‘Three Cheers For Spar Guy’

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Panti Bliss writes:

Three cheers for Spar guy (from a friend’s Facebook page).

Yay!

Via Panti Bliss

Update: “I Chose My Words Badly,” Says Man In Spar Homophobia Incident INCIDENT

Thanks Jane Casey

Thanks Janet Casey

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143 thoughts on “‘Three Cheers For Spar Guy’

        1. Don Pidgeoni

          I don’t know why I am amazed that people cannot work this bit out.

          Wow! Much confusion! Such frown!

    1. louislefronde

      Ah, it’s so easy to stir up a mob in Ireland – all you have to do is call someone a D4head? Of course, it might not have occurred to the individual who wrote the piece that your man in the shop was not from Dublin 4 in the first place, and ironically by making the automatic assumption and suggestion the writer was merely demonstrating he’s an inverse snob in his own right.

      But of course, the mob is always right…..?

      As for the man behind the counter, he did the right thing.

      1. Mark

        One, it is likely he wrote this immediately after the incident and would have been a little shaken.
        Two, it was a humorous post on his personal Facebook page that he didn’t expect to go viral.

        Sometimes, one has to appreciate the bigger picture rather than nitpicking.

    1. dafweecha

      agree – calling someone a faggot is disgraceful but that person need not resort to ‘scaldy hun’…

      well done spar guy tho’…

      1. Soundings

        How bloody dare this person call someone a “scaldy hun”, I am outraged at the hypocrisy, does he not realise how two-faced he is, how very dare he indeed.

        By the way, does anyone know what a “scaldy hun” is? “hun” as in pejorative for a German, or short for honey or something to do with Northern Irish protestants? Scaldy? Is that like blotchy skin as in scalded skin, or is it a reference to her character, or did he mean she was scolding? Please clarify, because I really want my outrage to be sincere and legitimate and I’d hate to think I had gotten on my high horse over something I didn’t properly understand.

        1. Clampers Outside!

          Scaldy…. if someone is scaldy it means they’re the type who constantly whinge and is always on the cusp of boiling over into an argument about the littlest thing… at least in my experience that what someone who is described as ‘scaldy’.

          1. Soundings

            Would that not be “scoldy” with an “o”? Maybe he meant “skanky” or “scaly” (as in reptilian or having psoriasis or a bad tan) or maybe he meant “hot” as in vampish, or maybe he meant she looked like a Scandanavian poet (skald or scald), that might tie in with “hun” being germanic, what do you think? Seriously, I feel unable to give full vent to my outrage at this hypocrisy until this is all clarified.

          2. The Old Boy

            Nailed it Soundings, the girlfriend was a Teutonic poet in the Scandinavian tradition. I’m sticking with it anyway.

        2. rotide

          like it or not, ‘hun’ is a perjorative word for protestants and germans.

          So perjoratives for some, rainbow flags for others.

        3. Mark Dennehy

          I’m outraged that once again the Hun are being persecuted in this manner. Not since World War One when “Hun” was used as a dehumanising term for the German army has the term been so maligned. Was this scaldy person from the eastern steppes? Was she an expert horse rider, skilled in the use of a bow from horseback? Was she part of the Great Migration? Was she a part of one of the largest empires in human history?
          I. Think. Not.
          Good day, sir!

        4. sickofallthisbs

          So because somebody is called a ‘faggot’ they should be allowed to use pejorative terms in retaliation? Grow up you facetious little child.

        5. Spaghetti Hoop

          Because ‘ hun’ as the term for a German soldier is a century old and now a retired term, I’m guessing in this context it means a sunburnt Rangers supporter.

    1. ahjayzis

      You’d swear they had a business plan that depended on maximising the people clicking onto their posts. Gone are the days were meeja websites did their best to discourage you clicking onto their content :(

      1. sickofallthisbs

        Wait a second, are you saying the guy who threw the brick was also the D4 guy in Spar? That he is government and corporate plant? MIND BLOWN.

  1. Mikeyfex

    Ya, fair play to the Spar employee, I’m sure he managed to refuse and remain the bigger person at the same time.

    1. Buzz

      I’m curious too. Why would anyone wear shorts in this weather? *Shivers* Still, nice work Spar guy. Scaldy hun conqures up scobe girlfriend but he says guy was D4. Has Ross O’Carroll-Kelly been on the pull in Ballymun?

      1. Just sayin'

        I would’ve just remarked on how badly dressed he was rather than referencing his (possible) sexuality.

        1. Don Pidgeoni

          Or, you know, just let him do his thing because his appearance in no way affects you except for the fact you think the world wants to hear your opinion. You could just do that. That would be nicer.

