{"id":641307,"date":"2026-10-01T05:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T05:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641307\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T05:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T05:34:12","slug":"td-hits-back-after-sports-minister-suggests-she-may-be-pro-taliban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641307\/","title":{"rendered":"TD hits back after sports minister suggests she may be ‘pro-Taliban’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEDIA AND SPORTS Minister Patrick O\u2019Donovan has been accused of deflection after he suggested today that Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger may be a supporter of the Taliban.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coppinger, a self-proclaimed feminist, hit back at the minister and pointed out that she has submitted multiple parliamentary questions in relation to human rights abuses by the Taliban in Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan made the comment earlier today in relation to the ongoing focus on the Football Association of Ireland (FAI)\u2019s decision to fulfil the Nations League fixtures against Israel despite the genocide in Gaza.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in Bray, Wicklow this morning, O\u2019Donovan said the FAI deserves sympathy over its handling of the fixtures<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was put to him that Coppinger last night called for the board and chief executive of the FAI to resign over its \u201cshambolic, arrogant, and incompetent\u201d dealing with the fixtures.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan accused the opposition of \u201cspeaking out of both sides of its mouth\u201d on the issue and said it is very easy for politicians to \u201ctake potshots\u201d at the FAI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Coppinger specifically, he said:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see the same politician say anything with regard to Ireland playing Afghanistan in cricket, and maybe she\u2019s pro-Afghanistan and pro-Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women in Afghanistan have been banned from sports since the Taliban regained control in 2021. Since then, Ireland\u2019s men\u2019s cricket team have played multiple fixtures against the Afghanistan men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

Responding to the minister\u2019s remarks, Coppinger told The Journal\u00a0that they were \u201can awful attempt to deflect by the minister\u201d.<\/p>\n

She noted that she has raised the issue of the Afghanistan cricket games via a parliamentary question (PQ) to O\u2019Donovan himself in July 2026, but it was deemed not to be the responsibility of the minister by the leas ceann comhairle.<\/p>\n

Coppinger also submitted a PQ<\/a> to Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee earlier in July, seeking the minister\u2019s position on the human rights abuses by the Taliban in Afghanistan and asking for details on humanitarian aid provided by Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone knows my long struggles on women\u2019s rights,\u201d Coppinger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is the minister has disgracefully justified and indeed pushed this football fixture with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the sports minister has been \u201cabysmal\u201d throughout \u201cmaking silly comments about sports and politics not mixing\u201d and trying to \u201cnormalise this fixture but then hypocritically not attending himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShameful,\u201d Coppinger said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked if the minister wished to apologise for suggesting Coppinger may be \u201cpro-Taliban\u201d, a spokesperson for O\u2019Donovan told The Journal this evening: \u201cThe minister is not available for comment\u201d.<\/p>\n

With reporting from Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEDIA AND SPORTS Minister Patrick O\u2019Donovan has been accused of deflection after he suggested today that Solidarity TD…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1113,1128,97,61,60,3410,4268,13400,112],"class_list":["post-641307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fai","tag-football","tag-gaza","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-patrick-o","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}