Ryan Tubridy last Friday night.
On RTÉ Radio One this morning, Ryan Tubridy interviewed the father of Lara Reddy, age 7, who said his daughter had received abusive messages following her appearance on the Late Late toy show last week.
It gave the host the opportunity to give the internet a piece of his mind.
Which he took.
Grab a strong tay.
Ryan Tubridy: “The Toy Show took place as you know on Friday night and it was great and it was warm and it was kind and people seemed to enjoy it themselves at one stage nearly twp million people gathered round the TV to say ‘yeah that’s good craic’. Families and friends gathered I’ve heard so many lovely stories about reunions and getting together to watch it and I know the London Irish Centre emigrants living over there gathered to watch it they met there and ate crisps and drank beer and had fun it’s just one of those strange things that brings people together I heard of foreigners watching it for the first time and they said that’s a lovely event whatever the hell’s going on there there’s a kindness to it and a magic and a sweetness to it and that’s that’s quite right its a magical night for the children watching and for the children taking part… children like Lara Reddy who’s seven… delightful funny little girl from Swords whose dad is on the line now, good morning, Mark.”
Mark Reddy: “Good morning, Ryan, how are you?”
Tubridy: “I’m all right but I’m not great.”
Reddy: “Ah sorry to hear that.”
Tubridy: “Because I just don’t like what’s happening here…. the main big colour photographs on the front of the Irish Independent and the Irish Examiner and the headline which features yourself on the cover story of the Evening Herald today all features Lara with the words ‘racism’ and ‘abuse’.”
Reddy: “Yes.”
Tubridy: “And trolls.”
Reddy: “Yeah. We arrived back to find that, Ryan, it was a magical experience and we left on a high we came back and we received a bombardment of wonderful supportive comments and texts and messages it was brilliant but one or two of the Facebook pages had what could only be described as trolls who used the opportunity to be very racist with paedophile undertones and very abusive over a three minute sketch of a six-year old having a great time, which is heartbreaking really.”
Tubridy: “Yeah I was kind of I was in two minds as to whether or not we should even be talking today in the sense that this is a very small group of people.”
Reddy: “Very small, thank God.”
Tubridy: “A very angry nasty vile group of people who you know in many ways if we didn’t talk about them here they’d be forgotten about in other words I worry about giving oxygen because the others you know, all the kindness, is far more present and abundant in numbers.”
Reddy: “Oh, massive mass outpouring of kindness.”
Tubridy: “But you’re very keen to talk about this, you want this as an issue.”
Reddy: “Well I’m in two minds, Ryan, it’s an issue that they say don’t feed the trolls but some people and sometimes you have to challenge these things because it’s not fair and it’s not right and it needs to be challenged and it’s not only in this particular case but it’s across the whole media in regard to people making assumptions about organisation much like, let’s say, an Garda Siochana or anybody else and feeling they have the right to bash us and bash a 6 year old child without actually knowing the facts.”
Tubridy: “So when when you were reading this stuff, what were you thinking?”
Reddy: “I was appalled. We were very upset. We tried to stay with the positives… to come back on a high and to see the lovely comments and to see this sort of thing creeping in it made us very worried we would have to share this small and lovely country with people like this…the ignorance is gas Sine’s Vietnamese by birth but they were relating her to North Korea and certain types of Asian people that’s just cruel unintelligent and fairly evil overall and that then couple with that then a sort of tinge of paedophilia and the undertones of that side of things was just very very scary.”
Tubridy: “Hmm. That is the way of online, I think … you know, there is this element that will almost be there and you know it . seems to be un-policeable, was there any sense that Lara’s character was called into question, that you as a family were … any legal grounds?”
Reddy: “It was a tough one to call They used the ‘My Little Pony Song’, which is about a cartoon of plastic animals… this minority there, they are a vile and evil part of life and sometimes they need to be challenged and need to be highlighted and what happens when you do if you do is normally. Most of them will run away and hide, they’ll delete their posts and they’ll run.”
