irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Monday, July 23, 2012, 15:01
BBC sorry for Olympian's Irish gaffe
The BBC has apologised after former Olympian Daley Thompson commented that a tattooist who misspelled the word Olympics must have been Irish.
Thompson made his remark during Thursday's One Show after he was shown a picture of the torch bearer who had "Oylmpic torch bearer" tattooed on her arm at which point the decathlon gold-medalist said the tattooist must have been Irish.
Presenter Matt Baker corrected Thompson, saying incident happened in the United States and apologised, while a second presenter repeated the apology at the end of the show.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted a BBC spokesman as saying: "We've received complaints from some viewers unhappy with a comment made by Daley Thompson during The One Show on Thursday 19 July 2012."
"Thompson['s] comments about this were clearly meant as a joke but we apologise if any offence was caused, it certainly wasn't our intention," the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying.
Jenny McShannon, chief executive of the Federation of Irish Societies, which works to support and develop an empowered Irish community in Britain, said the federation was "surprised and disappointed
Daley Thompson Rascist ?
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