Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947) is an English-born Irish 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, the Holocaust and Irish nationalism. 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." 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. with a second volume following in 2007.
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 (formerly known as the Censorship Board).
Views
Irish republicanism
Myers has been a fervent critic of physical force Irish republicanism. In 2008, he wrote a column condemning the anniversary commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising, asking, "What is there to celebrate about the cold-blooded slaughter of innocent people in the streets of Dublin? And who gave the insurgents the right to kill their unarmed fellow Irishmen and women?".
Speaking on Newstalk's Talking History radio show in 2010, Myers said, "The awful thing about Irish freedom, and that's what it is, it was achieved at the cost of the lives of so many Irishmen... Irish independence movements have always been civil wars of one kind or another. You are taking up arms against your brother... It was always against fellow Irishmen. In 1798 or 1848 or 1871 or 1916 or 1919... In all insurrections, they involve consuming the lives of Irishmen. The vast majority of the people killed in the last Troubles in Ireland – up to 4,000 dead – the vast majority were Irish."
Unionism and loyalism
Myers has described the Larne gun-running by Ulster Volunteers in 1914 as "high treason, done in collaboration with senior figures in the British Army and the Conservative Party."
Myers has also written that it is a "myth" to say, when discussing Irish republicanism and Ulster loyalism, that "one side is as bad as the other... There is no republican equivalent to the Romper Rooms of the UDA, wherein men were routinely beaten to a pulp by loyalist thugs... And then there was Lenny Murphy and his merry gang, the Shankill Butchers, who for years in the mid-1970s abducted, tortured and murdered Catholics – usually by cutting their victims' throats. This culture did not emerge simply as a response to IRA violence. It was there already."
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 [his] 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 of the principles contained in 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: