152 thoughts on “Blame The Parents

  1. bumbasqwuat

    What concerns could parents possibly have? Only one explanation for this, and it’s that some people are bellends.

      1. Rep

        I find it a bit shocking that some people are against the idea that homophobic bullying is a bad thing. Do you not?

    1. Jordofthejungle

      It is rather strange how this is suddenly an issue as the homophobic bullying workshop has taken place in Colaiste Eoin for a few years now. Could it be more than a mere coincidence with the impending Marriage Equality referendum as a way of subtly underscoring to voters that parents don’t want their teenagers to be exposed to homosexuality under any guise even if it’s an apolitical anti- bullying campaign. There is an overlap here with the tactics of the US Christian Right trying to export their lowbrow guff to Ireland.

      There does appear to be something manufactured and artificial about this fiasco which has touch of being orchestrated.

  2. JimmytheHead

    Far too many uses of the word “Catholic” there. Sounds like the school didnt like all the negative publicity and are now firmly tail between legs, go Broadsheet! :-)

    1. Rep

      Agreed. Today’s information seems completely different to what was originally said. If it was about the parents, they could have taken their kids out of the talk so this seems like a massive cop out by a school trying to deflect from the PR sh*t storm they brought on themselves.

      1. JimmytheHead

        I think the original article said it was a verbal cancellation when they arrived, in my line of work we wouldnt consider that an official response. Its a massive cop out from the scaredy school. I hope ShoutOut get legally compensated for having their time wasted and their reputation questioned.

        ….or do we need to have a bigot present for this too?

  3. Don Pidgeoni

    At school, when we had sex ed (yes, not Ireland), the kids of parents who had an issue just went somewhere else. Could they not do that?

    1. Frilly Keane

      Yes. But then they’d either have to find fees or go the Lucan or Clondalkin

      And as the average 10 year old will tell ya
      “Not gonna happen!”

    2. ZeligIsJaded

      We got sex ed. from a nun, who used a tea cloth to represent the penis. She then wrapped it in a knot to represent the erect penis.

      Good times

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        That is hilarious and depressing.

        Our teachers gave us age appropriate classes once a year at primary school from the age of about 7 until 12. We got to say rude words in class. It was fun. At high school, a Tampax saleswoman gave a talk about periods we were going to get that we were already having and we got free samples. Brilliant marketing on their part though.

        1. Ms Piggy

          yes, this sounds similar to the sex education I got (also not in Ireland). I think each class should probably have happened a year earlier than it did, but otherwise it wasn’t awful. I particularly remember the district nurse’s visit with examples of all the different kinds of contraception, which she passed round for us to have a look at. I remember this because even now I’m alarmed by the largest size of diaphragm she showed us, and at the time I recall it caused great hilarity. But still, it did mean that I actually knew a few things about contraception by the time I needed that information. And of course there was no God. I went to an awful school in many ways (and one which had serious need of some anti-homophobic bullying classes in fact) but at least there was no God stuff interfering in our education.

          1. Mani

            My sex education was being brought to a farm. The farmer pointed out into a field and said ‘Dyou see what they’re doing in there? That’s how babies are made’. For years I thought coitus involved a baling machine. All that money I wasted on plant hire for foreplay. Gone.

  4. Clampers Outside!

    Do they do the same thing when the Bible thumpers suggest that being anything other than heterosexual is “disordered” which any rational thinking person knows is total bollix. Being gay is as natural as spring water FFS !

  5. Frilly Keane

    I’ve stayed off this story ( in the main) here

    Because I knew it was always a ‘parents’ bomb

    And also, it originates from the worst of the worst of ‘parents’

    South County Dublin Parents
    I am generalising, yeah.
    But yesterday it crystalised.

    Between Inbred Inferiority Complexes, Collective Style over Substance Policies, Arseless Pants and Bad Manners, lemme tell ye South County Dublin parents are in a *class of their own

    (* they like the word so let them have it)

    1. Medium Sized C

      Or one of the many, many schools between those places and Stillorgan.
      But I thought South Dublin was the home of the liberal elite?
      You know the ones who are against catholic middle Ireland?

      1. Leela2011

        you would have thought.. rumours are there’s a bit of Opus Dei/GAA illuminati influence going on there

      1. Mani

        I fear the topic might be getting a bit too complicated for your, eh, dummies guide grasp of Irishness.

