Ok I have complained to the BBC. It is the first time I have ever complained and I am ready for lots of you to tell me that I am over reacting.

[CarmenerryChristmas]

I complained about a comedy sketch on R4 that made fun of drunken Irish people. I find it offensive that a racial slur like that is perpetuated on a state station. I couldn't believe how long and drawn out the sketch was and I was actually really upset.
If you knew the side of Ireland that I know, inhabited with smart, erudite people, if you came from there and were tarred with a stereotyped brush of drunkenness you might be offended too.

Actually my experience of casual racism on mumsnet is what spurred me on to make the complaint and I'm quite sure any minute now some one will be along to tell me that their neighbour/friend/workmate, who is Irish, doesn't mind being referred to as a drunken idiot

Get a grip.

I went to Ireland recently and yup, it was full of piss artists.

I also went out with a drunken Irishman forfour years.

didn't hear the sketch so can't comment on that directly. But Ireland is hardly known for being a dry state like Saudi... it's like doing a sketch about the English being obsessed with queuing or something.

With you on this - but that's probably cause I'm a welshie and often think the line between joking around and stereotyping gets crossed.

Let us know what the response is.

I'M A wELSHIE TOO.
i CAN TAKE ANY JOKES-AS L;ONG AS THEY ARE FUNNY OR WITTY.

I'm Scottish and I know what you mean about it rankling.
I never understood though until my MIL (from Dublin, left in the late 60s) told me that when she arrived in London she got all sorts of insults just because she is Irish - really horrible stuff that made my jaw drop. It is on a completely different level to what we get: a few tired old jokes about fried food or tight-fistedness.

Hallo fellow welshie mondog! and hi to our celtic cousins.

I'm genuinely interested in where does it stop being wit and/or fun and start rankling. Different for everyone I suppose.

I'm not saying that Irish people, in general, don't like drinking or even drink too much, but there is a hell of a lot more to the race than alcoholic tendencies, yet that is what is singled out in the UK.

I believe that this stems from the immigrants who came to work here in the 50's and 60's. Displaced, uneducated, lonely men who drank too much and fought.

That a whole race should be ridiculed and patronised 50 years later, I find offensive.

Oh and Kerrymums point is very pertinent, any Saturday night, in any high street in the UK will show you an equal amount of drunkenness as to be found anywhere in Ireland.

you want to be English these days - we get shat on from a great height from most other nationalities with their stereotypes.

for once I agree with moondog

Lifes to short to get upset by things like this, hope your over paddy now

By the way I love the Irish and I do know that not all of them are like Father Jack but I also know a fair few that are ( and I think their all my friends!)

was the whole race ridiculed though, carmenerry? did the joke hinge on the listener understanding that all Irish people are drunks? if so you might have a point, but if not, if it was simply a sketch about some irish drunks then you did over-react hugely and it will all probably lead to a ban on explicit nationalities in any tv/radio fiction (like there currently seems to be a ban on any religious terrorists on the bbc) and the breakdown of culture, and indirectly society, as we know it.

I think you were quite right to complain if it upset you. The world's full of morons who think that just because they knew one Irish that they all are.

Oh god yes, the English seem to be the only race who can be taken the piss out of and NOT be deemed reasonable to complain - it only emphasises our "Englishness".

From the ridiculous Dick Van-Dyke accents, or, assuming all people from London speak like they do on Eastenders.

The queueing.

The uptight/stiff-upper lip crap.

Etc etc etc.

But, of course carm, if you feel you have room to complain to the BBC, you absolutely should - of course you should. I havent seen the sketch in question though.

The sketch in question said that in Ireland the Bank of Scotland branches had Ireland in brackets after the logo so that drunken Irish people would know that they were in Ireland and hadn't taken a wrong turn on their way home from the pub. It drew out this 'joke' for quite a while.

For a change dp (British) actually agreed with me that it was offensive.

that doesn't assume that all Irish people are drunks though. It is just taking the piss out of the ones who are. and some of them are, let's face it.

I think a good rule of thumb is to ask if the joke would have been used about an English bank which had "england" in brackets after its name. I think it would, although they would then only refer to "drunks" rather than "drunken english people", but that's because most of us are in england.

When my dh went to work in Ireland recently he was met by local dignitaries (the Mayor et al) at eleven in the morning and they all went for a drink.

You can't have it both ways. The English get stereotyped all the time, on MN and elsewhere.

We're either insufferable snobs or football hooligans.

And would you care to elaborate on your OP with regard to "Actually my experience of casual racism on mumsnet is what spurred me on to make the complaint ...."

What exactly do you mean by that?

Have what both ways Desi?

That's so true Des. The English are seen as fair game. I was brought up in Scotland (though I'm English) and the hatred of the English is rife and open and regarded as funny and correct.

I wanted to respond to this earlier but I was finishing my haggis and deep-fried mars bar (for pudding), drinking a bottle of whisky and counting my money....

If you were offended then you probably had grounds to complain. If you were the only complaint then they will ignore it and if others complain too then you know you were not alone!

Well, Carmen. It may have escaped your notice but the English get the piss taken out of them all the time on MN. Yes, it's casual ... and because we're English, we don't tend to respond.

I assume you turn a blind eye when this happens to the English? In which case, that's having it 'both ways.'

This and this were some of the threads that I found upset me on here.

Message withdrawn

Well Desi, I don't think that I have taken the piss out of the English on mn, and I can't recollect when that has really happened tbh. So I fail to see why this is me having it both ways

Could you tell us what show it was that offended you on Radio 4? I'd be happy to do 'listen again' and see what I think.