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...

I'm replying to you 55Balloons because it was your post I was commenting on. And you are the OP that started the thread & has engaged in hyperbole throughout, not even staying on topic. I mean - Nazi Germany 😳😳😳😳

No, the advocacy groups aren't wrong to make an issue around language choice.

However he wasn't targeting people with ID, whether using the phrase was ill-advised or not.

You've been given the context over & over & you still keep hysterically insisting he had some anti-disability agenda.

Well the advcoacy groups obviously think they have been targeted as they have tweeted as much!
If they didn't feel targeted they wouldn't feel the need to speak out obviously! I am quoting Action for All Ireland who tweeted about his " horrible ableist slur" & "once again we are the butt or the joke"
Roll on election time, enough is enough!
We still have free speech in this country (for now😢) & I will voice my opinions as I see fit.
Now @EarringsandLipstick is this tweet over exaggerating? I'll ask you again?!

@EarringsandLipstick sounds like they sound targeted to me. That's my interpretation.

You have no leg to stand on on calling me ir anyone else naive when you're either highly selective or ignorant regarding the 1998-2023 history of Provisional Sinn Féin.

That history includes murder.

But you go on ignoring that and trying to convince everyone else Varadkar was being bigoted towards disabled people by taking him right out of context......

@DownNative roll on election time! I don't have to convince anyone, Leo's words have done that single handedly..
No apology to all the slow learners but yet he comes out & says Matt's behaviour was wrong at the coronation. Pandering to the British Royal Family & British government...
The country will remember this when the voting comes around..

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/c981527xedqo.amp

Unbelievable.. Opening paragraph stating Leo apologises to the British Royal family & British government for any offence caused during the coronation ceremony.

Where is Leo Varadkars apology to the hundreds of thousands he has offended in his own country (& worldwide!) with his "slow learner" comments??

As the tweet from Mick Mccaul above shows he had his chance yet refused, stuck by & defended his comments.

Yet he has no problem apologising to the British Royal Family & British government on behalf of his boyfriends antics.

I think I and everyone else will just have to take you ignoring the murders PSF/PIRA has been involved in post-1998 as you believimg this is absolutely fine. 🤷‍♂️

Your priorities and principles are well out of whack here. I think its clear a lot of people in the Republic of Ireland have very selective amnesia when it comes to Provisional Sinn Féin and Provisional IRA.

As long as certain parties collectively get enough votes to once again exclude PSF/PIRA from government in the south, it'll be grand. Yous have PR and not FPTP down there.

It is an unfortunate turn of phrase, I immediately understood the reference he was making but obviously many people did not. He would have been better off only using the direct quote and then saying Sinn Féin have taken time to come around to sensible policies before.

I don't believe he was trying to target people with intellectual disabilities in any way. I do think an apology to the people who were hurt by what he said would have been a good idea.

I would prefer that the government focused on their own policies and spent less time complaining about Sinn Féin, particularly with how slowly they have reacted to the housing crisis. Matt should have been more careful about who he let join his private instragram.

He’s always been a nasty bastard. My MiL is ashamed to have him as Taoiseach

@Andanotherone01 💯 I didn't like MM either but he has more empathy, sensitivity & common sense to use awfully offensive language like Leo. I could not imagine Michael Martin's wife acting the fool at the coronation either. Matt's shenanigans were a disgrace.
Leo's statement is akin to Donald Trumps numerous attacks on Joe Biden & his political party.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/21/biden-just-made-it-a-lot-harder-for-republicans-to-tag-him-slow-joe-399811

"Slow Joe" is what the republicans called Joe Biden & his party
Leo & Fianna Gael use the term "slow learners"...

It's nearly unbearable to read your nonsensical posts.

There is no equivalence, at all here. Despite the clumsy usage, Varadkar was not aiming an insult at any one person or group of people. He was using a well-understood phrase in a particular political context.

It's understandable that advocacy groups are taking issue with the language, regardless. It's not at all understandable that you keep twisting facts into an invented narrative.

@EarringsandLipstick not nonsensical at all! All the facts are linked above.

What are your thoughts on Leo publicly apologising to the British Royal family & the British government for the "offense" caused due to his boyfriend Matt's childish behaviour at the coronation & Leo refusing to apologise to disability groups about his "slow learners" comment?
I have linked plenty of articles & tweets above to show you that these are facts!

He needs to apologise & retract his slow learner comment. He's refusing to do this.

He was very quick to go grovelling to the British Royal Family & the British government on behalf of his boyfriend. Like a mammy or daddy apologising for a bold toddler after a soft play party.
Fucking embarrassements.

You talk about women's rights, but don't you know that Provisional Sinn Féin and Provisional IRA are massive perpetrators in the abuse of women?