      2. Jordofthejungle

        Lol – as a born and bred coastal south Dubliner, I can confirm that there are not many of us that far removed from our agrarian “bogger” past.

  6. Dubloony

    Parents are allowed voice their concerns.They could have taken the specific kids out of class discreetly or something if that is what the wanted.

    But if there were issues, the school shouldn’t have been so rude as to leave it to 30 mins before start to tell a volunteer group not to go ahead.

  7. ollie

    bullying is not confined to sexual orientation and these talks should not be confined to any one category of bullying.

    1. Nigel

      I find this puzzling. Is there something about this particular type of bullying that means it shouldn’t be singled out for close examination and discussion? Should all subjects taught or raised or discussed in school be subjected to a one-size-fits-all level of discourse?

      1. sickofallthisbs

        To cut through the bullshit – it is about what lobby groups you pay to visit schools. I suspect a parent of a child in Coláiste Eoin wants a group they run on anti-bullying to be used instead and using the cloak of Catholicism to get their way. Principal (and anyone here in management knows this) is forced to adhere to the school charter in these situations.

        1. Nigel

          I’ve seen this deployed before in cases where homophobic bullying is singled out. What about all the other bullying? is just a weird argument. There’s nothing about dealing with other bullying or all bullying that doesn’t mean you can’t also hone in on one type of bullying, and nothing about honing in on one type of bullying that doesn’t mean you can’t also cover other or all types of bullying.

          1. sickofallthisbs

            I think that’s the point – rather than focus on homophobic bullying on its own, they have probably decided to go with something that looks at all types of bullying (hence I suspect somebody who has a child in the school has a vested interest in another anti-bullying group).

          2. Nigel

            That would be truly and honestly and deeply hilarious. Do competing anti-bullying groups go around sabotaging each other? Is there backstabbing and bad-mouthing and bribery and snide exchanges in school gyms?

            There’s an Office-type comedy series in this.

    2. Llareggub

      I agree Ollie. The type of person who bullies will not restrict their bullying to somebody’s sexual orientation or gender. I sense that there is a certain persecution complex going on in this case. So what, the talk was postponed. It isn’t the schools fault if there have been objections from parents and they have had ShoutOut visit in the past so clearly they, the school don’t have an issue.

      1. Nigel

        All true enough, except it’s a bit rich to sniff at a persecution complex when a specifically anti-homophobic bullying event was cancelled, when another type of anti-bullying event mightn’t have been.

    3. Malta

      It’s not just about bullying the gay kids. Is about pointing out that dying things like ‘that’s so gay’ in a negative manner is not creating a pleasant atmosphere for any gay kids.

  8. ReproBertie

    It is of course possible that someone got the wrong end of the stick and thought the talk was to about the upcoming referendum and believed both sides should be represented.

    1. Bluebeard

      You’re being way too reasonable there Bertie. They are all bible-thumping inbred homophobes. Thats how you get ahead on here!

      1. Joe the Lion

        Yes because victims of disinformation and blind faith and prejudice are not victims per se, they are just ‘the gays’ what need to be cured unlike us real victims who sit here in our tiny little minority heterosexual in constant danger of being literally swept say by a tsunami of queerness.

    2. Stewart Curry

      Doubtful, seeing as they’ve already had workshops there before, and (I’d assume) they’re too young to vote anyways.

      1. ReproBertie

        Yes they’ve had workshops there before but not for the same students which means there’s every possibility that some parents are encountering this workshop for the first time, getting confused about the puropse of the workshop and contacting the school board with their confusion driven concerns.

  9. YourNan

    ah the silent majority, good old backbone of this island, rearing it’s true small minded, blinkered head.

    1. Bluebeard

      A country that is currently 70% in favour of altering the constitution to include gay marriage isn’t really all that small minded or blinkered when you compare it to others.

          1. Bluebeard

            Well there are only 14 countries in the world that permit same sex marriage. ireland will be the 15th. Thats 15th out of 190 or so countries. And yet you chose to compare us to Pakistan and Saudi arabia. Now why would you do that??

