The Truth about Bloomberg’s ‘Drunken Irish’ joke

If anybody had a problem with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s speech to the American Irish Historical Society last Wednesday, they certainly didn’t make it clear on the night.

Board members of the American Irish Historical Society and St Patrick’s Day Parade organizers happily posed for photographs with Mayor Bloomberg in the minutes after his speech, according to a number of people who attended the event.

“If some-one was ticked off with the joke, they didn’t show it and there are photographs to prove it,” said radio host Adrian Flannelly who was master of ceremonies at the event. He says once Mr Bloomberg had concluded his comments, he was surrounded by people wishing to have their photographs taken with him, or have their books signed for about thirty minutes.

“There was no reference whatsoever by anybody to the joke,” said Flanelly, “I can tell you first hand: nobody said it. Not a single person. There couldn’t have been anyone who took offence because if they did, they would have said something, instead of pushing each other out of the way to get photos taken with the mayor.”

Yet, the mayor’s ill-judged joke sparked a major controversy, covered by all the main news media here in the US, and in Ireland and the UK. Mr Bloomberg was attending the launch of a book celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the St Patrick’s Day Parade, written by historian John Ridge and Lynn Bushnell.  Adrian Flannelly, as MC, had been exchanging jokes with each of the speakers and when Mr Bloomberg was about to be introduced, he was informed that the Mayor had just bought a book with cash from his own pocket downstairs.

Adrian Flannelly

Flannelly joked that it was unusual to see “people in this neighbourhood putting their hands in their pockets” and asked if the Mayor had paid his sales tax. It was in the context of this back-and-forth joking that the Mayor made his ill-judged remarks. “I live in the neighborhood here, right around the corner,” Mayor Bloomberg said, “Normally when I walk by this building there are a bunch of people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window.”

The remarks drew mixture of laughs and groans from the crowd of around 100. “I know that’s a stereotype of the Irish,” he continued, “but nevertheless, we Jews from around the corner, think this.”

“It has been taken totally out of context,” says Adrian Flannelly, “It was a crappy joke, but no worse than others the politicians usually make in these type of situations when they are trying to be one of the lads, one of us. He was spurred on by the slagging and joviality that was going on at the time.”

Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg’s speech continued with his attempts at humor, saying that he was glad St Patrick’s Day was on a fixed date, not like Columbus Day, and a joke about the Metropolitan Museum of Art – something like “I don’t know who lives in the house across the street. They have a lot of art but not a lot of furniture”

The remarks went largely un-noticed at first, because the event was not widely covered by the media. But an opinion piece by Irish Voice publisher Niall O’Dowd on his Irish Central website described the remarks as bizarre, and said they had outraged some of those he spoke to at the event. New York news media began to take notice.

“We don’t get offended that easily, believe me,” Niall O’Dowd told Fox 5 television news, “But last night was particularly exceptional, I thought. It was way too far over the top.” Mayor Bloomberg apologized for any offence his remarks had caused. “I apologize,” he said, “I certainly did not mean to offend anybody.” But that did not stop the story from going global.

It was the lead story on the front page of both of New York City’s tabloid newspapers on Friday morning.

“Irish Stew” was the headline on the New York Post, “Bloomy’s Blarney” read the New York Daily News.

Chairman of the St Patrick’s Day parade John Dunleavy weighed into the controversy. “In this day and age for the mayor of the city of New York to make comments like that is outrageous and totally uncalled for,” he told the newspapers.

The story was covered by among others the BBC, and Daily Telegraph in London, CNN, the New York Times and others. Some who had attended the launch on Wednesday night told me Friday they were shocked that the remarks had ballooned into such a controversy.

Michael Bloomberg has been a strong ally of Irish Americans. He has travelled to Ireland on several occasions, and has been a strong advocate for immigrants’ rights, Northern Irish investment and other issues.

For Adrian Flannelly, who may have inadvertently sparked it all with his jokey introduction of Mr Bloomberg on the night, the reaction has been “unfortunate and way over-the-top”. “There is a good news story here that’s being lost in this,” he said, “The St Patrick’s Day parade is the longest running parade in the world bar none. In 1762, 14 years before the Declaration of Independence, someone thought this would be a good idea. And we are still doing it 250 years later. That’s what we should be talking about and instead we have this unnecessary controversy.”