British journalist makes baffling claim about coverage of the Eighth Amendment referendum

Paul Moore

Erm, what?

After 66.4% of the Irish public voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment, the 25th of May will go down in history.

After news of the first exit poll result began to spread, various news outlets from around the world covered the monumental occasion, which further emphasises the importance of the recent referendum.

Aside from the coverage that was provided by various Irish broadcasters and outlets, one of the foreign media organisations that covered the referendum on the Eighth Amendment was Sky News.

In response to Sky’s coverage, Rachel Johnson – a journalist that has featured on panel shows like Question Time and Sky News’s The Pledge – decided to share her opinions on Sky’s work.

You may know that Johnson is the younger sister of Boris Johnson, the UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

Here’s what she said: “Huge praise to Beth Rigby and Kay Burley of Sky News who produced world class award winning reporting every step of the way of this powerful and moving and divisive story – and also helped comprehension (in mainland UK) by speaking in clear English not Gaelic throughout.”

Erm, Mainland UK?

By speaking in clear English not Gaelic throughout?

Granted, if Rigby and Burley are actually fluent as Gaeilge then that’s impressive, but plenty of people have pointed out the obvious issues with this tweet.

https://twitter.com/RachelSJohnson/status/1000437139929288705

https://twitter.com/AmyNiChaoimh/status/1000470113341136896

Ireland is not a part of the U.K. at all so the "mainland U.K." comment is very misinformed and a political faux-pas in the extreme. Just a heads up. Also we don't speak Gaelic, it's Gaeilge, and all reporting would be in English regardless.

— Méabh de Brún @meabhdebrun.bsky.social (@MeabhdeBrun) May 26, 2018