Flatley: Ireland must shed drunken leprechaun image

DANCING supremo Michael Flatley has launched a scathing attack on the extent of change in Ireland and our loss of identity.

Speaking at the first US Ireland Forum in New York, the multimillionaire claimed it was time Ireland shed the old image of a drunken leprechaun urinating outside on St Patrick’s Day and replace it with a new image of professionalism and sophistication.

“Just recently I was on Grafton Street in Dublin — you don’t hear too many Irish voices there any more. I was in a café having coffee one afternoon and there were two black fellas, African lads, next to me at the table talking and they were pointing at a newspaper saying ‘Celtic Tiger is dead we better find somewhere else’,” he said.