Limerick family horrified at 'stab city' reference in board game
A FEDAMORE family were "horrified" recently when they came across a reference to Limerick as 'stab city' in a popular and educational family board game.
'Smart Ass', produced by University Games Corporation, is a fun and educational trivia game, which requires the winner to correctly identify people, places and things before any of the other players.
The game, which is on sale in all leading toy and department stores around Limerick, contains a card asking 'Where Am I?', with ten clues hinting toward Limerick, and one says 'this place has been nicknamed Stab City'.
Catherine Power from Fedamore and her daughters Caoimhe and Eadoin were playing the game with their grandfather Paddy, when they came across the offending clue.
"We were playing it as a family when the card came up," explained an angry Catherine Power this week. "I was shocked, the kids would never have been aware until this that Limerick was referred to as that. It is very disappointing and worse considering the girls are only 10 and 8 years old, but even my elderly father was very distressed by it."
Catherine, who is originally from the city, continued: "I'm horrified, it is absolutely horrible for an educational, family game that is otherwise fantastic fun. It is not fair to have to explain this to the kids and worse when we are trying to shake a name like that if a popular game reinforces it, I just think it is absolutely dreadful."
The game is manufactured by University Games, an American company who pride themselves on producing "learning games for adults and children". The Limerick Leader understands that this game was originally developed in Australia, before being adapted for the European and UK market.
A spokesperson for University Games UK said they had "no idea the clue was so sensitive" when contacted by the Leader, and explained that at least three people would have checked the clues before they went into production.
"Of course we don't want to offend anyone and I'm not sure if this office followed the correct protocol, it may have slipped through," said the spokesperson.
"Of course we would unreservedly apologise and we will definitely fix the clue so it is removed from the next version of the game. This is a game that is designed for families to play together so it definitely was not the intention to offend anyone."
Ms Power explained that none of the other clues in the board game, which contains 500 cards, had any derogatory statements contained on them.
Laura Ryan of Limerick Co-Ordination Office, expressed her disappointment about the inclusion of the phrase in the game.
"It is very disappointing for a game that is supposed to be fun and entertaining, that they would use this unfair tag," said the Communications Executive.
"It feeds the negative perception of Limerick and anyone who was here on Tuesday night for the Munster match could tell you what an amazing city we have here."
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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