Aibu to find this comment from Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar deeply offensive to all people with intellectual disabilities & their families. Absolutely appalling.

[55balloons]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41143480.html

This same man is trying to rush in draconian hate speech laws in Ireland..

Many disability groups in Ireland have quite rightly voiced their disgust & despair..

These vulnerable people with intellectual disabilities are suffering enough at the hands of our Prime Minister & his Fine Gael party through severe lack of funding. How dare he make fun.
Ireland as a nation is in a very bad way...

Leo can comment like that & publicly target a vulnerable group..
Yet we can no longer say a man is a man or a woman is a woman And they are trying to teach of children the same in schools with the new sex education curriculum?
Look at the way the manager for the Eurovision band was treated here in Ireland for saying a man was a man!!

Why leapt to assuming he meant people with disabilities rather than people who are not learning from past mistakes or paraphrasing a famous quote? He does not mention disabilities.

I am making a judgement solely based on this and the other articles though, I know nothing of this man's previous character so maybe that's why I am not reading more into it, but there are often people that take offense to things that the rest of us think is seemingly innocuous. I would have to know more about the groups quoted backgrounds too before making a judgement.

Totally agree with Downpatrick's comments. The "Sunningdale for slow learners" is a phrase that is repeatedly used by politicans and political analysts, even over the last few months in relation to the Protocol, so it is not about a change in attitudes, and it is just politically motivated. I have never taken it to relate to people with learning disabilities but rather to mean people who are stupid politically.

As for the coronation, personally I'm affronted that the Taoiseach went to the ceremony at all, never mind with his partner. I don't think there is any place for democratically elected leaders of a republic at the crowning of a hereditary monarch.

Plenty of other things to attack Varadkar over.

@Utahthecat read the article above, disability groups have taken grave offence to his comment.
He is the one who takes political correctness to a whole new level.. Remember his outraged reaction to Michael Healy Raes "Airy Fairy comment?

They say "Using anyone’s disability – whether physical or intellectual – as a put down impacts us all in the disabled community. Once again we are the butt of the joke, shame on you!"

The point is, this phrase is not related to people with disabilities, it is related to political acumen and Varadkar even referenced Mallon. It was never directed at people with disabilities: special interest groups can't own the words "slow learners" and refuse to allow it be used in a context that is nothing to do with people with disabilities.

Can you explain Leo's utter outrage at Michael Healy Raes Airy Fairy comment.. Leo said it was a homophobic slur.. @Utahthecat

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/tanaiste-suggests-healy-raes-go-with-the-airy-fairies-was-homophobic-remark-but-kerry-td-refuses-to-apologise/41478490.html

I mean Leo's just a knob, plain and simple. He leaked confidential documents but got away with it scot free. The political landscape in Ireland is a farce and a total mess. Ff/fg are just the same party and the alternatives, well they aren't really alternatives at all. Nothing will ever change in Ireland. No matter what party the politican belongs to , they are only interested in feathering their own nest.

Just watched the video inside the Independent link.. It's actually comical! The Healy Reas don't hold back.. Leo took exception straight away.. However his slow learner comment is much worse

Are you asking if he is a hypocrite then, yes he is but I still don't think this comment is offensive. Nor did I think the healy rae one was.

It also worries me that their Irish press as a whole seems to be very captured and they don’t cover any of it. As much as I hate the Daily Mail, at least they’re not afraid to cover it. Most of my Irish friends (in Ireland) roll their eyes in bemusement when I voice my concern at what’s going on in Ireland. But for the most part, they’re unlikely to end up in a refuge, prison, rape crisis centre or a public hospital so it doesnt affect them. I had hoped that sport would peak people…

Varadkar seems to have lost all critical thinking skills, which I know he was taught at TCD in the 90s!

Varadkars comment sounds fair to me, hardly utter outrage. I don't think it respecful to use a term like airy fairy in the middle of a insulting rant to an openly gay man. Hard to say if H-R is just clueless or was being deliberately provocative or homophobic. I try to pay as little attention as possible to them.

In my opinion, we can ask people to consider their language and use it more carefully but you should only get angry when the objective was to use words to deliberately hurt a group.

@Utahthecat I personally find the term "slow learners" highly insulting. Everyone is different, everyone has different capacities & rates of learning. If it wasn't so offensive why are so many groups including lgbtq groups condenming him?
Airy fairy has always been a commonly used phrase in Ireland.. Leo took grace offense to it.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/airy-fairy

Definition of airy fairy... As you can see from the video in the Independent link Michael Healy Rae used it in the correct context to describe Leo & FGs actions as not practical. Leo decided immediately to take high offense.. But "slow learners" is ok?

Agree 100%. Hard to know where SF stand on this. I expect they are dancing at the crossroads like Kier Starmer - but will sniff the wind and realise that defending women's rights is actually quite a vote winner.

If he has a brain, he should have engaged it. What an idiot.

He's such a flute.
He's even more teflon than Bertie at this stage.

If he's disablist and anti-women he's not woke, dear.

When you mention agreeing with Aontu and "mainstream media" we know exactly what you are OP. I'd take 100 Leo's over you, and I don't like Leo or FG.

I suspect you couldn't care less about the issues you're raising.

Leo needs to have his own personal TA.

Foot in mouth time.

I’m no fan of Varadker but your agenda is showing loud and clear OP and it’s unpleasant to say the least.

All brickbats are richly deserved. As an utter buffoon, he’s earned them.

Irish people are being so manipulated by the far right. It's terrifying. We see what happened in the UK and less intelligent people are falling for it here.

@Catspyjamas17 by ‘woke’ I mean jumping on every bandwagon supporting every new ‘cause’.

this is a man who wants to eradicate the word Woman in Ireland