Nigel Owens thinks it’s gone too far.
It’s Christmas time and Shane McGowan’s Fairytale of New York is the talk of the town. Nothing new there, you’d think, sure it wouldn’t be Christmas without The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s iconic offering.
Except this time, it’s not just on the radio and dominating the music channels.
This time, it’s in the news too.
The song, originally released in 1987 has come under scrutiny this week for its lyric, ‘you scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot.’
RTÉ radio presenter Eoghan McDermott got the debate going when he tweeted that, when asked about their thoughts on the lyric, one gay member of his team favoured its censoring while the other thought a blanket ban was more fitting.
“One favours censoring, the other outright not playing it. Neither like it. Simples”,
https://twitter.com/eoghanmcdermo/status/1070955937370988545
Many agreed with this argument and acknowledged that, while curse words or other words such as ‘n****r’ are bleeped out in songs, maybe that should also be the case with ‘faggot.’
However, a whole host of others argued that this is just another case of folks looking to be offended by something.
In the end, Shane McGowan was forced to issue a statement with a furore erupting and he clarified the purpose and the reason for the lyric in his song.
“She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate. Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend,” he said to Virgin Media.
Shane McGowan gives us a statement with his reaction to the #FairytaleofNewYork censorship calls @VirginMedia_One #TonightVMT pic.twitter.com/LudzWjZK9l
— TonightVMTV (@TonightVMTV) December 6, 2018
Openly gay international rugby referee Nigel Owens has weighed in on the subject and he feels that the uproar is just another sign of the world going PC mad.
“Seriously now if we dont stand up to this stupidity then society is broken. The world has gone PC mad. If your so easliy offended by something then dont bloody listen to it and switch it off or change channels. I will be listening to this song every day now,” he tweeted.
Seriously now if we dont stand up to this stupidity then society is broken. The world has gone PC mad. If your so easliy offended by something then dont bloody listen to it and switch it off or change channels. #STOPTHISPCMADNESS. I will be listening to this song every day now https://t.co/G015FjiAWo
— Nigel Owens MBE (@Nigelrefowens) December 8, 2018
And he urged those like-minded to stop listening to any station that opts to censor the famous song.
And the simple solution to this PC madness is lets us all sensible people stop listening to any platform that censors this song. They will then realise how bloody stupid they will have been. https://t.co/G015FjiAWo
— Nigel Owens MBE (@Nigelrefowens) December 8, 2018
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