O’Rourke refuses to apologise

SENATOR Mary O’Rourke last night refused to apologise for her contentious comments on blacks, but backed calls for a Government campaign to wipe out racist language in Irish society.

Despite her reluctance to say sorry for praising staff who "worked like blacks", the Seanad leader welcomed an initiative from multi-cultural watchdogs for a national awareness project to specifically target casual so-called "hate speech".

Ms O'Rourke insisted there was nothing wrong with her use of the controversial phrase after she won a place on Fianna Fail's Dáil ticket in Longford-Westmeath and the furore which greeted it was "political correctness gone wrong".