What am I missing?

Just catching up on the weekend papers and their version of all that nonsense last weekend.

I’m deeply puzzled by the following from the Tribune:

The government press officer Eoghan Ó Neachtain was infuriated by the tone of the piece. He placed a direct call to RTÉ director general Cathal Goan and they talked for a few minutes, speaking in Irish.

How is that relevant?!  Is Ó Neachtain known for reverting to Irish when he’s deeply, truly angry? Did he, or Goan, think their phones were being tapped?!

Bizarre… bizarrer… bizarrest…

Through the Trap Door

So the floodgates are officially open and Trapattoni is officially a rubbish manager. It’s all his fault. Nothing to do with us being a small island with limited resources in terms of putting together a squad of purportedly world-class soccer players.

It does not reflect well on soccer, as a sport, or on soccer fans, as a… breed?.., that this was the inevitable result of a new manager being appointed. This is what happens every time a new manager is appointed to any soccer team in this country, or the next. They’re the messiah, until they fail to beat Bulgaria at home.

And on that, if we can’t beat Bulgaria at home… surely we need to lower our collective expectations and stop thinking we have any business qualifying for South Africa?

How long can it run?

Given the merchandising potential, you have to wonder how much longer the cowen/picturegate debacle might continue.

The focus has shifted now, from the government’s irrational stupidity, to RTÉ’s spineless capitulation, to the question of what on earth the Gardaí ar at.

The Examiner makes some pretty strong points, namely that when the country seems to be riddled with drug gangs and corrupt bankers, surely the Gardaí have somewhere to be other than the Today FM studios?

RTÉ were clearly trying to balance things a bit with the Kenn(ed)y interview yesterday morning, but is that really enough? And Cowen seems to be trying to ignore it completely, which is a pity at this stage because if he’d started off with that attitude we wouldn’t have gotten to this point.

Here’s another fun question though. If the portraits had been of a female politician instead, would the focus of the reaction be different?

The dreaded question

RTE.ie is reporting that a teacher is being questioned over ‘picturegate‘ (get your t-shirt here).

I hate to ask but… are RTE.ie allowed to do that?

RTÉ’s pitiful capitulation to FF

Having had a few hours to think about it, I’m no less disgusted by RTÉ’s apology for reporting a news story most of us had heard about anyway. In fact I think it’s fair to say at this stage I’m stewing in my own bile.

My boss isn’t particularly media-aware, so when my boss has heard about a random little news story I know it’s gone global.

In case you’ve managed to avoid hearing about it, Maman Poulet has a good summary with the crucial video clips. One of RTÉ news reporting a fairly light news story that was likely to give us all a bit of a giggle – something I would argue we all need a lot more than we need an overly self-conscious hyper-sensitive Taoiseach(’s office) – and the other of RTÉ openly being whipped by the aformentioned office into the kind of submission usually reserved for small furry animals.

So where do we go from here? At least there can be no more doubt (if there was any remaining?) that RTÉ are under the thumb, proverbial or otherwise. Personally, I’d like tonight’s 6:01pm news to feature a full apology for Disrespect to the Principles of Free Speech. What else can we do? Share the video. Share it with anyone and everyone you can. Share the caricature. Draw one of your own. Consider distributing copies at local art galleries. Is there a facebook group yet? Let’s make one. See who won’t join it. See if RTÉ will politely skip that story.

RTÉ and the like, not to mention FF themselves, are all up for embracing the magic of blogging when they’re looking for a new audience or a new gimmick. Maybe it’s time they got to see what bloggers can really do, when nobody else is willing to.

A moment of childishness

This man is a twit. Someone should throw a moderate amount of rotten fruit at his shoes.

Positive discrimination?

Only 1500 of the 20,000 Over 70s who were meant to hand back their medical card by March 2nd have done so.

The first step the HSE is taking as a reaction to this breach of, well, the law, is to extend the deadline.

But you have to wonder what the next step will be. Penalties supposedly include fines and imprisonment, but will only be considered if people are found to be using the card when they shouldn’t be. Somehow I can’t see that happening. In fact, realistically, I can’t see any penalties being enforced.

Which begs the question, if it was 20,000 people in their thirties who were actively and openly breaking the law (as Age Action have admitted is the case), would the approach to enforcement be quite as laxidasical?

Seachtain

I thought for a long time about starting a different blog ‘as Gaeilge’ where I could say what I like and know that even fewer people were paying attention. Ultimately I realised that would completely defeat the purpose of the exercise but at the same time I seem to have forgotten that it’s okay for me to write something here that isn’t necessarily in English.

