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Updated 9.54pm
THE OECD, ONE of the largest and most influential think-tanks in the world, has apologised for a tweet about St Patrick’s Day which contained statistics on alcohol abuse.
The tweet, which was sent out at 2.46pm today from the main OECD Twitter account and deleted shortly afterwards, read:
Happy #StPatricksDay, with #stats from the OECD on #alcohol use and abuse #justsayin
The accompanying chart ranked Ireland as joint fifth in the world for alcohol consumption among adults per year, behind Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia and France.
A screenshot of the now-deleted tweetSource: Tomás Ó hÁbhartaighThe tweet was widely criticised on social media for linking St Patrick's Day solely with alcohol abuse. It was deleted within approximately one hour of being sent.
"Deeply inappropriate and reductive tweet on a day celebrating all aspects of Irish culture and history," wrote Tomás Ó hábhartaigh on Twitter.
Dan Morrison, the head of media at the OECD, told TheJournal.ie this evening: "It was not a tweet that we were proud of."
"We got this one wrong," he said. "We sincerely regret any offence that it caused."
The OECD is not the only organisation which has faced problems with the tone of St Patrick's Day tweets.
Earlier today, Lewisham police in south London apologised and deleted a tweet which depicted a four leaf clover made out of handcuffs.
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Poor girl. If this is true the sentence will be minimal…to add to her distress.
Worrying trend of assaults lately. And punishments are silly.
I hope she will be ok.
Totally unrelated to this story,but how come on Facebook the journal post the story of the chap stabbed to death & anyone can comment on it but nobody can comment here.
Regardless of the fact Facebook may have different rules.The main reason i see comments not allowed on the journal is for legal reasons,then why bother to post them on Facebook if it has legal ramifications ? surely the eyes of the law don’t care if its the comment section on the journal or Facebook.
Young as 10 are allowed out of the premises unsupervised. Toilets are unsupervised where a lot off the action takes place. OK I could go on. But my heart goes out to that poor girl and her family. They will get the toerags who have done but that won’t alleviate the pain for this young girl
@Warthog: How do I know this? Firstly I have a 12 yr old daughter. Secondly i have direct information from othet students, guards and bouncers. Parents are failing on their duty og care by letting their children go to these money grabbing very poorly supervised events. People should be arrested. We have a youth club underage disco where we have parents montitoring everything. Parents have to collect their children. While at the disco they are not allowed out the door unless a parent is their to collect them or they are with one of the supervising parents.
@Warthog: Messed up on the word count and lost first part of my first message… Young as 10…
Was saying before that is that these underage discos are “sex events “. Alcohol, some drugs are taken before the discos. Girls go commando. Slut runs of different varieties are normal as is the swooping of different bodily fluids. The supervision is non existent. These events need to be stopped or come under a whole new set of “care” rules. All these places want Is cash as they dont give a damn aboutvthe kids.
@Warthog: WTF is a “slut run?”
@Warthog: Ah yes I remember being 10 years old during summer time: video games, bit of soccer, riding our BMXs round the neighbourhood, and when we were too tuckered out from all that we’d snort a few lines bought with saved up pocket-money and get in the finger-bang queue down the local sex event
Sure a bit of hyperbole never hurt anyone
@Warthog: ya a friend of mine does security, and it’s truly shocking what goes on at these events. They can’t control them. And these are seasoned security personnel.
@Warthog: surely you are thinking of an older age group?? I find your comments a bit disturbing. I run a disco for 10 to 12 year olds. NONE of that happens. Where are you talking about?
Slut runs??? Wtf? Disgusting turn of phrase.
Its being reported as a gang-rape in other media. but not here.
have your say