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MARY LOU MCDONALD has brushed off suggestions that attending a dinner event in Sydney where a ‘Gold Table’ is on sale for upwards of €2,000 might send the wrong message back home, telling The Journal it’s not a Sinn Féin event.
The Sinn Féin leader is in Australia for a whistle stop tour of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra this week.
The Sydney dinner, co-hosted by the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce, which is organising a series of events with McDonald, as well as the TCD Alumni Sydney chapter was in the format of fireside “in conversation” chat with McDonald where she discussed the pandemic, Brexit, and Ireland’s position in the world.
Speaking exclusively to The Journal prior to the event outside the venue on a 100-year-old revamped wooden pier in Sydney, McDonald was unfazed by a question about the event fees, where tickets started at €140 for individuals and €1,400 for tables.
“I’ve been invited by the Trinity alumni and the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce. I’m delighted to be here in that capacity. It’s not my event. It’s their event and, as I think you can see from the people going in and out … they’re a very regular bunch of people.”
The Journal previously reported that a spokesperson for Sinn Féin said that the party “will not be receiving any income from the tour”.
“It is to engage with the Irish community in Australia, with political representatives and with businesses and trade unions on issues in Ireland; north and south,” the spokesperson said.
Chair of the TCD Alumni Sydney Chapter Eithne McSweeney has also stated that the ticket price covers the cost of the event and that neither the alumni group nor the Chamber would make a profit.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar previously criticised plans for the dinner in the Dáil , saying that McDonald would be “clinking” glasses with Trinity alumni who are co-hosting the event.
During a speech at the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra yesterday, McDonald made a rallying call to tradespeople, who she said were forced to live Ireland during the recession, to return home.
"To those young Irish people in Australia who want to come home: I want you to know that we are working hard to change things for you, that we WILL change things for you, and we will make Ireland the home that you deserve." – @MaryLouMcDonald pic.twitter.com/UK89Cr31is
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) July 20, 2022
Speaking to The Journal about her comments she said she recognised that lots of Irish people choose to come to Australia and build their lives there.
“And that’s great, and we’re very proud of that contribution to Australian society. But I’m also aware there is a whole set of people who felt that they had no option but to leave and who want to go home but who currently feel that they can’t.
“The promise I have made is that we will work very, very hard to change things so that they can come home. I believe this is all about choice. And on one level, of course, people want to travel for adventure, for experience and all of that’s great stuff, but nobody should ever feel forced out or that they are prevented from coming home.”
On the wider issue, there’s huge global demand now for trades and for professions. In Ireland, we train the best of the best, we have outstanding skills and education and a work ethic like no other.
“And, yes, we need to harness that talent at home because we need to build Ireland,” she said.
Separate, to her attendance at the event hosted by the Sydney Trinity Alumni association and Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce, McDonald also attended a series of events with the Irish community, trade union leaders in Sydney, as well as members of the New South Wales Parliament.
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Massive massive credit to all concerned for sticking their head above the parapet to lampoon . They deserve all right minded peoples support irrespective of religion for leading the way in dismantling taboo subject. Some muslims will be offended but they more than anyone need to marginalise the vile extremists that are isis.And mocking the british women who marry jihadists is another string to the bow. Kudos
That’s f*cking funny.
Won’t have gone down well in Bradford or Birmingham.
@The_Techno_Mage: Only marginally funny, very predictable humour no great originality in the sketch and not very convincing. 3 out of 10. Give me Brendan Grace any day.
The fact that it is done at all is the issue…. Islam not noted for its sense of humour…… There is no Iman Ted showing in Pakistan
I think this is very clever. Online satire is an effective way to embarrass and shame idiots who believe in radical islam
Comedy (weak as it is in the sketch) does not discriminate nor should it. Keep it up…maybe do ‘Jordan Shore’ next…
“Marginally funny” “predictable”. That IS Brendan Grace.
Let’s just hope the Far-Right in Ireland don’t try to have it banned like they did with Father Ted. Fair play to the Liberal and progressive writers and producers of this sketch.
