The sporting feel good story of the last couple of weeks in Ireland was the women’s rugby team, conquerors of New Zealand on their way to the final four at the World Cup. And yet sometimes it felt like the only rugby centric story anyone was discussing was that Niamh Horan article.
After a week of online debate, Horan today responded to her critics in The Sunday Independent. With criticism coming from all angles over the past few days, and just 1,000 words to set out her counter-argument, and take aim at a few against her, she focused on key points and people.
The person who came in for most individual attention was Irish Times columnist Una Mullaly - one of the most vocal critics of Horan and her article in the past week. Or, 'Zero-Lols-Mullally' as Horan labelled her in the Sunday Independent today.
Una Mullally was on The Sunday Show earlier today, and discussed Horan’s piece – and her reasons for objecting to the original article.
In today’s column, Horan positions herself as the writer who sets out to give the reader what she believes they want from thier newspaper columnist – entertainment. And she plans to do that unperturbed by a fear of offending.
“You may call me inappropriate, I call you boring ... I really don't want to spend the rest of my career as a "journalist" walking on eggshells around your sensitivities as opposed to entertaining our readers," she wrote.
“Unlike Irish Times columnist and energy-zapper-in-chief Una Mullally, I like to think I know what is popular among readers and what isn't.”
Shane Coleman put it to Mullally that this is Horan’s point – that her article was not intended to be taken so seriously: “it was light-hearted, it was tongue in cheek and people need to get over themselves," Shane said.
Mullally responded: “That’s pretty much the basis of the argument, which isn’t actually a good one ... That’s what Niamh Horan does in the Sunday Indo and that’s fine, but I think it’s a pretty cheap shot instead of actually looking at the fact that so many people did discredit the article ... so it’s kind of easier to slag someone like me who can absolutely take it and laugh about it, instead of really focusing on the issue at hand."
And regarding the original piece, and what exactly had driven such vociferous objection, Mullally explained:
“It is a pity that the achievements of the (Women’s Rugby) team, and their quality has been kind of sidelined by Niamh Horan and The Sunday Independent
“(The first artcle) was a bit of a ridiculous article, it was talking about fake tan and sexual innuendo.
“I think when women’s sports have worked so hard to get genuine coverage ... the women’s rugby team have had a lot of organisational faults over the years and are now completely the opposite.
“And when they go into a tournament and play so well ... so when you write these frivolous pieces about it, obviously it’s very annoying.
“That article was discredited by an awful lot of people...but Horan returned to it today instead of actually tackling those sentiments.”
Listen to the full Sunday Show Paper Review, and Una Mullally’s response to Niamh Horan, via the player below
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