Australian PM accused of patronising Irish in St Patrick's Day message

The Guardian ^ | 17 March 2015 | Calla Wahlquist

[McGruff]

The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, has been criticised by his Irish counterpart, Enda Kenny, for perpetuating the “stage Irish” stereotype that the country’s culture is synonymous with alcohol after his St Patrick’s Day message mentioned having “a Guinness, or two, or maybe even three”.

The offending St Patrick’s Day video message was posted on YouTube on Friday and features Abbott cheerily waving his green tie, talking up Irish influences in Australian culture – which he described as songs and a sense of humour – and saying it was a good day for “anyone who cares to come to a party”.

[McGruff]

LOL. I resemble that remark sir.

[ZULU]

I’m not Irish but I LOVE Guinness -the draft of the gods. She is just sour grapes.

[McGruff]

New South Wales, a state in southeast Australia, was founded by the British as a penal colony in 1788. Over the next 80 years, more than 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, in lieu of being given the death penalty.

Today, about 20% of Australians are descendants of convicts

[posterchild]

mentioned having “a Guinness, or two, or maybe even three”.
Yeah, and, after breakfast what then?

[Seruzawa]

Shut up Edna. The Irish are proud of their reputation.

[Desron13]

"...mentioned having “a Guinness, or two, or maybe even three”.

This is a bad thing? Sounds like my kind of guy.

[Bigg Red]

Many of those convicts were political prisoners and not murderers and such.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

LOL. These quotes are tame compared to the stereotypes that most Irish humorously perpetuate about themselves. I mean, he didn’t say that he was going to call up the national guard to deal with all the bar fights that are going to break out.

[Rinnwald]

Lay off of me lucky charms.

Isn’t the “Micks as drunkards” meme pretty much universal amongst Irish and non-Irish alike? The bastards can’t hurt you if you preempt their basest stereotypes. Hence certain groups owning the queer and “N” words.