Eurovision Song Contest hopeful Bambie Thug has been criticised by a priest who claimed that Ireland is 'finished as a country'.
The priest, Father Declan McInerney, was not pleased with Bambie Thug's selection to represent Ireland at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden. Father McInerney, the parish priest of Eyrecourt, Clonfert and Meelick in Galway, criticised Bambie Thug during Sunday mass. He told his congregation: "The poor divil can neither sing nor dance". He also said: "Now brace yourselves my friends for this one, I switched on and to discover it was the selection process for Eurosong, a song that will leave Ireland that will represent Ireland and the Irish people and what we are all about my friends. And all I can say is we are finished."
"We are finished as a country. And before anyone jumps on their high horse and go, 'he's giving out now about certain orientations'. I couldn't give two continental hoots what anybody is but I don't need it slammed in my face on the Late Late Show." He also suggested that RTE had "no hope" of getting people to pay their licence fee after the programme. "Whatever hope RTE has of getting any one of us to pay a licence has certainly now, for me, gone out the window. I never watched such rubbish in all my life. Starting with song number one. Now there will be a backlash, do I care? Not at all.
Bambie Thug has been criticised by an Irish priest (Getty Images for Live Nation UK)
The musician is hoping to represent Ireland at Eurovision (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for GAY TIMES)"So we come on then to song number two, which I'm sure was your favourite. And I watched the opening intro of this one walking around the streets of Macroom down in Cork with a beautiful cape. But it wasn't just that, 'I said look it, I am open-minded, she dresses like this. That's fine.'"
"And I'm sure she's a beautiful person until the name was dropped that Bambie Thug will now be the one to sing song number two and I said 'Jesus here we go again. Bambie, what's this one going to be like?' But I want you to listen carefully to what my opinion is. I don't care what she dressed like but on her back... there was a slogan and I said to myself, 'Is this what we need now to win the Eurovision'?"
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"Do we need somebody now to shove this orientation in our faces to get votes? And she spoke about you know that she is neither here nor there - adults who know what I'm talking about. She's sort of somewhere in the middle... binary, non-binary I can't get my head around. It reminds me of bale, hay or straw. But that's okay too. I have no problem.""But I'm just saying to myself, is this what we need for our young people to be seen at such a young age? And a mother came to me during the week, in fact, at one of the funerals and she was quite distressed about a new program that's coming in next year into the secondary schools in relation to all of this relationship, sexuality and all of that."
"And she's very concerned about first years learning such stuff. Well, I will tell you if I had a son or a daughter, they wouldn't hear anything about it until they're 18. Downright to nearly Junior infants, you might hear in the schoolyard when you're this and you're that and where are they hearing it?"
"I hope not in the family home, but they are certainly hearing it on the television. The programs are not suitable for children of a certain age. And then we have to have Bambie going around in her cape telling us what she is and what she stands for."
"Thankfully, on social media, I would say 99% of the comments agree with me but a few are saying we live in a modern Ireland. Well God help modern Ireland if this is what the people of Europe think that we are like."
"I know people will say that lad is old fashioned, but what was wrong with Dana and All Kinds Of Everything. What was wrong with Johnny Logan and Hold Me Now? What was wrong with poor aul Linda Martin who was trampled twice over to win the Eurovision with Why Me?"The speaker expressed frustration, saying: "Well I find myself this morning asking myself why me? Why am I having to mention this? I think, my friends, that as parents especially, and I'm going to say it again, will you shelter them a little bit more."
"They're exposed to too much at too young of an age. And they were certainly exposed to this on Friday night. If we can only come up in a world or an Ireland that is so creative, both music, dance, culture and history. And the six songs that were presented were complete and utter rubbish because we now have to send something that shows something that we are different. My dear friends, there's nothing wrong with being ordinary. There's nothing wrong with being who you are. But you don't have to trumpet it from the world. I don't have to go around with a flag out my window, 'The priest is coming.'"
"We don't see farmers going around in the New Holland tractor was a big flag, 'I am a farmer.' We don't see the teachers arriving to school, up the crossroads there, 'I am the teacher.'"
"Be who you are, but you don't have to make a song and dance about it. Speaking of song and dance the poor divil Bambie Thug who we're sending over she can neither sing nor she can dance so we're finished from word go. Patrick next year, you and I are writing a song and we're going to Europe."
"So I'm afraid my friends, I won't be booking any ticket to Malmo in Sweden this year. And whatever Bambie votes she gets. I wish her well," he concluded.
Father McInerney, when contacted by DublinLive, defended his video saying: "It's there for everyone to see. I've no problem with what I said. I didn't condemn anybody. I didn't give out about anybody."
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A representative for Bambie Thug and RTE chose not to comment on Father McInerney's remarks. However, Bambie brushed off the criticism on Thursday, joking that religious groups were preaching about them. This follows an incident where primary school children from Gaelscoil Ui Riada in Bishopstown, Cork, attended a special mass at St Joseph's Church in Wilton to celebrate intergenerational faith. Grandparents were also invited to the service.
Towards the end of the ceremony, parish priest Fr Michael O'Leary invited a guest speaker to deliver a speech about intergenerational faith. Instead, the man launched into a near 20-minute rant about society's downfalls, including homosexuality and divorce, according to The Irish Examiner.
He also criticised Ireland's Eurovision hopeful Bambie Thug, a non-binary artist from Cork, and used the phrase "gender benders" during his talk. This caused several people to leave the church. Bambie responded on X, formerly Twitter, writing: "They're making sermons about Bambie Thug," accompanied by a laughing emoji. This comes after news broke this week of Bambie appearing in an X-rated music video for their song Birthday.
A shocking video has emerged online showing a naked artist singing about drugs while eating cake from between their legs and smearing it on their chest. The two-minute clip is the music video for Bambie Thug's debut single, 'Birthday', and ends with a lit candle sticking out of the performer's bottom.
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