{"id":484131,"date":"2026-05-14T10:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484131\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:40:13","slug":"fianna-fail-mep-calls-for-bertie-ahern-to-issue-an-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484131\/","title":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il MEP calls for Bertie Ahern to issue an apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fianna F\u00e1il MEP Cynthia N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa<\/strong> is calling on former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern<\/strong> to issue an apology for comments about migrants and Muslims<\/strong> during a byelection canvass in Dublin last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords matter, and it is important that his words are clarified,\u201d N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa told RT\u00c9 radio\u2019s Morning Ireland. She had been \u201csurprised and saddened\u201d by the comments.<\/p>\n

However, party colleague Dublin City Councillor Niall Ring described the incident as \u201cgotcha politics at the lowest level\u201d and \u201ca storm in a teacup.\u201d<\/p>\n

N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa said she respected Ahern and was fond of him and thought the comment were \u201cout of character\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just would ask Bertie to consider issuing an apology. It’s really important in the current climate that we’re in that words that are spoken are clarified to the nth degree and I appreciate Bertie has gone to great lengths to explain the context of what he said and I’ve listened to the full interview that was recorded without his permission, but nonetheless the words as they stand themselves are not words that represent my views and my opinions and that has seen a fall and I agree with the Taoiseach that we can’t be calling out a certain ethnicity we cannot be calling out a certain race or a certain country it is very unhelpful and as I say I was extremely surprised and saddened and I really would like, and it’s only my humble opinion ,I really would like if an apology was issued by him because apologies do matter particularly in the current climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ring said it was important to consider the comments in the \u201coverall context\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we start cancelling and looking for apologies based on a 10-second clip taken out of context, nobody would be safe from the woke brigade .<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really a storm in a teacup. What Bertie was saying actually reflects the concerns and the realities. He was speaking bluntly about the speed and scale of migration, and it’s the reality he was talking about, and if the political establishment aren’t able for the reality, they should look at themselves.<\/p>\n

Ring acknowledged that the comments about Muslims and the Congo were \u201cprobably ill-judged\u201d.<\/p>\n

EU Commissioner Michael McGrath has said that he does not believe Ahern is racist, but he clearly should not have said what he did during a byelection canvass in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Newstalk\u2019s Claire Byrne show, the former Fianna F\u00e1il Minister for Finance said it was important for everyone to uphold the fundamental rights of non-discrimination and the integrity of every human being<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s important that all of us do our best every day to uphold those values, because it’s when we start speaking about an entire group of people based on race or colour or ethnicity, it’s a very slippery slope, and I think we have to avoid language that is divisive, that can be interpreted a certain way, even if that’s not the intention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t believe for a moment that Bertie Ahern is racist. I just don’t believe that. I’ve known him a long time, but he clearly shouldn’t have said what he said. Whether he actually believed it, I don’t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"'I\u2019ve<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

‘I\u2019ve no problem with people from the Congo or Africa’, Bertie Ahern says<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked if he thought Ahern should apologise, McGrath said it was not for him to call on somebody to apologise for what they have said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he has responded, but clearly it shouldn’t have been said, because it does run contrary to our values. We should never shy away from having a debate about migration, and that’s a debate that’s happening throughout the European Union, by the way, and the EU has been responding with new policies, including a migration and asylum pact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also recognise that most people coming into Ireland and coming into the EU from outside are here to make a contribution, make an economic contribution, and come through the regulated permit and visa system that is there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think having a conversation is perfectly legitimate, but what you can’t do is speak about an entire group of people based on their race, country of origin, ethnicity, and to speak of them in a disparaging manner, that is a slippery slope and is one that we really shouldn’t be going down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il MEP Cynthia N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa is calling on former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to issue an apology for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-484131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116572509126250776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}