Tubridy: “So when you talk to us this morning what would you like to achieve about this conversation
Reddy: “Well I hope really People will maybe be less judgmental maybe look at the facts and understand that its not appropriate to go on and talk about a child irrespective of your own personal feelings to go on and be negative on media such as Facebook and Twitter is both very dangerous for them and very unfair overall.”
Tubridy: “Well look, I ’m an adult apparently and I don’t read online because it’s just, it’s too mean spirited and I don’t read it, even if it’s kind I don’t read it.. I’m just saying I’m not trying to avoid reality my realty is human beings who say to me this that and the other which I’ll accept but not people hiding in the bushes whereas this is a child and that’s different. You see with children all bets are off you don’t mock a child, you don’t mock or slag a child ever under any circumstances.”
Reddy: “Exactly, we thought that was sacrosanct, nobody would ever said that this would have been in all the media of whom we haven’t talked to and that it was such a big and popular page re the positive side of things but to allow this to filter in was very scary, very scary that somebody felt that they have the right to abuse a child.”
Tubridy: “Well, it’s pathetic actually, they are pathetic people who feel the right and the need to slag off a six year old child to be racist wasn’t there a animal rights job having a go at her as well, seriously lads, it’s My Little Pony…”
Reddy: “You know, you mentioned there about social media, it’s a very strong medium but it can be used for both good and bad and so there’s a lot of people doing very good work on social medial my own twitter account would be mental health and I see that quite a lot, it’s a medium that needs to be monitored and maybe people need to be challenged more about stuff and maybe the likes of Facebook and Twitter should put in place more security with regard to this side of things.”
Tubridy: “If it’s possible I often say and sometimes it feels like a broken record sometimes it feels like the Wild West out there, there are no laws and there are no rules and there’s no sheriff. “
Reddy: “Yeah, that’s very true.”
Tubridy: “So you can have the good guys walking round, like you guys, you know talking about mental health but then you’ve got the he others who are, you know, psychologically challenged, I’d argue and writing this stuff down the bottom of a bottle of wine on a Friday night… I’ll tell you, I walked out of this building on Saturday with bunch of kids in here to sing for, I think it was, Sean O’Rourke, and they chased me down as far as my car singing word for word the My Little Pony song, it’s become a thing… The thing about being offline, you have the democratic choice to be offline and it’s very liberating, so I’d recommend it.”
Listen back in full here
Is there any way we can make the internet like liveline?
Just have people apply to make themselves heard?
Ryan is so right.
I hope the Irish government are listening and make anonymity a crime online.
Can we ban the Internet? Is that possible?
Your obviously messing.
If that IS your real name…
Holy crap. Holy flipping crap. Surely that’s a crime? That’s GOT to be a police matter. It’s terrible that they had to put up with that.
Jaysus! Who the fupp….
And this… “wasn’t there a animal rights job having a go at her as well, seriously lads, it’s My Little Pony…”
“animal rights job” …that lot? *eye roll*
They have more than their fare share of loons, is what I mean….
Problem is Clampers, how many shouting ‘animal rights’ are genuinely interested in animal welfare? How many foster animals or donate to animal charities? I fear they’re just part of the mob, giving the smelly hippy animal activists a bad rep.
Yep, that too
I wonder was it the journal comments section.
I wouldn’t get on a high horse regards the standards and morals of this comment section either. Though it is moderated (and also censored) by an actual person and has the obligatory stupid word filter.
It’s become a cesspit.
The people who had a go at this child are skid marks on the underwear of society.
Apparently the are evil.
“one or two ” Why not do what I do re.Ryan Tubridy and ignore them ?
Wouldn’t it be better that people who made racist quasi-paedophiliac abuse directed at a six year old girl be investigated by the police than ignore? I think it would be better for everyone. But no, you don’t want to hear about it, so tell the victims to ignore it.
or maybe don’t put your 6 year old kid on the internet and tv?? thats what i would do
And we’re blaming the victim already. I mean, what reasonable person wouldn’t know that putting their children on television is just asking for racist and quasi-paedophiliac abuse? The real villains aren’t the people making the abuse, it’s the people on the receiving end because they did something to deserve it. Well played. Seriously. Good stuff. Clap yourself on the back there. The racists and pedophiles are nodding along in agreement with you.
