A Restaurant Is Under Fire For A Tone-Deaf Domestic Violence "Joke"

Before Wednesday, people in Belfast, Ireland knew Ribs and Bibs as a restaurant to get a great burger, but now they know it as that restaurant that makes "jokes" about domestic abuse.

Seemingly in an attempt to be witty, Ribs and Bibs placed a sign outside the restaurant that said, "Ya can beat the wife, but ya can't beat a 5 pound lunch." People were understandably outraged when they saw the sign and started posting photos of it on Facebook. Now, the restaurant is facing major backlash on social media, Bustle reports.

"Someone needs to be held accountable," Kaz Hawkins wrote in a post to Facebook. "So much to be done around domestic violence and this just blows my mind."

Many people took to the comments section of Ribs and Bibs Facebook page to express their anger. On a post advertising the ability to rent the restaurant out for graduation or other parties, one woman wrote, "Not likely — Really — women aren't objects to be traded or beaten. Have you watched the fear in a child's eyes, have you heard the terror as a woman's voice shakes as she says 'I'm okay,' have you held her as she made the decision to leave as she feared for her life — if you have or not — this is wrong on so many levels..."

What's worse, many people in the comments say, is that the restaurant's owner, Malachy Turner, doesn't seem all that apologetic. Though he says he "100% condemn[s] domestic violence and this sign," Turner also went on BBC radio show The Nolan Show on Wednesday and made excuses for the boy who wrote the sign.

"He never thought of implications that it would cause," Turner told the show's host, Stephen Nolan. He later said it was an "off the cuff remark," and that "at the end of the day, it was a chalkboard."

Soon after the incident the official Ribs and Bibs Facebook page responded to a comment from someone angry about the sign saying, "My god mate, get a life. It's a bit of wit on a small board outside a restaurant."

Given the response from the restaurant, it's understandable that customers aren't able to forgive the sign as a bad decision from an ignorant teenager. And Hawkins' call for someone to "be held accountable" still stands.

Amid the backlash, Turner also told Nolan that the restaurant is planning a fundraising event with singers and food, where all proceeds will be donated to a women's shelter. So at least there's that.