This week, an Irish singer and producer delivered a compelling speech at a parliamentary event in the UK where she described how vicious and pervasive cancel culture is – to the point where even established artists are made to feel that they must “conform or risk your livelihood”.
Róisín Murphy is pretty much a “megastar” – to use Ryan Tubridy’s word – in terms of Irish performers. You might have danced to her hits with Moloko back when we (well, me anyway) were fit for clubs, and music magazines use words like “iconic” and “avant garde” and “critically acclaimed” to describe her – or at least they used to before she committed the cardinal sin of having an opinion that wasn’t approved by the commentariat.
For years, Murphy was held up by the establishment media as one of those outspoken, strong, independent women that we are meant to admire: regularly appearing on programmes like The Late Late Show and being written up as “avant-garde pop’s once and future electro queen” by the Irish Times. (As someone hopelessly un-put-together, I always liked her style, a riot of colour and wildly funky bits and sharp lines). But, as I said, she then spoke her mind about the detrimental effect of puberty blockers on children with gender confusion, and the proverbial hit the fan.
In a private Facebook page post, which was screen grabbed and shared and went viral, she wrote: “Puberty blockers are fucked, absolutely desolate, big pharma laughing all the way to the bank. Little mixed-up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected, that’s just true.”
She has prefaced that with: “please don’t call me a terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist], please don’t keep using that word against women”.
None of this should be controversial, and this is a bigger issue than the ongoing row around transgenderism. Róisín Murphy should have the freedom to say what she likes, but she was to find out that the same people who bleat endlessly about tolerance and tearing down the rules are also hugely vindictive and vicious about punishing those who disagree with their Woke Commandments. Free-thinkers they definitely are not.
I’d invite you to watch the entirety of her speech below, which she delivered on Wednesday at the launch of a report, “The New Boycott Crisis”, by Rosie Kay of Freedom In The Arts and Professor Jo Phoenix. She began with these searing truths after saying she never wanted to become a campaigner – something many people who have been forced into action can relate to:
“When artists speak plainly these days, especially on radioactive issues, they don’t get debate. They get condemnation and professional exile. I’ve lived it when I spoke my mind about puberty blockers and current social trends around gender and I watched the machinery kick in fast.”
Pressure to recant, threats to pull promotion, leads to the press, venues dropping bookings, colleagues stepping back. The message was clear — conform or risk your livelihood.”
“I fought for my work. I took back ownership of my music. But the wider chill remains. Many others don’t fight back, they self-edit or simply stop – and I completely understand the disillusionment. Being cancelled is hard I won’t sugarcoat it. The world goes very dark, very quickly. Everyone and anyone who is ever going to disappoint you does so all at once”.
Murphy is absolutely right about the “crippling self-censorship” – something Irish artists of every genre have also privately said to me. The unspoken, but very real, threat of loss of funding, of media hit-pieces, of silent cancellations, is entirely corrosive to a sense of freedom of expression, and artists – more than anyone else – are supposed to lean into that freedom.
“Public funding, meant to support excellence regardless of politics, has become an ideological points system,” she said. “Projects that question the current line on sex and gender find doors close, while those that affirm it flow with support. This isn’t patronage, it’s patronage with strings attached so tight it strangles the critical thinking it takes to invent anything.”
She appealed for artistic freedom saying “The creative soul of this country … has always thrived on discomfort, on the freedom to be wrong, to offend, to pivot and to surprise ourselves.”
“Without that freedom, we don’t get better art, we simply put artists into a chokehold and suffocate the life out of our culture. We need free, equal and open debate. The arts must breathe freely again.”
She concluded that “It’s not the first time in history artists have faced oppression and it won’t be the last. We should support each other, come together and defend our shared space, our territory, the place where imagination can roam free. Because if they come for one of us they will eventually come for all.”
Murphy’s courage is underlined by her evident sadness at what she has experienced: it would have been much easier to lay low and hope that some day the spite of the Woke mob would eventually fade away. But, in truth, that kind of vindictiveness seems to last a lifetime.
Broadcaster Niall Boylan described her speech as “genuinely heartbreaking”, adding “she puts into words something many people feel but are afraid to say, that we’ve reached a point where critical thinking and real debate are being stifled, not always by rules, but by fear.”
When she talks about self censorship, or what I’d call the chilling effect, it hits home. That quiet pressure to hold back, to soften your views, or to say nothing at all. It’s not just coming from one place, it’s a mix of government, media, and social media, all shaping an environment where stepping outside the minority accepted line can come at a cost.
Having worked in media for over 30 years, I’ve seen the shift myself. There were always lines, but in the last decade the change has been dramatic. The space for robust, honest debate feels narrower than ever.
He’s absolutely right. Free speech is still being suppressed, despite the push-back from a few brave souls. The group Breaking Point has seen not one but two venues cancel a meeting hosting fuel protesters this week, which is utterly pathetic on behalf of the hotels who cave in to bullies and liberal gurriers threatening protests.
But it’s noticeable that Boylan is one of the few Irish media personalities who have anything to say re Róisín Murphy’s speech. Surely an Irish woman who has forged a stellar career and is now making impassioned, viral speeches at high-profile events is newsworthy? The RTÉ newsroom doesn’t seem to agree. Neither does the Irish Times or the Indo. What a surprise to see that sort of groupthink.
But perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps Róisín Murphy will appear on the Late Late Show tonight as a special guest to discuss her articulate and powerful speech and perform one of her many hits. Perhaps RTÉ does, in fact, like strong, independent, disruptive women. We shall see.