Mary Lou McDonald had previously said unification was within "touching distance" after the return of power-sharing government to Northern Ireland, led by her Sinn Fein colleague Michelle O'Neill. But she acknowledges there is "an awful lot of work to be done".
If you think about it, that episode wasn’t much better than the ‘planet of violent black people’ episode in terms of basic stereotyping and bigotry. I’m betting Colm Meany wasn’t especially happy about it.
Rumpelstiltskin was originally written as a leprechaun but was changed when Colm Meaney objected, claiming that this was an offensive stereotype against Irish people. According to Meaney, “Using caricatures or cliches of any nation is not something Star Trek is or should be into.” (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 55))
As offensive as that episode was about Irish stereotypes, that scene where Worf gives the guy complaining about the booze quality some Klingon drink, and it knocks him silly and he announces, “Now that’s what I call a wee drop of the creature!” is just absolute gold.
It would have been pretty easy to do that with some non-stereotype guy whose culture was all about drinking. Didn’t they mine that particular stereotype of ‘these are a real people who love to get drunk’ with Scotty already?
From an older thread regarding this topic:
If you think about it, that episode wasn’t much better than the ‘planet of violent black people’ episode in terms of basic stereotyping and bigotry. I’m betting Colm Meany wasn’t especially happy about it.
Wasn’t there a rumor that Rumpelstiltskin from If Wishes Were Horses was supposed to be a leprechaun but Meany put his foot down on that?
That’s what Memory Alpha says:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/If_Wishes_Were_Horses_(episode)
I’m guessing Meany didn’t have the clout and/or the job security on TNG to make that objection.
At least he finally got a say in the matter.
Too bad O’Brien seems to have paid for it from there on out, though.
As offensive as that episode was about Irish stereotypes, that scene where Worf gives the guy complaining about the booze quality some Klingon drink, and it knocks him silly and he announces, “Now that’s what I call a wee drop of the creature!” is just absolute gold.
It would have been pretty easy to do that with some non-stereotype guy whose culture was all about drinking. Didn’t they mine that particular stereotype of ‘these are a real people who love to get drunk’ with Scotty already?