          1. Clampers Outside!

            But then the person who dresses wildly different to the norm will never know if they’ve gotten the ‘stand out’, the looks and attention that comes with that, that they seek :( No?

          2. Don Pidgeoni

            If you can’t let people know that you have noticed them without reverting to insults then you shouldn’t be allowed outside on your own with the grown-ups. Or maybe, ever.

          3. Don Pidgeoni

            And shorts and jumper isn’t wildly different. It could be “I’m very hungover, these clothes are here” attire

  2. donkey kong

    if I was spar owner I’d sack spar guy for refusing a sale.
    Money trumps morals. always.

    Although I think this a wind up story.

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        Apes cant get bank loans. They are notorious for spending it all on bananas. So I think we are safe from Mr Kong’s style of business skillez.

    1. LiamZero

      Don’t worry, you’ll clearly never have to worry about being put in any sort of employment role that requires the use of your brain.

      1. donkey kong

        you can say that again!
        I own the company and others do the thinking for me

        bigotted obnoxious money tastes as sweet as purified liberal agenda money.
        I’ll take it all.
        Give it to me baby!

        1. LiamZero

          See, in your case, the problem with pretending you are actually successful in life is that everyone knows it’s not true, points it out to you and then you just end up feeling even more wretched afterwards.
          You shouldn’t do this to yourself, it’s not good for your mental health.

    2. Sidewinder

      Spar has gotten global positive publicity from this for free. I’d say this has been to their net monetary benefit.

  3. Clampers Outside!

    Fair play to Spar Guy !

    Disclaimer: My support for Spar Guy does not constitute an endorsement of Spar, Eurospar or any of its’ other incarnations. MACE and Gala all the way and fupp Centra !

    1. The Old Boy

      Ah Clampers, I thought you’d be one for T.J. McGinty’s Grocer and Undertaker. Ten Afton please, Mary!

    1. Sidewinder

      Can I ask a question? How does one manage to be in Baggot St spar ALL their opening hours to know such a thing? Are you the manager there? Or do you live in the vents?

      1. rotide

        were you there to verify it DID happen?

        I’m yet to see this as anything other than the picture above, I’m not saying it definitely didn’t happen, but it does stink a bit

          1. rotide

            So it’s fine to use the word gay to describe something bad then?

            or Knacker to describe a scumbag?

            Good to know.

          2. Don Pidgeoni

            Gay is fine if you want to keep contributing to a society that makes LGBTQ people feel less than you – have you seen mental health outcomes/suicide rates for young LGBTQ people? And knacker is fine if you want to highlight that you yourself are a scumbag who judges everyone before knowing anything about them.

            Well done rotide, you shine again.

          3. rotide

            So it’s ok to use a perjorative for protestants in any context, but not use other perjoratives ever.

            Got it.

            The double standards are shining again.

          4. Don Pidgeoni

            Poor rotide, if only there was an global electronic network of easily accessible information you could access to find out?

  4. Ur Man

    As a gay man, called a faggot for years, I find it hypocritical to dip to the low levels of name calling this person uses. I was at a protest recently against an anti-gay organization and was disappointed by the same low level insults being brandished in opposition. Love is the answer.

    1. Nigel

      You mean it’s impossible to speculate on a person’s geographical origins based on voice and manner?

  5. rotide

    This was all over facebook tommorow. No source apparent anywhere. Im guessing its a pretty subtle troll.

    Certainly bringing out double standards in an intreresting fashion.

    1. ReproBertie

      Woo, time traveller!

      If I could travel through time I wouldn’t waste it telling people what’s flying round facebook in the future.

      1. rotide

        meant to type this morning and typed tommorow….. there’s a moralin there somewhere

        anyway, either this didnt happen or both the people in question are judgemental arseholes

        1. Roj

          Or, the short-wearing-guy was just really angry and upset and responded as he did, you know, after being verbally put down in public and all.

          1. rotide

            and to a tourist from the UK and all!

            Heavens to betsy, you couldn’t write this stuff.

            Oh wait, someone did.

      1. Sidewinder

        Also the screenshot is from Cormac’s own facebook status in which he tagged the person whose story this is.

      2. rotide

        That would indeed be quite a clear source if it were attached to anything anywhere.

        Good info though. Seems it is real.

  6. JimmytheHead

    Adrian kennedy had a field day with this on 98fm, even got his homophobe friend Jude to ring up and give his backwards view on the whole thing… anything for ratings

    1. John E. Bravo

      “…when the men of the family spoke, the words they uttered came across with a weighty distinctness, phonetic units as separate and defined as delph platters displayed on a dresser shelf… They had a kind of Native American solemnity of utterance, as if they were announcing verdicts rather than making small talk. And when I came to ask myself how I wanted Beowulf to sound in my version, I realized I wanted it to be speakable by one of those relatives. I therefore tried to frame the famous opening lines in cadences that would have suited their voices, but that still echoed with the sound and sense of the Anglo-Saxon.