I read Deaglán de B’s post today, agus chuir sé ghruaim agus áthas orm ag an am chéanna.

The topic aside – because enough has been said online in the last 24 hours, most of which was unnecessary and unsavoury, though I think Deaglán may have as simply as possible balanced things out – there’s something truly… aoibhinn… faoin teanga ‘eile’ a fheiscint ar shuíomh Gréasáin príomh-nuachtáin na tíre.

Bhí sé ar intinn agam rud éigin ‘domhain’ a “phóstáil” Dé Máirt chun Lá na Gaeilge a cheiliúradh, ach leis an dearmad sin déanta agam, geallaim anois go ndéanfaidh mé gach iarracht úsáid a bhaint as an teanga eile go réasúnta fliúirseach ón bpointe seo.

Corcaigh

I find it hard to disagree with the letters in today’s Irish Times about the Cork GAA situation.

What on earth is going on, that a group of players develop that kind of power?

How is it acceptable that they behave that way – and where is their pride in being selected to play for their county? I don’t know what’s worse – that they acted the way they did, or that they got away with it.

The whole thing seems to go against everything the GAA should, and usually does, stand for.

Great example to the kids too.

Speaking of which, if the lads who did turn up for matches over the past few months are immediately shoved aside for the spoilt brats who just got their way, it will be a sad, sad day for (Cork) GAA in general.

Which leads me to the statement made by Gerald McCarthy when he resigned earlier this week.

My question here is, where’s the apology? Where are the 2008 team sincerely apologising for adding fuel to the kind of sentiment that leads to a team manager’s life and family being threatened?

I’m stunned by the whole thing, and sincerely hope that they don’t get within a country mile of any silverware this year.

Saturday

I was in London, in a cab, at 3am, when I heard about the shootings in Antrim. The news as reported on south west london radio stated fairly categorically that we are now “back to the bad old days”. It made my stomach churn.

It’s strange being abroad, I suppose particularly in England, when a story like that breaks. There’s a sudden vulnerability about. Paranoia, no doubt, but you wonder if people are listening to your accent and thinking something less than pleasant.

There is no excusing what happened – there never could be – but the incident, and how it is being dealt with in the media in particular, has raised a number of questions in my mind.

I understand that the two fatalities have to be the focus of the news stories, but it would be comforting if the fact that they were in uniform didn’t seem to be the reason for that prioritisation. Civilians were attacked and shot and their status/wellbeing seems to be being ignored.

The soldiers were due to ship out to Afghanistan hours after the murders. It’s a strange context I suppose, but it makes me wonder how those left in Afghanistan in a few generations will reflect on the british soldiers who were stationed there.

There is a clear cynicism about Sinn Féin in the media, and that’s in Ireland so who knows how bad it must be elsewhere, but I don’t see how it can be productive to try to badger Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald etc in various interviews. Anyone speaking to them must know that they have to stick to their line in terms of those they represent, and suggesting or expecting that they would do otherwise is either naive or ignorant. I wonder if we can ever really move on when those who seem to be attempting an alternative peaceful solution have it thrown back in their faces in certain quarters. The alternative is unimaginable, but surely every time those who pledge peace are treated as sinners who can never be permitted the slightest redemption, a little bit of the credibility of that peace is undermined? I’m not in any way suggesting a forgive-and-forget policy, but if they can never be allowed to speak without interruption tantamount to abuse, is there really any hope of progress?

I can see why Gordon Brown felt that he needed to fly in to visit the barracks today, but in very basic terms, if you were recruiting for the Real IRA this afternoon the best possible thing Gordon Brown could have done is to fly in to visit the barracks today. It’s reassuring that he seems determined not to let these shootings derail the peace process, but he’ll need a lot of conviction to stick to that if the attitude I saw in the english papers on sunday was anything to go by.

There’s been a lot of talk about the decision to bring in british army backroom staff last week to help the PSNI. I can see why Hugh Orde made that decision, but at the same time it strikes me as showing a certain lack of awareness of how that might play out. RIRA recruitment’s favourite decision in recent times I’m sure. It may well be that those particular specialists were needed, I don’t know the details – but surely there’s someone out there who could do the same job without that particular uniform on. Particularly since they seem to have been brought in because of a perceived concern about the threat from the Real IRA.

Saturday’s murders were, on the one hand, a desperate tragedy for the families and friends of the two young men involved. But because of the context of those murders, it is all the more important that the next steps are taken cautiously, and that those reporting on the story take a bit of responsibility for what they are doing.