News In Focus
31 May 2005
Findlay under fire
The Catholic Church and politicians have launched attacks on Donald Findlay QC following a joke made about the late Pope John Paul II.
Mr Findlay, who made the comments to an audience of Rangers supporters in Larne, Northern Ireland, admitted that his after-dinner routines included obscenities but defended himself, saying that it was ridiculous that certain subjects were taboo with regard to humour and that he had also told jokes about the Rev Ian Paisley.
However a spokesman for the Glasgow archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church said that his comments did "nothing to help overcome the cancer of sectarianism", while SNP MSP Sandra White that the joke was "despicable".
Mr Findlay could be investigated over the comments if complaints are put to the Faculty of Advocates.