          2. Joe the Lion

            Thus you buttressed my point. Until we pass the law we are equally as bad as everyone else including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

  10. martco

    ….of course the interesting aspect of this is that we’ve gone now from having a simple quiet workshop one day in a school in stillorgan to the issues of bullying and homophobia being discussed all over the media and amongst the parents and their kids going to this particular school, the kids going to other schools that these kids interact with on faceshite and snapshite all evening long etc. etc.

    viral job done

  11. Medium Sized C

    So they didn’t cancel it, the parents cancelled it, but it was never cancelled?

    What am I missing here?
    Is it still on?

        1. JimmytheHead

          “Just got a call from a Dublin principal [Colaiste Eoin, Stillorgan, Co Dublin] who has stepped in to cancel a ShoutOut workshop planned this morning…. ”
          – Eoin O’ Liatháin of youth LGBTQ group ShoutOut.ie.

          Sorry Blue, I dont read the I.T

          1. Bluebeard

            “We got an email at 10.30am this morning cancelling the workshop,” Mr Meehan said. Confirmation bias? It’s amazing the lengths some go to to bash Catholics. Is it worth it honestly?

          2. Nially

            “Yes, I always trust the word of the aggrieved party 100% in any dispute.”

            …he said, using the word of one member of the aggrieved party to ‘disprove’ the word of another member of the aggrieved party. But yeah, “confirmation bias” is definitely only at play on the “liberal” side here…

          3. JimmytheHead

            Bluebeard – I just got a call/email from the catholic league of Broadsheet commenters saying that your username has pornographic connotations and as a precautionary measure you have been permanently barred from commenting or reading any future articles.

            I hope you understand, its nothing personal we just want to protect the kids

      1. newsjustin

        What kind of legal action might they take? For one reason or another, good or bad, the school didn’t want them. No one has a legal right to address a school.

        1. sickofallthisbs

          If anything the school can take action against Eoin O Liathain for defamation if he misrepresented the principal’s words.

        2. Llareggub

          Yes. I know of cases where people have had speaking appointments cancelled in schools. They didn’t go running to the media. Broadsheet is all over this one like a cheap suit.

        3. JimmytheHead

          Then what kind of message does that send to any LGBT kids who might be getting bullied in this exact school? Bullying is ok so long as its because of their sexuality? Pathetic comment

          1. sickofallthisbs

            It means exactly what he said. Schools are not obligated to have LGBT groups (or any group for that matter) to speak to them. What schools have to have is an anti-bullying charter – which I assume CE does.

            Get off your high horse and stop pontificating about it online; if you don’t like it, do something about it.

            Derp yourself, fool.

          2. Llareggub

            Sincerely doubt that ShoutOut were actively ‘hired’. It is more likely that ShoutOut approached the school.

          3. JimmytheHead

            Paid for or not, they have to be requested by the school or a student of the school (checked the website). Fair enough if you dont think they deserve financial compensation but suggesting the school does just boils my blood

          4. Llareggub

            Who suggested they deserved compensation. It certainly was not me. Be better to read what was actually said before you comment.

          5. Bluebeard

            A paedo is a criminal. Thats where the line is crossed. Its seems to be ok to thrash anyone except LGBT people. You’re not the only victims in the village you know!

        4. Bluebeard

          They weren’t hired Jimmy, but you know this. They weren’t cancelled verbally and you know this too. But let nothing stand in your way of your agenda. Including insinuating that Im a paedo.

          i have been called a paedo and a homophobe in two days on here. And by people purporting to be in favour of equality, free speech and de childer. :-)

          1. Don Pidgeoni

            “i have been called a paedo and a homophobe in two days on here. And by people purporting to be in favour of equality, free speech and de childer. :-)”

            The two aren’t inconsistent if free speech includes their right to call you a homophobe and a paedo while supporting your rights to be either

          2. JimmytheHead

            1.) They were requested, after being there the previous year. Their website shows you have to request them (as I stated before).

            2.) They were cancelled verbally, as stated in the original article.

            3.) Could you please outline my agenda? I seem to have missed that email.

            4.) I have never insinuated you were a peado, that was the commenter after me. Also never insinuated you were a homophobe, I insinuated your username was mildly pornographic and that it would offend the cattle licks.

            Facts not a big deal for you then bluey? Go lie down.

          3. Bluebeard

            A paedo is a criminal. Thats where the line is crossed. Its seems to be ok to thrash anyone except LGBT people. You’re not the only victims in the village you know

          4. Llareggub

            While you can request a workshop, that’s an option alright, I am sure that ShoutOut also request visits to schools. You have zero evidence that the school sought them out.

