Culture
09 May 17

Dara Ó Briain Lashes Out at The Guardian Over Being Referred to as ‘British’

Irish comedian and television presenter Dara Ó Briain has called out British newspaper The Guardian for labelling him and fellow comedian Ed Byrne as “white British men”.

Last Sunday, Dara and Ed’s Road to Mandalay aired on BBC Two. The three-part show follows the two Irish comedians on their journey through some of South East Asia’s most interesting locations.

The critical review started “some things, unfortunately, don’t change. Neither does the increasingly dull and unedifying formula of sending white British men to far-flung places in search of “strange and quirky” aspects of other cultures. The latest are Irish comedians Dara Ó Briain and Ed Byrne, who in Dara and Ed’s Road to Mandalay (BBC2, Sunday) travel across Malaysia in the first of a three-part series exploring south-east Asia”.

Yesterday, Ó Briain took to Twitter to call out The Guardian following their review of the show.

“Bravo @guardian telly review! Accuses us of cultural insensitivity, while in the same sentence subsuming Ireland back into Britain…”

He soon added “Calling me and Ed “white British men” is also irritating since the show was clearly a celebration of Malaysia’s hugely diverse culture”.

The Guardian have since corrected their mistake in their online review with Ó Briain then tweeting “Ha! Well done @guardian! Now it just implies that you’re bored of Irish people and our many travel documentaries.”

This isn’t the first time this kind of backlash has been seen online after an Irish star has been referred to as British. In 2015 the London Film Critics Circle were forced to rename their categories following serious backlash on Twitter after labelling Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell and Michael Fassbender as British under their Best British Actress/Actor categories.

The Guardian have not yet commented on the issue.