Far left open borders crowd spent all day yesterday trying to ban an article from the Irish Times because they disagreed with the authors opinion.
Far left open borders anarchists led by rejected political loser Aodohan O’Riordan recently attempted to have RTE permanently ban from air, speakers who shared a different opinion to their own far left dogmatic outlook.
@OpenBorders:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New account Liam, Tariq, Petr etc etc? hahaha
Coz you have to laugh at embarrassing rubbish like Grace, Tierney and all the other homegrown drek coz they’re, yknow, our own
Like Citizen Khan. Omg such sh@t. Like Give my head Peace. BBC doesnt always get it right
Let me guess. It is liberals who are complaining that Islamic extremists are being mocked?
@Superfiends: Or that ISIS represents the fundamentals of Islam.
@Superfiends:
Surprised Amnesty haven’t lodged a complaint with the UN.
@Alex Falcone: i hear colm o’gorman is on newstalk today have a whine about it
@Alex Falcone: Let’s be clear, the only people who have objected to this are those who believe it is offensive to people oppressed by ISIS. They have a point, but I think this kind of satire which mocks the ridiculousness of their so called cause is important, and it follows in the stead of the excellent “Four Lions” by Chris Morris.
I saw some criticism that this was “Islamophobic”, which was weird cos I thought ISIS had nothing to do with Islam?
@Emeralds: I had that argument with someone not long back “ISIS have nothing to do with Islam”.
Me: “So what does the first I stand for ?”
Them: “That proves nothing”.
Some people will play the Neville Chamberlain card under we’re all blown to smithereens.
Islam has nothing to do with ISIS unless it’s satirised, apparently.
@Fitzy:
Anything that gets Colm O’Gormans knickers in a twist is a bonus.
@Clever Jake:
Maybe to you it’s obscure, maybe to the Shia, Sufi and Ahammadi sects of Islam, but to the Sunni Wahabbi/Salafists in particular its is the purest form of Islam.
Ask yourself, where does ISIS, Nusra and Boko Haram, to name but a few, get their evil ideas from??
Isis is to Islam what Nazism was to German nationalism.
I don’t think you know what a liberal is. I am one and I think this is hilarious. I also think the people jumping up and down about Pell’s article in the Times are hilarious and pathetic. But Pell is a disgusting apologist for a disgusting ideology.
@Clever Jake:
Can’t fault you regarding the Saudis.
http://www.theworldweekly.com/reader/view/magazine/2015-01-22/the-battle-for-islam/3090
It’s really funny though ,I got a great laugh out of it. Well done.
Saw this. Quite funny.
Hopefully the actresses involved have good security protection.
If it was made here it would probably be banned under the Catholic Blasphemy Law.
@OpenBorders:
Christians have a great sense of humour. Honed in the Colosseum I believe.
No Tariq it would not
@OpenBorders: People have short memory’s and think Catholics are ok with satire, but history shows us they hate being mocked in anyway.
People forget that “Life Of Brian” was banned in Ireland until 1987, when it was unbanned the rated it as a 18′s movie which is frankly insane. It was banned for 8 years in Ireland.
Equally Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life was banned until 1990!
Very true Barry,and the off-spring of those fundamentalist radicals can be seen here daily pointing the finger of blame at everyone but themselves,they’d have us living in caves if they could,the Alt-Right are a cruel and regressive group.
Agreed, actually I’m pretty sure the Monty Python lads had to get round the clock armed protection for many years after.
It’s not specifically a Catholic blasphemy law. Sure if it was it wouldn’t matter a damn – nobody would take or succeed in a prosecution. The problem is that it is a general blasphemy law and any nut job religion could seek a prosecution.
And let’s not get too sanctimonious about it – town councils in England and Wales can ban films and it was only in 2008 that the ban was lifted in Aberystwyth after 30 years (not a RC stronghold), it was banned in Norway, in Germany and in several places in the US.
@Alex Falcone:
Alex, would you find it as funny if they were lampooning the fairy tales that you believe in rather than the ones that someone else believes?