          5. Bluebeard

            You said they were hired, not invited.

            They were cancelled by email in their own words.

            Verbal cancellation – i.e. no hard evidence for them to take legal action and the good catholic school can make up whatever they want

            I never said you called me a homophobe

            I hope you understand, its nothing personal we just want to protect the kids..

            I don’t care really. It just gives me pleasure to show your hate-led agenda masked in compassion.

          6. Nigel

            Nobody should have called you either, but you’re a bit too quick to anoint yourself with victim status. Free speech often means that if you take a position that disagrees with a lot of people, then a lot of people will disagree with you. To suggest that a lot of people disagreeing with you is inimical to free speech is stupid. Calling you paedo and homophobe absent evidence of either is also stupid as well as being over the line. But it hardly measures up to what the LGBT community have had to put up with, and still have to put up with.

          7. Bluebeard

            Nigel, read my last line there! i was precisely not doing victim status and I ended my other comment with a smiley. I am pointing out the hypocrisy and incongruence of many of the commentators on here. It is a forum after all. Pulllease, I am not going to let anything on here get to me.
            And please don’t use that line of “imagine what others went through” to justtify doing it to others. thats how bullying is perpetuated.

          8. Llareggub

            Bluebeard, the ‘oppressed’ are becoming the oppressors on here. As far as i can see, it’s okay to take the piss out of one group but not another on Broadsheet.

          9. Nigel

            Well, you were trivialising it, of course, just as your complaints of free speech and equality because people are robustly disagreeing with me trivialise those, I mean that’s obvious. You want to dictate the tone and strength of the response to the issues surrounding homophobic bullying and gay marriage by dismissing expressions of genuine anger, passion and even disgust at some of the things being done and said as hypocritical and incongruous. You’re concern trolling

          10. Joe the Lion

            You’ve done nothing only haul out the victim card at every single opportunity.

            So what if everyone here disagrees with your passive-aggressive trolling and disrespects your precious Mom? That is not evidence of bullying per se. But no matter, you are playing a blinder in that department and making sure that you will get precisely the type of oppobrium that your bigoted stance merits.

          11. Bluebeard

            Joe, in what way am I bigoted? Name me one place where I payed the victim? I am not a victim. I am a survivor. And beware those who have survived, because they know they can do it again. Grrrr.

          12. Don Pidgeoni

            Bluebeard, your constant use of “agenda” is as lame as the “homophobe” slurs you are talking about. I bet you use PC nonsense a lot too right?

          13. Nigel

            I actually think it would be more oppressive if there was some sort of obligation imposed on people to take the piss out of one thing or another equally. You think its oppressive that people don’t share your sense of humour. You think its somehow oppressive to respond defensively or aggressively to people taking the piss out of LGBT people, while at the same time taking the piss out of homophobes and their enablers. I don’t think decreasing popularity and increasing irrelevance actually constitute oppression.

          14. Llareggub

            Bluebeard, I laugh at that fact that you have been accused of being a troll. It happens here a lot when you disagree. You get that puerile crap thrown at you. When you dare to disagree or voice an opposing view, you get called a troll. You’re right to just laugh it off.

  12. rob

    Most people on Broadsheet are probably going to hate me for saying this, but I would tend to believe the school’s statement and their explanation of what happened. I am in no way trying to excuse it.

    I am a past pupil of Colaiste Eoin and unfortunately when I was going there in the 80s, there was a small but vocal extreme element among the parents/families who attended, including the woman who is now the leader of Youth Defence. There were also families involved in Opus Dei and the Knights of Columbanus.

    At the time, Colaiste Eoin also had some republican families – Aongus O Snodaigh TD is a past pupil. Generally it was a nice school to go to and even though there were a few Christian Brothers still teaching, including the headmaster, it was quite a tolerant school.

    Not sure what it’s like now, but it would appear from this incident that the extreme Catholics are still able to bully the staff.

