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Another Antisemitic Controversy in Ireland

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yesterday

What happens when one of Ireland’s greatest institutions—The Late Late Show (a popular chat show, on air since 1962), one of its most recognizable exports—1980s pop star Boy George (whose parents were born in Ireland), and one of its most persistent taboos become entangled?

That taboo? Irish antisemitism. And once again, here we go. We seem to have been here too many times in too few months.

A week on, the story continues to rumble on, not least because it is attracting attention in the UK and in the Wall Street Journal in the US.

Perhaps not too many Times of Israel readers will likely have heard or read something about this story.

To recap – Boy George found himself drawn into the latest Irish antisemitic episode when he spoke about his personal upset at the widely reported attempted murder of two members of London’s Jewish community in Golders Green on April 29th. The victims—men in their 30s and 70s—were stabbed in what police quickly treated as a terror-related incident. That attack has already engulfed the UK’s Green Party leader, Jack Polanski, who has since been forced to apologize for his criticism of the police’s handling of the story.

It has now engulfed RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster.

Patrick Kielty, the host of The Late Late Show, has been widely criticized for his comment that “you’ve got attacks on the Jewish community, and the backdrop of that is obviously the horrors in Gaza.”

Many would argue that there is no meaningful........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)