Cairns sagt, dass Hayes nach Rassismus -Kontroversen Mitglied der Sozialdemokraten bleibt
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/09/16/cairns-say-hayes-to-remain-a-member-of-social-democrats-after-blackface-controversy/
Von firethetorpedoes1
Cairns sagt, dass Hayes nach Rassismus -Kontroversen Mitglied der Sozialdemokraten bleibt
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/09/16/cairns-say-hayes-to-remain-a-member-of-social-democrats-after-blackface-controversy/
Von firethetorpedoes1
26 Kommentare
>Ms Cairns pointed out that Mr Hayes subsequently went on to work on Mr Obama’s campaign.
Holly coming out with the „Sure, some of his best friends are [insert race here]“ defense I see.
Someone should tell her (Holly Cairns) that “stand by your man” doesn’t include racism.
An absolute nothing-burger. People just want to be outraged about anything. 2 days and they’ll be outraged about the next big thing in the media cycle.
Deeply embarrassing (both for Hayes and the SDs) but non-lethal scandal. If Justin Trudeau can survive it Eoin Hayes will be fine.
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Eoin Goal is very very lucky. He’s been consistently mired in controversy. In most parties embarrassing people like that are either hung out to dry or quietly moved to the back benches
„He may be a racist and a genocide profiteer, but as the principled centre-left alternative to Labour, he’s *our* racist genocide profiteer. He will continue to be a public representative of our party and our public face (blackface, that is) in the Dáil.“
I’d be surprised if he was kicked out. Bit extreme given when this was.
I’m impressed with Cairns here. Left parties need to get over the piousness that is appealing to noone and start focusing on results that lead to an actual possibility of their policies being implemented
Edit: Just going to add this here because some of the comments in this thread really demonstrate the depth of thought that people put into their outrage.
How are you attributing racism to a student union president obviously embroiled in politics already, who has since demonstrated to be left wing, dressing up as the most famous left wing leader in the world in 2009?
Can you explain here where you’re getting a feel of maliciousness?
That’s a mistake. If this was his first strike I’d have said, fair enough, she is using her judgement. But this is a 2nd strike for Hayes damaging the party. By giving him another 2nd chance Cairns will be gravely damaged if / when a 3rd scandal hits Hayes.
And the thing is, it’s probably already happened. Some of his former friends and colleagues will be sitting on something and will now be highly motivated to release it.
Bad judgement by Cairns. She should have suspended him from the party (again) and bought herself time.
People who actually think that Eoin Hayes dressing up as Obama is racist and offensive need to get over themselves.
It’s not a racism controversy. The media and politicians need to focus on actual racism.
Holding shares in Palantir was objectively so much worse than this
I don’t normally agree with the blackface costume….but if you’re at a fancy dress as a student and impersonating Barack Obama I don’t see the issue. It’s not like you’re dressing up to be a black person. Otherwise you’re just a dude in a suit.
It’s not racism, it’s a young lad out for a few drinks at a fancy dress.
Ah who gives a shite. This is such a non-issue. He was a teenager and this was a time when it was very much possible to be completely unaware of American issues/discourses about race (it was for the better, in most ways, I’d say).
They should have sacked him for the whole thing where he owned Palantir stock and lied about it, on the other hand.
RTE MI interview [https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22544461/](https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22544461/)
Apparently he didn’t ring her to warn her about the story, yet again he disrupted their first press event of the session, he has to go.
If he gets booted, how will the party reach their diversity quota? /s
The left tears itself apart over holier than thou shite no one but themselves and a tiny fringe care about. Keeping Up Appearances pearl clutching.
No wonder they can never make headway.
I only see outrage from his protectors to be honest. Blackface is not acceptable, even in the ancient time of 09.
What racism controversy? Really poor journalism on display.
Dressing up as Obama is hardly racism.
It’s not racism. They’re just trying really hard to smear him. Falsely calling him racist over this hurts people who are victims of racism down the line.
As others have pointed out this is a nothing burger. Hint to the loony fringe of the left. The reason the far right is on the rise is due to the complete lack of critical thinking of the left. Labelling one of your own as racist for something they did as a form of tribute 16 years ago is an example of the consistent need to score own goals that the right will never do.
Fight the important fights and leave the professional offense in the past.
Not sure why soo many people running defence for this idiot.
Saying it was 16 years ago doesn’t help. I was in college at the same time and it was well known that black face was wrong. There was multiple high profile international controversies at the time. Pleading ignorance because it was a different time doesn’t hold any water for me. It was basically 2010.
Hayes knew at the time about the racist associations of blackface. We all did. It wasn’t the 70/80s. And it wasn’t because he loved Barack LOL. Having said that I don’t think he is a racist. My assumption is he has the personality of a stone. These people sometimes take on the “mad bastard” persona. The mad bastard will do things like shout abuse at guards on a night out, piss in inappropriate places, say inappropriate thing s to woman in bars all to impress the lads.
It wasn’t like he specifically did black face. Fake outrage over this yet everyone is absolutely fine voting for FF and FG and accepting their deplorable behavior.
What an offensively shite costume.
He doesn’t look like Obama. He didn’t put on some iconic piece of clothing like the tan suit. He just haphazardly put on black makeup and a shirt and tie.
I wouldn’t vote for someone with that little attention to detail.
People in this thread talking about 2009 as if it was 1929 lmfao.