There were red faces at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport following Sanita Puspure’s win yesterday morning in Bulgaria — a press statement issued on behalf of Minister Shane Ross addressed the new world champion by the name “Dominant Puspure”.
The title of the statement read: “Ministers congratulate Dominant on her assured dominance which led to long deserved gold”, while a congratulatory message attributed to Ross said: “Today we saw a performance of great tenacity and assurance as Dominant Puspure dominated her rivals in a brilliant single sculls final.
“Puspure has long deserved this gold. The celebrations in Cork will be mighty tonight and rightly so!”
A statement from Shane Ross, congratulating Sanita Puspure on her success at the Rowing World Championships. RTE’s headline refers to “Dominant Puspure” and Ross (or his ghostwriter) apparently thinks that’s her ACTUAL NAME pic.twitter.com/LnDabZGQrq
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) September 16, 2018
The gaffe, which attracted widespread hilarity on social media, seemed to stem from RTÉ’s reporting of the win, its headline reading: “Dominant Puspure powers to world rowing gold for Ireland.”
The department later corrected the error in a statement congratulating the O’Donovan brothers and Puspure for their championship golds. A spokesperson for Minister Ross said he hadn’t been shown the original, erroneous statement.
Digital Desk
