{"id":580848,"date":"2026-05-13T01:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/580848\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T01:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:39:11","slug":"irish-writer-calls-public-broadcasters-decision-not-to-air-eurovision-antisemitic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/580848\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish writer calls public broadcaster’s decision not to air Eurovision ‘antisemitic’"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBLIN, Ireland \u2014 Irish writer Graham Linehan has accused Ireland\u2019s public broadcaster RTE of antisemitism for airing his \u201cFather Ted\u201d comedy instead of the Eurovision Song Contest in protest at Israel.<\/p>\n

As the Eurovision semifinals kicked off in Vienna on Tuesday, Ireland has been one of several countries involved in the biggest-ever political boycott of the song contest over Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not give my permission for Father Ted to be used as a prop in an antisemitic political gesture,\u201d Linehan said in a social media post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI object to it in the strongest possible terms,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip prompted Ireland and four other countries \u2014 Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Iceland \u2014 to withdraw from the glitzy annual extravaganza.<\/p>\n

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RTE said in December that it \u201cfeels that Ireland\u2019s participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tNoam Bettan from Israel walks on the Turquoise Carpet during the official start of the Eurovision Song Contest week at the town hall in Vienna, Austria, May 10, 2026. (AP\/Martin Meissner)<\/p>\n

Like Ireland, Spain and Slovenia are refusing to broadcast this week\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n

During Saturday\u2019s final, the Irish broadcaster will show a Eurovision-related episode of the popular 1990s Father Ted sitcom about hapless Irish priests that Linehan co-wrote.<\/p>\n

Linehan said RTE\u2019s boycott \u201cis not a principled humanitarian stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is antisemitism \u2014 the oldest hatred \u2014 dressed up in the language of human rights,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland is better than this. RTE must be held accountable,\u201d he added, calling for the resignation of the broadcaster\u2019s director.<\/p>\n

RTE did not respond to a request for comment by AFP.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBLIN, Ireland \u2014 Irish writer Graham Linehan has accused Ireland\u2019s public broadcaster RTE of antisemitism for airing his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[198566,3854,96,14709,59,2274,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-580848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-anti-semitism-in-ireland","tag-antisemitism","tag-entertainment","tag-eurovision-song-contest","tag-gb","tag-ireland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}