Kevin Myers
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This article is about the journalist. For the American Pie character, see American Pie (film)

Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947) is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish Independent, and is a former contributor to The Irish Times newspaper, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" column several times weekly.

Until 2005, Myers wrote for the Sunday Telegraph in the UK. His articles often offer criticism of left-wing opinion and the "liberal consensus", sometimes incorporating hyperbolic sarcasm and parody.

Biography

Myers was born to an Irish emigrant family in Leicester, England, where his father was a General Practitioner.^[1] He attended Ratcliffe College, a Roman Catholic independent school. Myers was accepted by University College Dublin, where he subsequently obtained ^[1] first class honours in History in 1969. He began to work as a journalist for Radio Telefís Éireann, and reported from Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles from 1971 to 1978. In the 1980s, he covered the Lebanese Civil War, and in the 1990s the Bosnian War. Otherwise he has been based in Dublin.

Myers is married to Rachel Nolan and lives in Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare.

Style

Myers' Irish Times articles were often in contrast to its editorial position, which led to some conflict with his editors. In early January 2005, the Irish Times refused to publish a column in which he accused the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) of responsibility for the Northern Bank robbery. The column was later published by the Daily Telegraph^[2] He often advocates support for the United States, though he is sometimes critical of the foreign policies of the Bush administration. He ultimately endorsed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has praised George W. Bush, but has also described him as 'mad'. He is frequently critical of anti-war activists.

Myers is sceptical of the viability of multiculturalism^[3] and favours limits on immigration to prevent the growth of racial tension in Ireland. He has criticised the Catholic Church in many pieces, and favours the legalisation of prostitution.^[4] In recent articles he has been critical of Islamic fundamentalism and extremism. In his journalism Myers has opposed the classification of Travellers as an ethnic minority^{citation needed}, and has opposed feminist philosophy and the role of trade unions in setting economic policy. He has written against the compensation culture and has opposed state policies towards the Irish language.

Other columns have a less political nature, discussing road safety, pet peeves, rugby union, favourite places in Ireland, etc. The fortnightly satirical publication, The Phoenix, regularly lampoons what it sees as his apparent self-obsession, and referring to him by his other names such as Kevin Myarse or Colonel MyArse.

Irishness and Nationalism

Myers promotes awareness of Irish soldiers who served in the British Armed Forces, particularly in World War I, arguing that they believed they were doing their patriotic duty as Irishmen. He has faulted the official commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising,^[5] and has raised concerns about uncritically celebrating Irish rebellions of former times^{citation needed}. He has been sceptical of the Northern Ireland peace process, and regards Sinn Féin as irredeemably intertwined with the Provisional IRA^{citation needed}.

The "bastards" controversy

Myers has been an advocate of unrestricted freedom of speech and an opponent of censorship and political correctness. He attracted considerable criticism for "An Irishman's Diary" of February 8, 2005, in which he referred to children of unmarried mothers as "bastards":

How many girls - and we’re largely talking about teenagers here - consciously embark upon a career of mothering bastards because it seems a good way of getting money and accommodation from the State? Ah. You didn’t like the term bastard? No, I didn’t think you would.^[6]

Myers issued an unconditional apology two days later, "entirely at [his] own initiative". Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy also apologised for having agreed to publish the article. Myers has claimed to have received death threats over his controversial remarks.

Scotland

Myers caused controversy on 8 February 2006 in his Irishman's Diary when he referred to Scottish people as obese and dependent on the welfare state.

There lies the ruin of Scotland - subsidies. Guaranteed transfers of capital from England have created a political culture of sloth which is now endemic and even personalised. Scottish people are the most obese in Europe, in which regard they resemble the wretched Scottish statelet. Only a minority of Scottish people work for a living - and most of those who have jobs are employed by the state: 577,300. In other words, they are employed by the English to manage themselves. The rest of the Scots are on the dole or pensions, living in state-owned housing estates, sending their children to state-run schools, where the most likely form of personal enterprise they will ever encounter is their local heroin-dealer.

On the 17 January 2007 he wrote a similar article about Scotland, drawing in the topical issue of the country's possible secession from the United Kingdom or gaining of some other form of independence.

Wikipedia

On 27 May 2008, Myers devoted his column in the Irish Independent to temporary inaccuracies in his Wikipedia entry, referring to a vandalised version of the entry. He wrote:

And so -- do these wretched Wikipedia people ever lie awake worrying at the damage that the evil or the impressionable might inflict upon those who have been maligned in their uncontrolled and filthy internet gossip-shop, whose very power derives from the complete fiction that it is an "encyclopedia"? I doubt it extremely: for of all the lies of our time, Wikipedia is surely the greatest.^[7]

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 ^[8]. This produced strong reactions, with the Immigrant Council of Ireland making an official complaint to the Garda Síochána alleging incitement to hatred ^[9].

Other work

He was presenter of the Challenging Times television quiz show on RTÉ during the 1990s.

In 2000 he published a collection of his An Irishman's Diary columns (ISBN 1-85182-575-4) and in 2003, he published a novel Banks of Green Willow (ISBN 0-684-02013-0) which was described by John Banville "as fresh as tomorrow's headlines". In 2006, he published Watching the Door (ISBN 1-84351-085-5), about his time as a journalist in Northern Ireland during the 1970s.

Notes

External links

• Comment on 'bastards' column
• Myers signs lucrative deal with Independent Newspapers — Sunday Business Post, 30 January 2006
• Ireland: The dark before the dawn — Interview with Myers in The Sunday Times, 29 October 2006
• extract from 'Watching the Door' by Kevin Myers, published in The Independent, 8 March 2008
• Kevin Myers's columns online