Last fall, Ronan Tynan lost his gig as the Yankees' "God Bless America" belter after an incident where he apparently made an anti-Semitic remark. Now the Irish tenor is moving to Boston; he told the Irish Echo that he sold his Upper East Side apartment because "Things got really ugly, on the street, in restaurants and with emails."
Tynan's problems started when he bumped into a real estate agent showing an apartment on his floor to a potential buyer. Back in October, it was reported that the real estate agent joked to Tynan, "Don’t worry, they are not Red Sox fans," to which Tynan apparently replied, "I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish." The potential buyer said, "Why is that?" and he allegedly explained that some "scary" Jewish women had looked at the apartment.
The way the story is recounted in today's NY Times, Tynan says he simply used "Jewish ladies" as a descriptor for the potential buyers who thought "might not enjoy living next to a loud tenor." Tynan said, "I made a comment that was misunderstood. If anyone knows the pain of discrimination, I do," referring to how he used to wear heavy braces on his legs, which were later amputated. Nonetheless, he did apologize and speak to the Anti-Defamation League.
Still, the Yankees fired him, which hurts Tynan, who says they "never reached out" in his defense. He explained to the Echo, "I love New York, the Yankee fans and the city and want to thank them for their support. But the last couple of months have been difficult... All I do is sing a patriotic song for a great country."
