Connect with us

Published

on

Joe Biden has frequently spoken of his Irish roots and his love for the country – but not all of his light-hearted comments have gone down well.

As the US president visits Belfast before he crosses the border, we take a look at some of his controversial jokes and reactions to some of his past comments about Ireland.

Live updates – White House denies Biden is ‘anti-British’

‘Anyone wearing orange, you’re not welcome in’

When Mr Biden was vice-president in 2015, he made a joke when the then-Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny visited his house in Washington on St Patrick’s Day.

“Anyone wearing orange, you’re not welcome in… only joking”, he said wearing a green tie as they smiled for a picture.

Orange is the colour associated with the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland, while green is used as a symbol by mostly Catholic Irish nationalists.

The joke, at the expense of the Orange Order, which counts Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MPs among its number, led to criticism from the DUP and backlash on social media.

Joe Biden celebrating St Patrick's Day at the White House this year
Image:
Joe Biden celebrating St Patrick’s Day at the White House this year

William McCrea, the former DUP representative for South Antrim, said he appreciated that Mr Biden said it was a joke, but called his comments a “slur” and said they were “disgraceful and careless”.

The party called for him to apologise. An official from his office said he made it clear that it was a joke.

‘I may be Irish but I’m not stupid’

The president opened a St Patrick’s Day speech at the White House last year with a joke about his wife Jill, and his Irish heritage.

He said: “Father, before I begin – bless me, Father, for I’m about to sin… I – well, I just want you to know, I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid. I married Dominic Giacoppa’s daughter [Jill Biden’s grandfather] so, you know, I got a little Italian in me now.”

Read more:
How Irish is Joe Biden, really?
Why the US president’s visit is significant

Some in the audience did laugh, but the off-the-cuff remark referencing his own roots left some unimpressed including Twitter users who shared their incredulity that he would infer that people from Ireland are “stupid”.

The president has repeated this joke on more than one occasion.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘I’m the only Irish who’s never had a drink’

He joked his relatives ‘weren’t really in jail’

More recently, the US leader also joked about his experience meeting distant members of his Irish family.

The 80-year-old told the crowd: “When I went over to Ireland, It was a great experience. I’ve been to Ireland many times, but not to actually look up – to find my actual family members.

“And there are so many – and they actually weren’t in jail.”

Biden ‘really not Irish’ as he has ‘never had a drink’

The joke seemed to go down well with the crowd who laughed and a second joke followed. Reminiscing about his stay, he added: “There’s still a place called Finnegan’s pub… that’s related to my family.

“I’m the only Irishman you ever met, though, that’s never had a drink, so I’m okay. I’m really not Irish.”

The president does not drink alcohol.

He then spoke about his Irish roots from his mother’s side of the family – the Finnegans and the Blewitts.

Continue Reading

US

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show’s Theo, drowns in Costa Rica

Published

on

By

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show's Theo, drowns in Costa Rica

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show character Theo, has drowned in Costa Rica, according to authorities.

The country’s Judicial Investigation Department said the 54-year-old actor drowned on Sunday afternoon off a beach on the Caribbean coast.

It is understood he was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when he was pulled underwater by a current.

“He was rescued by people on the beach,” according to the department’s early report, but emergency workers from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without any signs of life and he was taken to the morgue.

Warner was on holiday with his family at the time, according to US celebrity news site People.

The Cosby Show aired from 1984 to 1992 on NBC in the US and is regarded as a groundbreaking show for its portrayal of a successful black middle-class family. It was also shown on Channel 4 in the UK at around the same time.

 Malcolm-Jamal Warner in September 2017
Image:
Malcolm-Jamal Warner in September 2017. Pic: Reuters

Its star, Bill Cosby, played a doctor named Cliff Huxtable, with Warner in the role of Theo, his only son.

The NBC sitcom was the most popular show in America for much of its run between 1984 and 1992.

Warner played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.

For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly-botched mock designer shirt sewn by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.

Warner ‘proud’ of show despite Cosby claims

The legacy of The Cosby Show has been tarnished after Cosby was jailed in 2018 following a conviction for sexual assault.

He was released in 2021 after his conviction was overturned.

Dozens of women had accused Cosby of sexual assault or rape before the trial.

Pic: Getty
Image:
Warner, back centre, with some of the cast of The Cosby Show. Pic: Getty

Following his release from prison, Cosby was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was a teenager.

Warner told the Associated Press in 2015: “My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of colour on television and film… We’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”

In 2023, Warner told People in an interview: “I know I can speak for all the cast when I say The Cosby Show is something that we are all still very proud of.”

