“This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it.”
Former Unionist MP John Taylor, who now goes by the title, Lord Kilclooney, has said he is “no way racist” after referring to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as “the Indian” in a conversation on social media on Thursday.
In a reply to a tweet posted by Sunday Business Post political columnist Hugh O’Connell on Thursday about a comment made by Simon Coveney to the Oireachtas Good Friday Agreement Committee, Lord Kilclooney said: “Simon Coveney is stirring things up. Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney to the Oireachtas Good Friday Agreement Committee: "I would like to see a united Ireland in my lifetime. If possible, in my political lifetime.”
— Hugh O'Connell (@oconnellhugh) November 23, 2017
Simon Coveney is stirring things up . Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian
— Lord John Kilclooney (@KilclooneyJohn) November 23, 2017
Lord Kilclooney’s labelling of Varadkar as “the Indian” prompted a number of angry and critical replies on Twitter shortly afterwards.
After responding to many of them with claims that he was unaware that Leo Varadkar is “100 percent Irish”, that he wasn’t sure how to spell his name and that he was limited by the number of characters, Lord Kilclooney withdrew his use of the term on Thursday night.
Learned today that the new PM in the Republic of Ireland is 100 per cent Irish Citizen and has an Indian name which spelt correctly is VARADKAR .
— Lord John Kilclooney (@KilclooneyJohn) November 23, 2017
In Twitter one is restricted to a limited number of words and so for shorthand I used the term Indian for the new PM in Dublin. This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it. I am no way racist and accept that Varadkar is 100 percent Irish Citizen.
— Lord John Kilclooney (@KilclooneyJohn) November 23, 2017
“In Twitter one is restricted to a limited number of words and so for shorthand I used the term Indian for the new PM in Dublin,” he wrote.
“This has caused upset and misunderstanding and so I withdraw it. I am no way racist and accept that Varadkar is 100 percent Irish Citizen.”
After Lord Kilclooney had posted the tweets, he received responses pointing out that he had used the correct spelling for Varadkar in previous social media communications (see below) and that, by simply writing ‘Varadkar’ instead of ‘The Indian’, he would actually have used two fewer characters.
Varadkar Fine Gael gets smaller percentage of votes in Southern Ireland than DUP get in Northern Ireland yet it is his opinion of the U.K. Border which the EU leaders have to listen to. Time for the DUP to let these EU leaders know a different opinion from NI.
— Lord John Kilclooney (@KilclooneyJohn) November 18, 2017
Lord Kilclooney came to national attention earlier this week when he suggested that Donegal would be better off if it were to join the United Kingdom.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Conor Sketches | Tiger Woods loves Ger Loughnane and cosplaying as Charles LeClerc
