Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers is an English-born journalist and writer. He has contributed to the Irish Independent, the Irish edition of The Sunday Times, and The Irish Timess column "An Irishman's Diary".
Myers is known for his controversial views on a number of topics, including single mothers, aid for Africa, and the Holocaust. In July 2017, The Sunday Times announced that Myers would no longer be writing for them following an article he wrote on the BBC gender pay gap, for which he was accused of antisemitism and misogyny, although the chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland stated "Branding Kevin Myers as either an antisemite or a Holocaust denier is an absolute distortion of the facts."
Biography
Early life
Myers was born in Leicester, and grew up in England. His father, an Irish GP, died when Myers was 15 and away at Ratcliffe College, a Catholic boarding school. His father's early death created financial difficulties, though Myers managed to stay at the school with the help of both the school and the Local Education Authority.Myers moved to Ireland to go to university, and graduated from University College Dublin in 1969.
Journalism
He subsequently worked as a journalist for Irish broadcaster RTÉ, and reported from Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles. He later worked for three of Ireland's major newspapers, The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and the Irish edition of The Sunday Times.In 2000, a collection of his An Irishman's Diary columns was published.
Other work
Myers was presenter of the Challenging Times television quiz show on RTÉ during the 1990s.In 2001, he published Banks of Green Willow, a novel, which was met with negative reviews. In 2006, he published Watching the Door, about his time as a journalist in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. The book received positive reviews in The Times, The Guardian, and the New Statesman, while The Independent published a more mixed review that wondered whether there was "an element of hyperbole" in Myers' account.
Myers was a regular contributor to radio programmes on Newstalk 106, particularly Lunchtime with Eamon Keane and The Right Hook. He regularly appeared on The Last Word on Today FM.
Myers was also a member of the Film Classification Appeals Board.
Controversies
"Bastards" controversy
In 2005, he attracted considerable criticism for his column, "An Irishman's Diary", in which he referred to children of unmarried mothers as "bastards":Former Minister of State Nuala Fennell described the column as "particularly sad." She said the word "bastard" was an example of pejorative language that was totally unacceptable. Myers issued an unconditional apology two days later, "entirely at own initiative". Then Irish Times editor, Geraldine Kennedy, also apologised for having agreed to publish the article.
Aid to Africa
In July 2008, Myers wrote an article arguing that providing aid to Africa only results in increasing its population, and its problems. This produced strong reactions, with the Immigrant Council of Ireland making an official complaint to the Garda Síochána alleging incitement to hatred.Hans Zomer of Dóchas, an association of NGOs, and another complainant, took a complaint to the Press Council on the grounds that it breached four principles of the Council's Code of Practice: 1) Accuracy, 3) Fairness and Honesty, 4) Respect for Rights, and 8) Incitement to Hatred. In their case details the Press Council said:
Alleged antisemitism and misogyny
At the end of July 2017, Myers contributed an article entitled "Sorry, ladies - equal pay has to be earned" to the Irish edition of The Sunday Times about the BBC gender pay gap controversy. He speculated: "Is it because men are more charismatic performers? Because they work harder? Because they are more driven? Possibly a bit of each" and that men might be paid more because they "work harder, get sick less frequently and seldom get pregnant".Myers further alleged that Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz are higher paid than other female presenters because they are Jewish. He wrote: "Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity". The editor of the Irish edition, Frank Fitzgibbon, issued a statement saying in part "This newspaper abhors anti-Semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people". Martin Ivens, editor of The Sunday Times, said the article should not have been published. Ivens and Fitzgibbon apologised for publishing it. After complaints from readers and the Campaign Against Antisemitism, the article was removed from the website. It has been announced by the newspaper that Myers will not write for The Sunday Times again.
Myers was defended by the chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, Maurice Cohen, who said that Myers was not antisemitic, but had rather "inadvertently stumbled into an antisemitic trope. … Branding Kevin Myers as either an antisemite or a Holocaust denier is an absolute distortion of the facts." Myers apologised for this article on radio, saying that "it is over for me professionally as far as I can see", and that "I think they are the most gifted people who have ever existed on this planet and civilisation owes an enormous debt to them – I am very, very sorry that I should have so offended them."
Media reporting the 2017 controversy drew attention to a 2009 column in the Sunday Independent and Belfast Telegraph opposing laws against Holocaust denial. Despite accepting that "the Nazis planned the extermination of the Jewish people" and that "millions of Jews were murdered", Myers wrote "I'm a holocaust denier" by making hair-splitting objections to statements about the Holocaust: namely that the figure of six million Jews killed was false in that it was approximate, not exact; and that the label "holocaust" was etymologically inaccurate in that, unlike a sacrificial holocaust, most victims were "not burnt in the ovens in Auschwitz" but died by gunshot, overwork, or starvation. The column was subsequently removed from the Sunday Independent and Belfast Telegraph websites. The Observer referred to "Holocaust denier Kevin Myers", later adding a footnote "Kevin Myers says he is not a Holocaust denier. He is not, in the usual sense of that term." In February 2018, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland by majority decision upheld an objection to a Morning Ireland presenter's description of Myers as a Holocaust denier: "While noting that Mr. Myers had described himself as a 'Holocaust denier' in a typically provocative newspaper article that he had written, it was evident from the article as a whole that his description did not in fact amount to a statement denying the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazi regime. Rather, the article was a comment on how language is used and the criminalisation of individuals or groups who engage in Holocaust denial."