Irish gags land Irishman in trouble

The snappily named Community Magazine For The Parishes Of Blisland With Temple St Breward And Helland is probably not where you would expect to find inflammatory racism.

Yet that is the position editor Denis Lusby, who is Irish himself, found himself in after being accused of peddling ‘derogatory’ material in the Cornish newsletter.

Now he feels he has been bullied out of the job he has held for 11 years following the allegations by Ginny Harrison-White, head of the county council’s Equality and Diversity Service.

Ms Harrison-White claimed the jokes used racist language or ridicule and wrote to local primary schools asking if they felt it appropriate to have their news printed in the magazine alongside ‘such derogatory material’

One of the gags that offended her was: ‘Father Murphy walks into a pub and asks a man: “Do you want to go to Heaven?” He says “I do” — and is told to stand by the wall. The priest asks a second man, who says Yes — and also waits by the wall. The priest then asks O’Toole, who says No. The astonished priest replies: “So when you die you don’t want to go to Heaven?” O’Toole says: “Oh, when I die, yes. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now."’

Mr Lusby told his local newspaper: ‘To be accused of racism, specifically anti-Irish, has hurt me very deeply, especially as I am an Irish Catholic who left his homeland because of the daily occurrence of racism and murder.

‘I try to counter racism wherever I come across it. But I've had enough - the inmates will soon be running the asylum.’

Ms Harrison-White told the paper she was not acting within her official capacity, but added: ‘Because of my role, I clearly come from an informed position with particular expertise and knowledge.

‘I firmly believe that it is the responsibility of all members of society to support each other to ensure that any actions, comments or public materials do not cause offence.’

Published: 13 Sep 2007