Look at how they treated Máiría Cahill who was sexually abused by a PSF/PIRA man. Look at how not only Adams, but McDonald and O'Neill were trying to cover up the Provo abuse as well as obfuscation of the truth.

Yet you're thinking of voting for Provisional Sinn Féin!

Cahill's book detailing all of this is out this September, I think.

You cannot be in favour of women's rights and disabled people's rights as well as voting Provisional Sinn Féin at the same time.

For disabled rights abuses, start with how PSF/PIRA murdered, lied and slandered the memory of 15 year old Bernard Teggart.

You cannot tell me Varadkar's wording is worse than what the Provisionals have done....🤔

Forgot to attach the book.

Why not? I vote for them. Im educated to Masters level, good job etc etc. Not your 'typical' SF voter but they are the best alternative. Obviously loads like me who are sick of inequality and want progressive politics. Varadkar wont get voted in this round.

👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

The irony is that @55balloons talks a lot about women's and disabled rights yet might well vote for Provisional Sinn Féin who have done nothing good for women's rights and disabled people's.

They even ignore PSF/PIRA murder post-1998 too.

I think we're debating with someone who isn't doing so in good faith, unfortunately. Out of the frying pan and into the fire comes immediately to mind as well!

@Evanna13 he hasn't a hope in hell now between the coronation scandal & now the "slow learners" ableist slur (quoting Action for All Ireland who were well in their rights for calling it what it is.

My local Fianna Gael TD is actually decent, he's done good work surrounding transport links & was extremely proactive surrounding some anti social behaviour recently. However he will not get any of my votes this time around, I'll be putting my people before profit guy over him. I refuse to give him any ranking based on Varadkar.
They need to get Simon Coveney back if they have any hope of regaining seats. Sure 5 Fianna Gael TDs have resigned in the past fortnight.
Bring on change!

I could never vote for a party so closely linked to terrorism. I would be ashamed to have a member of Sinn Fein as a leader of our country.

Go have a read of FG history so! If you are happier to support a party/parties that have created massive social division, wealth inequality, record homelessness, child poverty and healthcare breakdown then go you! You overlook all that for SF 'terrorism'? How do you figure unionism then? Also terrorists? British Govt? Do tell.

This smacks of trying to throw as much at the wall as possible hoping something will stick.

The reality of Provisional Sinn Féin is that they still endorse violence as a legitimate way to achieve objectives. It's hypocrisy as they condemn the so-called dissidents who do the same thing they did and still legitimise.

The other reality of Provisional Sinn Féin is that they are still controlled by the Provisional Army Council. The Irish Government accepts the intelligence assessment of the Gardai on this.

Is it Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael who have been involved in murder and sexual abuse coverups in the last twenty-five years?

Provisional Sinn Féin has been.

Loyalist terrorist organisations and the British Government are irrelevant to the issue of voting for a party in the Republic of Ireland to form a government there. That's called Whataboutery, isn't it?

You cannot vote for any Northern Ireland only parties in the Republic or for the UK Government, so clearly irrelevant which anyone with a Masters should be able to comprehend instead of posting that kind of thing.

Yep....just as I thought. @55balloons isn't all that serious about women's rights since they blatantly ignore the scandal of Provisional Sinn Féin/Provisional IRA cover-up of Cahill's rape.....🤷‍♂️

The only alternative option with any credible chance of getting into Govt in Ireland is SF. Anybody under 35 does not know or care about history, they care about chilcare, housing, health and cost of living- those are the big ticket items. I dont care (despite your digs) about their history either, it was on both sides. Its over.

An expected shifting of the goalposts. You claimed not to be a "typical SF voter" but you respond like one. 🤷‍♂️

The point is that if people claim to care about things like equality, justice, fairness and so on, that cannot be true at the same time as voting for Provisional Sinn Féin.

I anticipated people like you would throw out the "it's history!" line which is why I specifically mentioned the last twenty-five years. That is clearly NOT history in the way you meant it, i.e., a long time ago.

The sexual abuse cover-up is not that long ago. The murders of Paul Quinn and Robert McCartney, for example, are not that long ago either. To this day, Provisional Sinn Féin continue to deny families the truth. Bregee Quinn still tries to raise awareness of her son's murder.

Over? Clearly it isn't since terrorist groups are still in operational existence and Provisional Sinn Féin is still controlled by the Provisional Army Council. That assessment was announced as valid in the last year or two, so not ancient history at all.

It strikes me that people such as yourself are being highly selective, cheerypicking and have self-induced amnesia.

Don't you think it's strange how Provisional Sinn Féin does not actually have democratic leadership contests?

The reality is that in 2023 Provisional Sinn Féin is still not s normal democratic political party.

As the Republic of Ireland has a PR system, it will likely produce another result whereby Provisional Sinn Féin can be excluded from government once again.