      “Conventional renderings of hwæt, the first word of the poem, tend towards the archaic literary, with ‘lo’, ‘hark’, ‘behold’, ‘attend’ and – more colloquially – ‘listen’ being some of the solutions offered previously. But in Hiberno-English Scullion-speak, the particle ‘so’ came naturally to the rescue, because in that idiom ‘so’ operates as an expression that obliterates all previous discourse and narrative, and at the same time functions as an exclamation calling for immediate attention. So, ‘so’ it was:

      So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
      and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
      We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.”

      http://www.mhpbooks.com/did-everyone-get-the-first-line-of-beowulf-wrong-or-did-seamus-heaney-get-it-right/

  7. Manta Rae

    This story is so full of cliches and stereotypes that I’m calling it out as garbage. I will be happily proved wrong but until then I am content that my assessment of this contrived piece of fantasy is the correct one.

    Boorish and bigoted D4 head with airhead girlfriend put in his place by a humble but heroic shop worker? Give me peace… I wonder if the Spar guy looks like Michael J Fix in the story writer’s imagination…

  8. Hashtag Diversity

    Wide open to prosecution under equality legislation. He was denied service.

    Otherwise, the story is does seem like utter BS. Like who doesn’t take pictures with their phone these days.

    Of course it would be completely wrong to suggest that this came less than 24hours after Liam Fay in the ST’s underwhelming review of Jay Bourke’s business partner’s book by #panti is anything other than a coincidence.

    1. ahjayzis

      So if I bottle someone in the queue I can be refused service, but if I verbally assault them, I’m covered by anti-discrimination?

      While I don’t support discrimination against homophobic slack-jaws and the slags they bang, I think your interpretation of the law is a bit bullshit pet.

    2. Ciarán

      I don’t know if the story is true or not, but just to take you up on a point: how would you take a photo of the several seconds it took for somwone to be refused service? I mean, once you realised what was happening would you whiip out your phone and then ask them to run through it again for a picture, but really how would this come across in a photo…maybe they could use exaggerated expressions like in those tabloid photo stories. Sparguy waving his finger in prohibition, D4 head with angry look of suprise, scaldy hun with her hands on her hips, face twisted in bitchy frown, short shorts guy in delighted shock behind them..?

  9. Hashtag Diversity

    Ah, Spar, Baggot Street. The taxi driver’s friend. Regularly seen welcoming travellers into it’s aisles.

  10. Owen

    Lads, I just got off the blower with Spar to clarify the truth behind this. So, and this is a little awkward, it turns out that ‘D4 dude’ was actually a member of the travelling community and the ‘Scaldy hun’ was a Nigerian asylum seeker.

    Now, the Nigerian burd actually said what they think was ‘sexy shorts ya beast’, but the Spar Guy was sadly deaf and he understood through lip reading that she said ‘see-de shorts on that bastard’. The travel was eating a chicken fillet roll and said nothing, but the Spar guy thought he was dropping the ‘f-bomb’. He was just looking for a reason to turf them out.

    The manager in Spar on the blower told me (and I quote) ‘that deaf lad is causing us all kinds of f’ing problems’.

    True stroy.

  11. Spaghetti Hoop

    “…poor Colm has also had to deal with lots of abuse online – from people calling him a liar, to the people who claim it’s his own fault for not dressing how they think he should. Because apparently the problem isn’t that some asshole called him a faggot while he was minding his own business in his local shop, but that some faggots refuse to dress how assholes in shops think they should.” Panti Bliss

    Is everyone getting a little precious and uppity here?? Ridiculous story.

    1. Roj

      Ridiculous story, or ridiculous response? Neither really. If you think anyone over-reacted in this whole thing you have some shit to figure out in that small head of yours.

  12. OhTheIrony

    Fair play to Sparguy. Homophobic assh*les should be brought to account.

    However, knowing the short shorts wearing guy that originally posted it, I find it hypocritical of him to cry fowl. He has in the past posted a picture of a random stranger on his Facebook wall, calling her a “basic bitch” for wearing pumps (instead of presumably more acceptible footwear like 9-inch stilettos) in a pub. But that’s ok…cos she is just a straight white girl. He also constantly mocks people for their “bad” taste in fashion. These double standards should also be brought to account!

  13. Stephanenny

    I tweeted a screenshot of this status yesterday. My friend Cormac posted the story in quotes as a facebook status, tagging the beshorted man in question.