It must be tough for you Nigel, being outraged all the time at everything.
Nigel, I think I agree with you but you come up very short in articulation..
I haven’t seen the incident referred to, but I’m still sure I agree with you.
-There are always gonna be A****oles on the Internet.
-We get rid of them by ignoring them, robbing them of their oxygen.
You’re doing it wrong.
Slag them, yeah…NEVER feed them.
jungleman – it must be tough for you obsessed with the duration of other people’s anger. I guess if a six year old girl being verbally abused doesn’t bother you then you win somehow.
Backwards Upside-down Name Person – yeah, allow them to abuse with impunity.
It was the fuppng Toy Show, not Big Brother.
Because ignoring then has lead to massive escalation. Trolls in the US have taken to calling in reports of violence at targets’ homes, leading to SWAT teams busting in doors. While no people have been harmed yet, on at least one occasion a trigger-happy cop has shot a family pet dead.
Get rid of the toy show. Christian / pagan event thats a proxy for product promotion. Dumb ass production decision on the kids song. What did they expect FFS?
A ‘proxy’, really?
You don’t seem very bright at all, if you don’t mind me saying.
I don’t mind anyway
According to the ReddyTubs metrics for evilTM that comment makes you borderline evil. An internet sheriff has been appointed to monitor you for 2 months. Call Liveline when ready to confession and be absolved.
No disrespect, but c’mon…
Christmas is a massive Con-Job.
Black Friday is the day retailers move from the Red into the Black..
And we accept it.
I dunno.
I don’t get you people sometimes.
A six year old girl gets verbally abused and the solution is to ban Christmas?
They probably expected you to blame everyone but the people who actually posted the abuse for the abuse. Seems standard.
I’m a ûcking Sheriff Tubs
Me
For the little bit I do
I’m still the Sheriff of my tinternet presence
Tubs went all rightous Gay Byrne on this
When all its needs is
OWN YOUR WORDS LADS
Just cause they’re behind a screen
Doesn’t mean you’re not responsible
If they’re your comments. Stand over them.
OWN IT
( a bit like picking up after the dog really)
“I’m the sheriff”…. says the person who frequently defends both Confederate flags and black-face as “just a bit of craic would you get over it”.
“Own your words” indeed.
*A hush falls over the town.*
*The two arms on the town clock hit 12*
*Some shutters are latched closed. Some shutters creep open*
I second the ban on Christmas.
Lara should sing this to her friends in the schoolyard: https://youtu.be/xfiqrkV_ZqI
The toy show is fairly exploitive .Doesn’t warrant racial abuse mind you.Tubridy is a plonker.
This is a handy excuse for vilifying the internet in general and the free speech it affords people of all walks of life and social and political beliefs.
The established media and governing families hate the internet when it exposes their plans and the truths behind their lies and spin and the public facade they portray which is contrary to their their true private selves.
The problem here isn’t the internet, it’s human nature.
Human nature that thinks it’s ok to hurl abuse at six year old girls? Or the human nature that seems to want to give such behaviour a free pass?
You are clearly new to this whole Internet thing
No. Handwaving victim-blaming apologists for abusive behaviour are all too familiar.
You should file a report with the Gardai about it
Probably. But then I’d have to explain this internet thing to them.
You’re being hysterical Nigel. Let me get you a chaise-longue and a fan petal.
Sure. Complain about abuse aimed at a 6 year old girl and you’re hysterical. Better than being a passive, patronising abuse enabler, I guess.
I once called a two year old ‘a raging turd’ on the Internet, but in fairness she shouldn’t have been commenting on the Journal.ie articles in the first place
i want to know what dan boyle thinks of all this.
You’ll have’ta wait till next week’s edition
I suppose
Who gives a fupp?
Fupping paid for boring talentless non entity spins some effortless PR for pretty basic show