Tommy Tiernan’s Canadian Sort-Of Apology
Deaglán de Bréadún
Tommy Tiernan has apologised – but only indirectly. For weeks now his website has been breathlessly proclaiming: “Tommy will take part in this year’s prestigious Just for Laughs Tour. The tour will see the best of European, American and Canadian comedians travel for four weeks around Canada. Due to his tour schedule Tommy will miss the first week but will join the tour from October the 28th in Hamilton onwards. The tickets are now on sale!”
Holocaust Memorial Day in the Mansion House (Photograph by Cyril Byrne)
But now, according to Just for Laughs spokesperson Leisa Lee, “both the festival and Tiernan agreed that it was in everyone’s best interest that he drop out of the coming national tour.” And she continued: “He deeply regrets any hurt he has caused.”
If the story is accurate, then it’s a blow to his career and a completely self-inflicted one, it has to be said. This writer is one of a number who have been calling on him to apologise – not through the spokesperson for a lucrative and prestigious foreign comedy tour but in his own person. It seems to be hard to get a message through to him. Maybe a hole in his pocket and pride will bring home the seriousness of what he did that day in Stradbally when he launched into a tirade about doubling the size of the Holocaust.
And, in answer to those who said this writer was out of touch with modern comedy trends, well, it seems the organisers of Just for Laughs don’t get the joke either!
For more on this story, see http://www.canada.com/life/Comedian+kicked+Just+Laughs+tour+anti+Semitic+comments/2079176/story.html