    The willingness of people to claim this is made up just baffles me. I can only assume people are so skeptical because they’d never do what “spar guy” did, and I must say I find that quite startling and disappointing. I’m also baffled by the constant inferrals that “scaldy hun” – a phrase I had never heard of before yesterday and that very few people I know have heard of, is some kind of anti-english slur is frankly bizarre. It also strikes me as an bizarre attempt to defend a pair of rude, homophobic gits. Why would anyone do that?

    If you’ve any questions I suggest you ask @cormaccashman on twitter but then I’d also advise you all that he’s perfectly within his rights to tell you where to go and I’d probably encourage him to do so.

    Nonetheless, the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive so I’m merry enough to dismiss the petty sods :)

    1. sickofallthisbs

      What happened to your friend is a disgrace, but judging by his characterization of his attackers, he is obviously just as hateful as the people who abused him.

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        Really? Not just mad at them being pretty offensive towards him? I would hardly have something nice to say about anyone who was horrible to me. Why is he expected be pleasant about them?

        1. sickofallthisbs

          He is justifiably mad, but that does not warrant his use of pejorative terms. If anyone was referred to as a ‘scaldy hun’ or a ‘faggot’ in court by someone giving a testimony where they weren’t reporting speech they would be told to stop, end of. You can’t hold the moral high ground when you engage in the same (albeit lesser) negative practice.

          1. Don Pidgeoni

            It wasn’t court though was it? It was Facebook, lets remember that. There is no way of knowing from what we have seen if this was meant for anyone else than his mates. We all use words we shouldn’t when talking in what we think are private situations and online is the same. Are you sure you have never used a “bad” word before? Do you have the moral high ground to judge the OP? Do you realise how silly this whole secondary debate sounds?!

            I don’t know what he means by scaldy hun to the OP but calling someone a f— when they can hear is much worse and you bet your bottom dollar that I would be giving zero f**** about hurting the feelings of those people or having the moral high ground if they had said that to any of my LGBTQ mates and I was around

          2. Nigel

            A) Those moral high ground firmly belongs to the Spar guy. B.) While yes, it is technically a difference of degree rather than kind, it’s a fairly significant quantity of degrees. By being snidely insulting about the person who insulted him, the guy isn’t being sufficiently meek and saintly for everyone’s liking. And nobody even knows what ‘scaldy hun’ means.

      2. Stephanenny

        Ok, one, not my friend. A story related by a friend.

        Two – using a mildly derogatroy description of a person who has publicly humiliated you when recounting the story to a friend is not at all hateful (it’s quite normal actually) never mind being the same as calling someone a “f****t” in public and then laughing in their face.

        1. Don Pidgeoni

          +1. Astonishing that the difference saying something derogatory online or to your friends and saying something derogatory to someone’s face has to be pointed out

    2. Chamos

      “Hun” is a term that sees widespread use in Northern Ireland as a pejorative against Protestants and Rangers supporters. “Taig” is its Catholic counterpart.

      Characterising those who would prefer not to have these slurs thrown about as being homophobic is disingenuous.

        1. Chamos

          With homonyms, which word is chosen is inferred from the context. In this case, we have either an ethnic slur or a term of endearment. Given that scaldy is a negative term, it can be inferred that “hun” was also intended as an insult.
          Consider yourself “baffled” no more.

    1. Spaghetti Hoop

      And Irishtown, Sandymount, Ballsbridge and Donnybrook. About 50,000 people? I dunno, I’m guessing. The term ‘D4 Head’ has scope anyway.

  14. andyourpointiswhatexactly

    If someone had called me a scaldy hun I wouldn’t have known how to react, as up til around a minute ago I had no idea what it meant. Probably the best reaction is to go for a headbutt, then ask questions after.

  15. John Cassidy

    Hun is generally a term of affection from women to men/women in Wexford town. Probably shortened from honey. But when you put scaldy in front of it, it stops being a term of affection I’d imagine.

  16. Freia

    Who even says “a D4 head”? WTF is a D4 head!? The bang of Walter Mitty off the whole tale is pungent.

  17. Manta Rae

    It’s unfortunate that discussion of this so-called event has centred mostly on the alleged victim’s poor choice of words, ie scaldy hun, whatever that means.

    If the man has been the victim of homophobic abuse, then why aren’t the guards involved? We know the store involved and the the date and time of the alleged offence. And as the alleged victim was dressed somewhat unusually in a woolly jumper and ‘shorty’ shorts, he shouldn’t be hard to spot on CCTV. And, therefore, his alleged abuser should also bee easy to spot. Spar, at least, should have handed over the CCTV to the guards.

    The reason I suggest that none of the above has happened is that the alleged altercation never took place.

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