@Pseud O’Nym:
Not at all.
Actually one of my hobbies is satirising atheists.
How can you blaspheme against something that doesnt exist lol
Brilliant sketch. Hilariously funny. Rightly having a go at the animals within ISIS. In no way “racist” or any other silly word certain people would like to call it. Sure wasn’t father Ted a great show!
Trust the liberals to come to the defence of ISIS.
I’d describe myself as quite liberal and I think it’s absolutely hilarious. Is that allowed?
Same here
Eamonn can only think in black and white. Don’t go confusing the poor rightest …Ehm..Oh yeah…snowflake.
I’m a Liberal and thought it was very funny,poor old Eamon,it’s awful confusing for bigots when they can’t pigeonhole people into neat little categories,hurts their brains.
@The Bloody Nine: You’ll have to refer to Liberal High Command. They might throw you out for not adhering to the group think though,
It’s not the Catholic Church though.
Snap. I lol’d damn hard when I watched it. Although I was thinking, someone somewhere is going to lose their shit over this.
Very funny – the people complaining are self-fulfiling prophecies of idiocy. The irony is that the day that satire is filtered is a sorry day and the end of liberal democracy… take note Liberals.
Much like the mild hysteria at the Irish times article yesterday informing people about the alt-right. We’re a generation away from eating our young.
You cant spell fundamentalist without fun!
More to the point is that you can’t spell it without “mental”
Very well done..hilarious!
Anyone who says this is mocking Islam is essentially saying all Muslims are terrorists. Stupid SJW liberals. I think it’s brilliant.
Max Johnson Powers,it is Far Right,conservative religious groups who will be offended by this,just like fundamentalist Catholics were upset by Father Ted. Liberals create comedic satire,those on the Far Right loathe it.
I didn’t mean liberals in general. I said SJW liberals. They are a different breed altogether.
luckily satire is protected by the European courts….unfortunately, this involves a country that convicted a guy for joking about blowing up an airport if it remained closed for a week due to snow, and he had to go all the way to the supreme court to have his conviction overturned.
@Clever Jake: We’re not far off it – we’re criminalising EVERYTHING. Won’t be able to fart in public soon without running the risk of 12 months for causing offence and a further 6 for the air pollution.
It’s hilarious satire, bit like the RHO Dublin
Didn’t realise it was the BBC.
Very good satire.
Well done.
There should be muslim father Ted, as funny as it was it did bring up some if issue with the church,
As they say on till you can laugh at your self you can’t change.
Looks class in fairness.
Can’t wait to see this
You already have. It is a sketch, not a forthcoming series lol
I disagree with people saying liberals are complaining about this. I’m one of those liberal types and while I thought it was funny, I think it was mild and didn’t go far enough. Satire is about using humour to make a political or social statement. The only people who are complaining about this are people who don’t understand satire. Reminds me of a few months ago when WWN wrote a story about sucide rates in Cork. People were out raged, completely missing the point of the story.
Brilliant!
Liberals gong mad again. Why don’t they just join ISIS
Actually it’s conservatives who are going mad,liberals created the sketch,facepalm.
@Clever Jake: Oh the liberals. Where would we be with out ye? A very uncivilized people, I would imagine.
One of the best ways to attack that ideology is to lampoon it. And this is bloody hilarious!
some of the crackpots on here would have you believe this will happen in ballaghadreen.
@the truth: It will. And I doubt you’ll see it coming.
As satire goes I though the whole show laid it on a bit too thick. I like my satire dry and subtle
But maybe that just reflects society. Society may just be a bit too thick, not dry or subtle.
Although apparently next week’s show includes their fake Tory MP thanking Jeremy Corbyn for giving the Tories electoral success for the next 10 years.
If they are Islam should they be saying oh my God????
Christ on a bike Collette. Cmon.
@Niall Lonergan – “Christ” indeed. ….I see what you did there…. :)
al-Lah means the God. It’s a bot like saying shouldn’t Jew’s say oh my Yahweh
Damned auto correct. *Bit *Jews
It’s dynamite
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