The Taoiseach has insisted he does not have any dispute with electronic music superstars LCD Soundsystem.
Leo Varadkar’s comments come after one of the band’s members called him a “tosser” over his views on abortion.
Mr Varadkar attended one of the band’s sold-out shows in the Olympia theatre in Dublin on Friday alongside a number of other ministers.
He was invited backstage to meet the band after the gig – and on Saturday morning he awoke to a tweet from guitarist Al Doyle:
Irish PM Leo Varadkar came backstage. Wore a "repeal" tote bag around my neck in front of him; he walked away. Tosser.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) September 29, 2017
Mr Varadkar also came in for criticism from band member Nancy Whang who labelled him a “liar” following the backstage meeting.
Speaking this morning, the Taoiseach gave his side of the story:
“From my recollection, it was an ordinary, relatively pleasant, engagement [during] which one or two members of the band wanted to raise their views on abortion,” he said.
“I certainly had no difficulty with that; nobody with me had any difficulty with that.
“I didn’t realise there was a problem until the next day but there you go.”
LCD Soundsystem singer James Murphy at the Paredes de Coura Festival in Portugal, 18-08-2017. Image: Global Media Group/SIPA USA/PA Images
He said he has no memory of walking away from Doyle while he was wearing a ‘Repeal’ tote bag.
“I actually don’t have a recollection of that to be honest - but I can imagine if you saw somebody walking towards you with a ‘Repeal’ tote bag around their neck, it mightn’t be the first thing that you consider doing would be walking over.
"So I am not sure I walked away.”
Al Doyle has since apologised for distracting from the Repeal the 8th March that happened in Dublin on Saturday.
As a further aside: the last thing I wanted to do was detract from the march today that, like an idiot, I'm only now finding out about.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) September 30, 2017
I'm glad there's a referendum happening; of course I am. And I'd hate to distract from the real debate in any way.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) September 30, 2017
