‘We have skin in the game’: TD backs ‘half Irish’ Macklemore after Sheeran ditching

Energy, housing, neutrality and Macklemore were on the agenda when Sinn Féin TDs spoke to reporters on Wednesday as the Dáil returned from its summer recess. Support has rolled in from many corners for the American rapper after his unceremonious ditching from a support slot on the US leg of Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour for saying “free Palestine” during a gig in New Jersey. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a prominent Israel supporter, said he forced the issue in advance of Sheeran’s stop at the NFL team’s stadium as he did not want to “provide a platform for hate speech”.Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly said the Macklemore situation was “unfortunate”, particularly as the comments that sparked it match “what he’s been saying over the last number of years”.READ MORE“I support Macklemore on what he’s saying,” he said. “Of course, he’s half Irish as well, isn’t he? So we have skin in the game with him too.”Sinn Féin TDs Pa Daly, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and Louise O’Reilly on the Leinster House plinth on Wednesday. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire After receiving a rousing reception at a Dublin gig, Macklemore, aka Ben Haggerty, previously said: “My family’s history comes from Ireland, so to get that type of love felt like a homecoming.” He has received solidarity from several Irish artists this week with CMAT, Hozier and Kneecap rowing in behind him, while Beoga and Aaron Rowe removed themselves from Sheeran’s tour bill.The Sheeran show goes on and the singer insisted he personally did not drop Macklemore. He said he doesn’t use his “professional platform for politics” as his audience includes young people of all backgrounds, but he has his “own personal views on this devastating conflict”. Sheeran may well have let these slip while cheering on Kneecap at a Vicar Street gig in 2024 while sat above a “Saoirse don Phalaistín” banner, or perhaps while swigging Buckfast afterwards with the Belfast trio.Phil Hogan tours East Africa as he chases his comebackAnother person familiar with an unceremonious ditching is Ireland’s former European commissioner Phil Hogan. The Kilkenny man resigned from the Brussels gig during the pandemic, but the writing was on the wall after Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin asked him to consider his position over his attendance at what became known as Golfgate – an Oireachtas golf society dinner in Clifden, Co Galway.People love a comeback story and Hogan is trying to write his own, seeking to be the next director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which works to tackle hunger and food insecurity.With all 193 FAO member countries holding one vote, Hogan has started clocking up the air miles as he seeks to build support for his candidacy. He recently visited Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as part of “a broader tour of East Africa”, which also included stops in Kenya and Rwanda.In comments on his website, Hogan says Addis Ababa “is where the world must confront an uncomfortable truth: that food security is not just a development issue, but a global security and human rights issue”. “You cannot have peace without food security ... And you cannot protect human dignity when people are hungry,” he says.Phil Hogan pictured in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as part of an East Africa tour ahead of his campaign to become director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. Photograph: philhoganirl.com The EU is yet to nominate a candidate, with Hogan facing competition from an Italian and a Spaniard to contest the election in mid-2027. Turkey, Angola and the US are also reportedly eyeing the job, which comes with a $265,000 (€230,000) salary and a $50,000 “representation” allowance. In the meantime, the latest EU Transparency Register filing for the fomer Fine Gael TD’s political consultancy business shows revenues of €400,000 to €799,999 were clocked up in the past year representing clients including financial giant JPMorgan Chase and global law firm DLA Piper.‘Unique’ job sounds like it’s straight out of Game of Thrones The National Library of Ireland has advertised a “unique and prestigious” job that sounds like something straight out of a Game of Thrones storyline. It is seeking a Deputy Chief Herald of Ireland – a position offering an opportunity “to play a central part in preserving, promoting, and developing Ireland’s heraldic and genealogical heritage”.The Office of the Chief Herald is responsible for granting and confirming coats of arms to individuals and corporate bodies in Ireland. These are recorded “in the centuries-old Register of Arms series”, with the library saying the office’s records can be used “to track political and social change in Ireland over almost half a millennium”.The office also considers applications from “those overseas who can demonstrate Irish heritage and who reside in a jurisdiction which does not have a heraldic authority of its own” such as Australia and the US. The candidate booklet for the job notes former US presidents John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton as past examples.Brendan Donoghue, then Chief Herald of Ireland, is pictured in 1999 with Eddie Jordan after the Formula One team owner received a grant of arms. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins The person chosen will lead detailed heraldic and genealogical research and draft blazons – descriptions of shields, banners or coats of arms based on specialised, ancient vocabulary.The job is advertised at Assistant Keeper Grade I, a salary scale ranging from €76,202 to €92,931 and the closing date for applications is October 9th. Essential requirements include a degree in a field such as history, genealogy, medieval studies or Irish studies and a demonstrated knowledge of heraldic principles, practices and systems.Man behind the mic and moustache honoured to be honouredThe man behind the microphone and the moustache, broadcaster Marty Whelan, was this week inducted into the IMRO Radio Awards Hall of Fame. Marty Whelan in the RTÉ studio at Donnybrook. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times Whelan (70), who started out working in insurance sales by day and pirate radio by night, joined RTÉ in 1979 and currently presents Marty in the Morning on Lyric FM, which in recent JNLR figures hit an audience high for the station of 85,000. He said he had been “around the block a while” and was delighted to be honoured for doing something he loves. “It is lovely to get a nod that says, ‘yeah, what you do is okay’. It’s nice,” he said, offering thanks to his family, listeners and the team behind his programme. IMRO, the Irish Music Rights Organisation, says its Hall of Fame honours those who have made significant and lasting contributions to radio both on-air and behind-the-scenes. Whelan has been “one of Ireland’s most beloved and enduring radio voices for more than four decades”, it said.The other inductees were Michael Cawley, who served as LMFM chief executive for 25 years and was a key figure in the development of independent radio in Ireland; Teena Gates, a journalist and broadcaster who has appeared on RTÉ, 98FM, Today FM, Newstalk and independent network news across four decades; and Helen Ní Shé, who worked as a producer and presenter with RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta for almost 40 years.