Cork city councillor says retweet was a mistake

THE leader of Fianna Fáil on Cork City Council has said he made a mistake in retweeting the leader of the far-right Britain First party, but an opposition councillor has branded him “a dinosaur”.

Councillor Seán Martin retweeted a post by Paul Golding, an English fascist who has multiple convictions for assault and hate crimes and who has twice served prison sentences for religiously motivated hatred, in which the Britain First leader stated that golliwogs are not racist.

In his post, Mr Golding falsely claimed that golliwogs date back to British workers in Egypt “during the British Empire” who sent the dolls home as presents.

In fact, the golliwog was created by American-born English writer Florence Kate Upton in 1895, and the image grew out of racist minstrel caricatures, with frizzy hair, big lips and large white teeth.

The word golliwog has long been used to dehumanise black people.

Mr Martin, who was co-opted onto Cork City Council in 1997 to fill the vacancy created when his brother Micheál, currently Tánaiste, was appointed to ministerial office, subsequently undid the retweet.

Reacting to Cllr Martin initially retweeting Mr Golding’s claims, Solidarity councillor Fiona Ryan tweeted: “To continue to have Sean Martin shout over me every council meeting & have the audacity to chastise me is really…something else. Sean Martin - retweeting ex-BNP & National Front hacks to defend a highly racist doll apparently. The world we live in.” 

Speaking to The Echo, Cllr Ryan said: “Seán Martin, as a dinosaur, is only reflective of a thread within Fianna Fáil that is backwards, that is not in line with his brother Micheál Martin’s attempts to put a shiny, modern veneer on the party, and I think that Seán Martin represents a backwardness that is still very much present within the party itself.” 

Cllr Ryan said that at Tuesday’s meeting of Cork City Council, Cllr Martin had claimed that the far left was as bad as the far right and was attempting to stoke a culture war.

“That particular accusation [of stoking a culture war] was made at his frustration at my own and other parties’ refusal to not discuss the eviction ban, which Fianna Fáil, along with their partners Fine Gael, have done everything to stifle debates on that issue in Cork City Council, including ending the special meeting that was convened specifically to discuss it.” 

Asked by The Echo for a comment, Cllr Martin said he had made the retweet in error, not realising who Paul Golding was, and assuming his comment had been made in good faith.

“It was a mistake, the retweet was a mistake,” Mr Martin said.

“With respect now, there’s a non-story here, I made a mistake in a retweet, that’s it.

“There’s loads of news every week in the council and we don’t get a call from anybody, and that’s reality,” he said.