    1. Joe the Lion

      He’s right. They’re out there. Interestingly a lot of alumni are among the most talented and creative Irish-speaking folk going and many are heavily involved in traditional music etc. You can be sure their views are not reflected here by this reactionary gangster vocal mob

    2. martco

      +1

      Colaiste Eoin is actually already very on the ball with this subjectmatter, very tolerant

      OD are in this picture

      however in my view overall this has been a very very satisfying self-destruct for the asshats that made the phonecall to threaten CE

      as I said earlier instead of having a simple quiet workshop one day in a school in stillorgan the issues of bullying and homophobia now being discussed all over the media, amongst the parents and their kids going to this particular school, the kids going to other schools that these kids interact with on social media

      own goal hattrick

  13. rob

    Hi Joe, yes, I should have added that in my original post. The extreme Catholics were thankfully outnumbered by so many decent, talented, creative people. There are countless examples of CE alumni working in the media, making & playing music etc. It was a nice school to attend and I feel saddened a bit that it is in the media due to the reactionary/bigoted element.

    1. Bluebeard

      Coláiste Eoin is an excellent school and I know some great Alumni.
      Still not sure what exactly happened, but I’m sure the initial reporting did not give the full story.
      The way they were pounced on for this is sad. The glee with which people pounced is even sadder. McCarthyism at its best!

      1. Nigel

        By all accounts it is an excellent school and this is unfortunate, but I think to qualify for the best kind of McCarthyism it needs more national fear, paranoia, hysteria and individuals compelled to testify before extremely powerful kangaroo government committees.

          1. Nigel

            So clearly you are saying our McCarthyism could do with some improvement and this is not, in fact, the best that our McCarthyism has to offer, and there are many miles to go yet on the long road to the best of McCarthyism, so you are comparing this to something it does not really resemble that happened in the past and something it does not resemble that may or may not happen in the distant future. That’s the kind of grounded, sensible perspective we need on this issue, truly.

          2. Bluebeard

            The “homphobic” witchunt is gathering pace. I have never heard the word flung around so much. In fact, its in danger of becoming meaningless. The marriage referendum is not a ground to settle scores, it is a ground to bring a common good. but some chose it as a platform to accuse, hate and fingerpoint which will taint any victory. I wouldn’t accept it from either side.

          3. Nigel

            See? This is concern trolling. ‘I agree with you but I’m gravely concerned that you’re doing it wrong and evil!’ If somebody talking about this issue didn’t call someone a homophobe, I’m sure you or someone like you would be along directly to talk about how it’s awful that everyone is being accused of being a homophobe and that’ll dominate the conversation thereafter nicely, and the more people talk about how the yes side are calling everyone who disagrees with them homophobes the more true it will become, whether it’s true or not. I fully anticipate the Iona institute to adopt this tactic.

          4. Bluebeard

            Oh please Nigel. leave it out. Concern trolling? What is that? is it like victims and paedos and bigots and every other cr*p being bandied around here. Everyone here claims to be concerned for someone. I agree with gay marriage and I hate those who are using the referendum to spite others. On either side. Can I be any clearer. More than anything i hate the hypocrites who hate in the name of love. If you want the yes side not to concentrate on the homophobe word, then stop throwing it around and engage with the actual issues they are raising.

          5. Nigel

            Oh, sure, why can’t you be nicer to the people who hate you? And why can’t you be kinder and gentler to the people who may not hate you per se, but who have aligned themselves with the people who do and give them cover. Like Bluebeard! As a strategy, I agree, attacking them is not the way to go. But you act as if there’s moral parity between the two sides, and that’s just laughable.

          6. Bluebeard

            I don’t know if you have worked on any campaigns Nigel. I have on plenty. And in my opinion you begin by respecting your opposition and their point of view, even if you disagree. Remember it is never those who are converted you speak to, or those who you will never convert (Iona etc), it is the bulk of people in the middle who you are trying to sway. Thats why reasoned, persuasive argument works, not shouty insults.

          7. Nigel

            This isn’t The Campaign. This is the Broadsheet comment section. You’re not critiquing strategy. You’re accusing gay marriage supporters of being equivalent to homophobes because they sometimes call people who oppose gay marriage homophobic. If it was just about strategy, you wouldn’t be decrying gay marriage supporters as McCarthyites.

      2. Joe the Lion

        There you go again with the good old victim card. Fair play to you for consistency and tedium.

        1. Bluebeard

          As i said, name me one place where I was a bigot, one place where I was a victim. And as for the troll accusation, stop making me laugh. You’re probably not used to being stood up to. This is what it feels like. I am a lion, hear me roar.

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