Bog-snorkelling champ's fury at comedy sketch

Julia Galvin called in the lawyers after a sketch on Katherine Lynch's Wonderwomen show portrayed a female bog-snorkeller as a mud-wrestling lesbian.

Although the TV character had a different name, the 38-year-old substitute schoolteacher believed the skit has tarnished her reputation.

Galvin complained she was left ‘disgusted, appalled and shocked’ by the scene, screened on RTE last November, and has demanded an apology from the broadcaster.

She told the Belfast Telegraph: ‘It's embarrassing, it has made me a source of ridicule. I'm a bubbly happy kind of person and it has left me subdued. I've always been up for fun but of a clean nature.’

The Kerrywoman claimed the programme used someone who looked like her to play the champion bog-snorkeller, after she refused to take part in the scene herself. The sketch was one of a series featuring a regular character called Liz Hurley, a small-town lesbian.

Solicitors acting for production company Waka have rejected Galvin's claims, while RTE said the complaint would be dealt with through its usual procedures.

Bog snorkellers race through water-filled trench cut through peat bogs in snorkels and flippers, but without using conventional swimming strokes.

Published: 7 Jan 2009