken haymakers until they all ran for their lives.

So yeah, the anchor just needs a drunken haymaker and we're all square.

kneemos · 07-07-2015 12:10PM

I think Fox have a very narrow band of what's acceptable in a human.

Would you take offence if someone called you a Leprechaun for being Irish??

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