Read more entertainment news:
Danny Dyer on Mr Big Stuff
Scuffle breaks out on Royal Opera House on stage

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, left, on stage with singer Stevie Wonder, centre, and Bill Cosby, at awards show in 2011. Pic: AP
Image:
Warner (left) on stage with Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby at an awards show in 2011. Pic: AP

Warner wins a Grammy

Following his career on The Cosby Show, Warner later appeared on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the series on the UPN network from 1996 to 2000.

In the 2010s he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom Read Between The Lines.

He also had a role as OJ Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings in American Crime Story and was a series regular on Fox’s The Resident.

Films he has appeared in include the 2008 rom-com Fool’s Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

A poet and a musician, Warner won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance for the song Jesus Children with Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway. He was also nominated for best spoken word poetry album for Hiding In Plain View.

Warner was married with a daughter, but chose to not publicly disclose their names.

Continue Reading

US

Former Kentucky police officer Brett Hankison sentenced to three years in prison over Breonna Taylor death

Published

on

By

Former Kentucky police officer Brett Hankison sentenced to three years in prison over Breonna Taylor death

A former Kentucky police officer has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the botched drugs raid that killed Breonna Taylor.

Brett Hankison’s 10 shots did not hit anyone – but he is the only person at the scene charged over her death in 2020.

The sentence comes despite the US Department of Justice recommending he should not be locked up.

District judge Rebecca Grady Jennings disagreed, arguing that not imprisoning him would minimise the jury’s verdict.

She said she was “startled” people weren’t hurt by his excessive shooting. Hankison’s shots narrowly missed a neighbouring family after they pierced the walls of Ms Taylor’s apartment.

Ms Taylor, 26, was killed in March 2020 when Louisville officers carried out a “no-knock” warrant and broke down her door.

Her boyfriend thought it was someone breaking in and fired a single shot in self-defence, hitting one officer in the leg.

More on Breonna Taylor

Three officers responded with 32 shots, six of which struck and killed Ms Taylor.

She was hit in her hallway by bullets from two officers, but neither was charged after prosecutors said they were justified in returning fire.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Sept 2020 – Breonna Taylor protesters block Brooklyn Bridge

It later emerged police were actually searching for an ex-partner of Ms Taylor – an alleged drug dealer – who did not live at the address.

Her death, along with other killings of black people in 2020 including George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, sparked protests around the US and the world.

Follow the World
Follow the World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Sept 2020 – Breonna Taylor’s family win £9m settlement

On Monday, Hankison, 49, was sentenced to 33 months with three years of supervised probation.

He won’t be locked up immediately and it will be for the US Bureau of Prisons to decide when and where he will be imprisoned.

A statement from Ms Taylor’s family said: “While today’s sentence is not what we had hoped for – nor does it fully reflect the severity of the harm caused – it is more than what the Department of Justice sought. That, in itself, is a statement.”

Three other former police officers who weren’t at the scene have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant but have not gone to trial.

Continue Reading

US

Man who died after being pulled into MRI machine was wearing 9kg weight-training chain, wife reveals

Published

on

By

Man who died after being pulled into MRI machine was wearing 9kg weight-training chain, wife reveals

A man who died after being pulled into an MRI machine in New York was wearing a large weight-training chain around his neck, his wife has said.

Keith McAllister, 61, entered a room at the Nassau Open MRI clinic while a scan of his wife’s knee was under way.

The machine’s strong magnetic force drew him in by the 9kg metal chain around his neck, according to Nassau County Police.

His wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, said she had called out to her husband to help her off the table.

“I yelled out Keith’s name, [shouting] Keith, come help me up,” she said in an interview with News 12 Long Island.

She said her husband entered the room wearing the chain, which he uses for weight training.

“I saw the machine snatch him around and pull him into the machine,” Ms Jones-McAllister said as tears streamed down her face. “He died, he lost, he went limp in my arms.”

More on New York

Police said that the accident last Wednesday “resulted in a medical episode” and left Mr McAllister in a critical condition in hospital.

Ms Jones-McAllister said her husband had suffered a series of heart attacks after he was freed from the MRI machine. He was later pronounced dead.

A file picture of an MRI scanner
Image:
A file picture of an MRI scanner

MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The machines use strong magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed images of the inside of the body.

Due to the magnetic fields, “very powerful forces” are exerted on objects made of iron, some steels, and other magnetic materials, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering says.

It says the forces are “strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room”.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency
LA nightclub crowd crash may have been intentional, police say

Sky News’ US partner network NBC New York reported that MRI accidents are rare but can be fatal.

It is not the first time someone has been killed by an MRI machine in New York.

In 2001, six-year-old Michael Colombini died at the Westchester Medical Centre when an oxygen tank flew into the chamber, drawn in by the MRI’s 10-ton electromagnet.

Continue Reading

Trending