Pádraig Harrington: Blaming Saudi Arabia for 9/11 like blaming Ireland for not doing enough to stop IRA

James Cox

Golfer Pádraig Harrington has claimed blaming Saudi Arabia for 9/11 is like blaming Ireland for not doing enough to stop the IRA.

Harrington appeared on Liveline to discuss the controversial deal between the PGA Tour, DP Tour and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia.

PIF is the backer of LIV Golf.

Following the merger announcement, a group representing relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks said the PGA Tour should be "ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed".

However, Harrington took a different stance on the issue in an interview with Joe Duffy.

He said: "Jimmy Dunne who did this deal... he lost two floors in the Twin Towers. He lost his friends and the workforce in 9/11. Now I don't know enough about this, he has come out and said that terrorists blew up the Twin Towers. So he should know.

"Now, I really have a problem with this because I was in England in the early 90s, and continuously, the gutter press in Britain intermingled Ireland, the Irish government, Irish people and the IRA to blame on the atrocities. They made it feel like the Irish people were to blame for the IRA bombings in the UK."

Harrington added: "Now, I know about Ireland... I don't know enough about Saudi Arabia. I can only take Jimmy Dunne's position because he should know.

"But blaming Saudi Arabia and their government seems very much like blaming Ireland for not doing enough to stop the IRA. Maybe Saudi Arabia took their eye off the ball. They could never have foreseen what was going to happen.

"If Jimmy Dunne is saying that he doesn't believe the Saudi Arabian government had anything to do with that and that it was Osama Bin Laden and his cohort from Saudi Arabia, that just like how the IRA were Irish people but didn't have the support from the Irish government or Irish people."