AN INDEPENDENT COUNCILLOR has backtracked on remarks she made in a meeting of Limerick City Council last night about hip-hop sensations The Rubberbandits.

Cllr Kathleen Leddin reacted to comments made by the Shannonside rappers about rugby during RTÉ’s John Murray Show yesterday morning.

She said that the so-called hip-hop collective needed to represent the city’s sport in a positive way.

When asked yesterday at the end of an interview on RTÉ Radio One about Paul O’Connell’s red card against the Ospreys in Munster’s Heineken Cup game at Thomond Park on Sunday, one of the rappers, Blind Boy, said: “I don’t know nothing about rugby, kid.”

He added:

The one thing that I give out about is the Dublin media. The Dublin media are awful biased against Limerick because they make the assumption that we know about rugby.

I don’t know nothing about rugby and I’m from Limerick through and through.

I don’t have a clue, kid. I’d often battle and go which one is rugby; the one with the round ball or the oval ball.

Cllr Leddin raised the remarks last night at a meeting at City Hall on Shannonside, during a discussion of Limerick’s position as a European Capital of Sport in 2011, and said she hoped the anonymous collective could be traced and asked to show the city’s sport in a positive light, according to the Limerick Post.

Leddin said she hoped the band could provide…

…a little bit of decorum for Limerick in the days when Limerick is being downtrodden by the media.

However, when contacted by The Score this morning, Cllr Leddin said she wished the Rubberbandits all the best – though she hasn’t yet seen the infamous YouTube footage yet.

I haven’t seen it, no – but I have heard it. As much as you can hear what they’re saying I suppose.

They’ve got three millions clicks or whatever the figure is now and the Rubberbandits are the Rubberbandits.

They’re just outstanding, they have been very successful in what they’re doing.

And she added:

It’s very important to represent Limerick in a positive light always and I wish them all the best. At least they’re not from Cork, which is one thing.

I didn’t realise my comments were recorded at the meeting and I’m not sure if the particular journalist reported that I said at the end that I wish them all the best or words to that effect.

After the comments from the North Circular Road councillor, Labour’s Tom Shortt said that the Paul O’Connell answers were tongue-in-cheek and said he was disappointed that the band did “not endear themselves to my erudite colleague and those who she represents in the leafy suburbs.”

The Limerick Post said Leddin quickly responded by saying:

My ears are not too indelicate to enjoy the lyrics of the Rubberbandits.

They articulate their words very carefully and anything that gets Limerick on the front of newspapers and on Youtube for positive reasons is great.

The usually media-shy Rubberbandits – who are tipped to beat X Factor winner Matt Cardle to the Christmas No 1 with Horse Outside – were so far uncontactable this morning.

Horse Outside now has over 1.1 million hits on YouTube.

You can listen to the Rubberbandits’ view on Paul O’Connell here.

Alternatively listen to John Murray’s entire interview with the Limerick rappers.