Catherine Noone

Controversies

In 2015, Noone called for Mixed martial arts to be banned in Ireland, calling it a "vile so-called sport", and announced she had sent a letter to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Paschal Donohoe asking for his view on the idea. This was met with widespread criticism in Ireland. During an interview with Ryan Tubridy on the matter, it was revealed Noone she had never once seen an MMA match, was not familiar with how the sport operated, and at points seemed to confuse it with professional wrestling, believing the fights to be pre-determined. Following the interview Noone made an about-face, admitting she had "jumped the gun" on the issue. Later that month, she called for the Irish Sports Council to recognise MMA.

In 2018, Noone was accused of being ageist after she described a priest from County Mayo as an "octogenarian" on her Twitter page. Her comment concerned the priest's homily during Easter Sunday mass at Knock Shrine, County Mayo in which he indirectly outlined the churches anti-abortion stance in the run-up to the referendum on abortion in May 2018. Noone was criticised over censuring the well-established opinions of the Catholic Church on abortion while voluntarily attending the service. She defended her comments before apologising and deleting the comment on Twitter, citing she "overreached" and that "all opinions should be voiced".

In the run-up to the 2020 general election, she was criticised for tweeting a photograph of her campaign van parked on a footpath. Among those critical of her actions, and her response to criticism, was disability activist Joanne O'Riordan who accused Senator Noone of making "the lives of people with disabilities harder to live". Noone initially tweeted that people should "get a grip" and cease complaining, but then deleted the tweet, and she later apologised.

In the same election campaign, she referred to the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar as "autistic", before denying having said it. Having been made aware that her remarks were recorded, she said that she didn't mean to use the word in that context and gave examples of potentially offensive words that could be used out of context, including "special" and "nigger". She then clarified that she would "never use the n-word", and said it was a bad example. On 28 January 2020 she issued an apology.

The apology was not accepted by leading autism and Asperger campaigner Fiona Ferris, the deputy chief executive of AsIAm, an autism charity who called for Noone and other politicians to learn about autism. Ferris added "If we go about the attitude that people can say whatever they want and then totally withdraw a statement, I mean, the world would not be a very nice place." Carly Bailey, a candidate in the 2020 election and a parent of a son with autism added in separate comments that "her words have hurt a great many people on the autism spectrum and their families."

References

References

1. "Catherine Noone". Oireachtas Members Database.
2. (29 April 2011). "Senators elected to the new Seanad". [[RTÉ News]].
3. "Catherine Noone". ElectionsIreland.org.
4. Collins, Stephen. (2011). "Nealon's Guide to the 31st Dáil and 24th Seanad". Gill & Macmillan.
5. "Dublin West: 2016 general election".
6. Kinsella, Carl. "Senator Catherine Noone has provided a blueprint for 2018's abortion debate". Joe.
7. McKenna Barry, Sarah. (23 October 2018). "Repeal Campaigners Receive The Overall Award At The Women Of The Year Awards". Gcn.
8. Cullen, Paul. (10 February 2020). "Dublin Bay North results: Social Democrats, Labour, FF take final seats". [[Irish Times]].
9. (10 February 2020). "Election 2020: Dublin Bay North". [[Irish Times]].
10. O'Halloran, Marie. "Seanad election: Fianna Fáil's Timmy Dooley and Fine Gael's Catherine Noone eliminated". The Irish Times.
11. O'Neill, Michael. "Senator Catherine Noone believes MMA is a 'vile sport' or at least she did!".
12. Harrington, Joe. (January 2015). "Catherine Noone's interview about UFC on 2fm that will really frustrate MMA fans". Joe.
13. Blake, Ben. (26 January 2015). "Senator who called for UFC to be banned in Ireland admits she "jumped the gun"". the 42.
14. Madden, Patrick. (14 January 2015). "Catherine Noone backtracks on UFC comments". Irish Times.
15. Nugent, Ryan. (2 April 2018). "Senator defends 'ageist' abortion comment". [[Irish Independent]].
16. O'Brien, Mark. (20 January 2020). "General Election candidate Catherine Noone under fire after telling voters to 'get a grip' over van parking". DublinLive.
17. O'Brien, Mark. "ine Gael candidate Catherine Noone slammed for telling voters to 'get a grip' in deleted tweet". [[Microsoft News]].
18. O'Connell, Hugh. "'Inexcusable' - Senator Catherine Noone apologises for 'autistic' comments about Taoiseach". [[Irish Independent]].
19. Murphy, John. (28 January 2020). "Autism spokesperson refuses to accept Catherine Noone apology after controversial remarks".
20. Lyne, Laura. (28 January 2020). "Catherine Noone slammed for 'incredible lack of understanding' following autism remarks about Leo Varadkar".