RTÉ presenter Emer O'Neill has said that comedian and talk-show host Tommy Tiernan phoned her to apologise for a joke he made at a recent comedy gig she was attending in Dublin's Vicar Street.
The former Home School Hub presenter walked out of Tiernan's Tomfoolery show earlier this month after he made a joke that offended her during his stand-up set. Tiernan has since apologised and removed the joke from the show.
O'Neill, who shared a post on Instagram last week about the incident, said it was "his first joke out the gate", and he started it by saying, "My daughter told me I shouldn't tell this joke."
She also described the joke as "way too close to the bone" and that afterwards, Tiernan said, "Everyone is laughing, so I suppose it's not racist."
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast on Thursday, O'Neill said she was unable to handle what happened on the night, but waited a while before leaving with her friends, as she was afraid of being heckled.
She said that as an activist over the last three years, she has reached 6,000 to 7,000 in primary to secondary teaching on unconscious bias and anti-racism through workshops.
She said that she expected to have the guts to stand up and say something, "but I just froze, as I couldn't believe it and wasn't expecting it".
"The whole audience laughed and were in hysterics at the joke... but when it doesn't affect you, they just moved on to the next joke and forgot about it," she continued.
She added that people were looking to see her reaction, and a lot of people were staring, so it was really uncomfortable in a lot of different ways.
O'Neill explained that Tiernan sent her an email following the gig to apologise for the hurt caused and the offensive nature of the joke and said she was right to call him out for it.
"He rang me and we had a good chat for nearly an hour. Genuinely, I could tell he had given it reflection.
"I was shocked he had gotten to this stage, but he said, 'On reflection, who am I as a middle-aged white man to decide what is racist and what is not, what is offensive and what is not to a community that I have absolutely no lived experience in?' It takes people a long time to get there and do the work to educate themselves to actually have the penny drop. White people do not have lived experience of what it's like in day-to-day life and the discrimination we encounter in everyday life, walking down the street, into a room or applying for a job."
She said that white people have no idea unless they lived a day in our shoes, and for Tiernan to make that realisation was "very powerful".
She said she accepted his apology and that he told her he would do his level best so that nothing like that would happen again. At his gigs, he has spoken about it every night since.
"I feel like he has taken it seriously and I appreciate it."
A representative for Tommy Tiernan has been contacted for comment.
