Tuesday’s occupant of the Woke tumbril trundling its daily path to the Cancel Guillotine was to be Olympic gold medal winning boxer Kellie Harrington. This was on foot of her interview yesterday on sports programme Off the Ball.
Kellie Harrington discussed her deleted tweet on immigration on #OTBAM. pic.twitter.com/tfwsrlTmrj
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) March 27, 2023
The interviewer Shane Hannon began a spiel about Kellie living in a part of Dublin city blessed by “diversity” and segued into putting her on the spot about her “strongly held opinions on immigration.” Now, if you had no idea as to what Hannon was referring to – and clearly the vast majority of those who have joined the pile on did not – you might imagine that Harrington might have been tweeting about the ongoing protests in her own area.
In fact what she had re-tweeted last October was a post from Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek who had referred to the horrific torture and murder in France of 12-year-old Lola Daviet.
This is the tweet the rabid Irish media want boxing legend Kellie Harrington cancelled over.
oh & she doesnt think men should be allowed box against women.
The Irish media are now front & centre in the woke-inspired attack on womens rights & their right to feel safe in society. pic.twitter.com/RRoWbdZCOy
— KB (@halftwottered) March 28, 2023
An Algerian immigrant who had been ordered to leave France in August 2022 was later arrested and charged with the brutal murder of the little girl.
The point made by Vlaardingerbroek with regard to the link between crime and immigration in France is incontrovertible by the way. This was recognised by the eminently respectable Le Monde in the aftermath of the Daviet murder when it quoted a statement form President Macron himself that that at least half of the crime in Paris was carried out by “foreigners, either illegal immigrants, or waiting for a residence permit.”
Yesterday’s interview, or rather Harrington’s refusal to be drawn into a conversation on the tweet, was immediately seized upon by a range of people demanding that she be punished, even though they had no idea clearly in most cases what the tweet had been about, or if they did were certainly not going to allow that to interfere with their demand for her head.
Harrington might have been better advised to have referred to the content of the tweet, and the entirely valid concerns about women’s safety, although one suspects that she had been told instead to avoid any engagement on the matter. And in any event, Hannon was possibly intent on pursuing it for other ends, either to extract an apology or to place her in a precarious position with her sponsor Spar.
Job done as they say. Unfortunately, Harrington appears to have opted to apologise anyway. Several hours after the interview, and in response to the social media furore and quite possibly following advice from others, she tweeted the meaculpa that had been demanded.
https://twitter.com/kelly64kg/status/1640475577156083722?s=46&t=EIObaeEt0Fi-cEMBLRd2LA
Except of course, the people who are out for Harrington’s blood are like all bullies. Any sign of weakness or willingness to engage serves merely as an encouragement for further bullying, demands for further grovelling, and if possible ritual humiliation. They cannot be appeased. They only way to deal with them is to stand up to them.
As someone accurately said, all of these social media pile-onsare straight from the playbook of the “struggle sessions” of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. First the victim is humiliated then he or she is destroyed.
It is noticeable too that some of the support for Shane’s apparent bravery came journalists who are not so brave when it comes to “calling out” other public figures on matters of controversy. Not one of them ever questioned singer SteoWall on his criminal record (he killed a man) for example, at the same time he was being celebrated as some expert on racism.
That Harrington’s apology has not been sufficient was quickly proven by the intervention of Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley.
.@SPARIreland Kellie Harrington is entitled to her opinion on immigration & diversity, however Spar Ireland has a responsibility to communities across Ireland to clarify and demonstrate that it’s opinions and attitudes are very different to its ambassador. https://t.co/6NPFJAKul5
— Timmy Dooley (@timmydooley) March 28, 2023
Talk about passive aggression boys. Looking at that comment it’s hard not to believe that his intent is to say that Kellie Harrington is not really entitled to her “opinion on immigration” – once again no reference to her actual tweet – and that he as a man with some influence and power is basically demanding or implying that Spar Ireland ought to perhaps dump her. Indeed.
Others have dismissed Harrington’s statement and have moved onto portraying her as “transphobic.” The evidence for this being Harrington’s liking a tweet which rightly “called out” the celebratory leftie nonsense about Lia Thomas – a biological male who recently won an American NCAA division one title in women’s swimming.
Amid this tide of nauseating sanctimonious witch hunting, it is also proper to point out that most of the social media response has been supportive of Kellie Harrington.
I will end, on what is already a shameful day for these self-righteous prigs, with a tweet from Professor Mary Aiken who, like Kellie, coincidentally was made a Free Person of Dublin on the same day in May 2022.
Kellie, you are such a kind & generous person 🙏
You recently donated your time to raise money for #Neurodiversity Ireland – that's active inclusiveness.
You have apologised for any misunderstanding – stay strong my 'Freedom of the City' friend – ignore the cyber pitchfork mob pic.twitter.com/3ESHxqt0Jh— Prof. Mary Aiken (@maryCyPsy) March 27, 2023
They are free people of the Dublin of heroes, not the touting rats who our grand parents and great parents sent scurrying into the Castle in 1921 and whose seed is still clearly among us.