Pass me a piece of that humble pie, would you? Having laid into the BBC for the fact that all its presenters wear poppies and that it was highly unlikely all of them did so willingly….I’ve just watched Newsline 6.30 (I don’t get out much) and during that half-hour I spotted no less than three presenters brazenly poppyless….And yet I could have sworn…Maybe they read my blog and had them remove the scarlet flower from bosom and lapel? Or maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention and allowed my prejudice to run away with me? ….OK, a knife and fork, please. Dammit.
Comfort yourself that you are more widely read than you imagined
You are too kind. (Gives his self-esteem wound another quick lick…)
Just to take your mind off your conscience, Jude, we had news this morning that an ex-Special Branch man has had a twinge of conscience and needed to get something off his mind.
Just to show how remorseful he is he went to KRW solicitors (not where one would naturally expect to see a SB man doing business) to pass information to the ombudsman that the infamous 2002 Castlereagh break-in when confidential documents were ‘stolen’ had been enabled and facilitated to protect an IRA mole!
Remember the wild goose chase we had at that time for an American chef who went back to the States not even knowing he was a suspect! But then we were all let down when it transpired that he was in fact just a chef.
Isn’t it amazing that these old security stories only come to light at significant times in our political scene.
I am convinced the RUC dark forces are concerned that our politicians may come to a reasonably honourable agreement, and the spooks are concerned at the prospect of consolidation of our peace process.
Maybe they got together and decided they weren’t putting up with this poppy fascism any longer jude, being a regular Newsline and UTV live viewer, (got to keep up with local events jude lol) all i’ve seen this week are poppy wearing presenters, both in studio and on location. So who knows, maybe things are changing.
Writing a blog without checking your facts didn’t you teach journalism at one stage?
Yes I do write a blog and sometimes don’t check my facts. No, I never taught journalism at any time in my life, for the very good reason that I’ve never been a journalist.
Maybe you should “check your facts” first Neill, before making a blog post.
I recall hearing some time back that presenters were told to alternate between calling Derry London Derry and Derry. This was not optional and everyone had to use both terms intermittently.
Perhaps it is the same with the poppy. It has to be worn from time to time at the very least.
But…..isn’t the workplaces here in our little corner of Ireland suppose to be neutral environments? Sectarian free? The Poppy is perceived by a very large section of our community to be sectarian and divisive. What happened on the streets of Derry on Bloody Sunday and in Ballymurphy during the Ballymurphy Massacre helped make it so, not to mention issues of collusion, etc. Could you imagine what the reaction would be if a TV presenter wore an Easter Lily? It wouldn’t happen because the Easter Lily is perceived to be sectarian and divisive to a large section of our community.
But it seems one section of the communities sensitivity is taken into consideration more than the others when it comes to this issue.
You.are.good.fun.Jude.
I.know.Jim. Some.Days.Anyway…
BBC NI would seem not to be the only workplace, Esteemed Blogmeister, with a laissez wear policy.
Port Laoise, oops, Maryborough Prison would appear to the same. Where a politically inclusive and culturally mature warden chose to remember Flanders on the landing of the Rerpublican.wing
After reading from the papers on her show this morning the uber-sensitive Dame Dosh Finucane was so downhearted (due to the inexplicable bellyaching of the inmates) that one was immediately reminded of a line from the brilliant songwriting team from the Brill Building in New Yawk, Leiber and Stoller.
In their homage to incarceration made famous by e-Presley:
‘The warden said, hey lady, don’t be so square
If you can’t find a partner find a wooden chair’.
When voila ! who should suddenly appear, mirage like, at the door of the studio only the Chairperson of the Road Safety Authority, the luscious Liz O Donnell. Who once daringly admitted duirng her PD Miniserial days to doing wireless inrerviews from home in her (gulp) undies.
Despite being subsequently dumped on the same undies by an, erm, underwhelmed electorate and her so-so Party being morphed into a Do Do of Democarcy, this did not deter her with a little gentle coaxing from her blokish hostesss. From delivering a high-minded homily on the contours of the ballot box to the party with the largest vote on the Island of Ire Land.
That would be the Shinners, m’lud.
The following guest, oddly enough, reminded at least one listener of the following verse from Jailhouse Rock: the beatific Brian D’Arcy (the Fr is optional just as he has a laissez wear policy towards the bottom dollar, oops, collar).
Having been simultaneously Silenced by the Old Red Sox he finds he has never been so loquacious as the Red Lights of the radio studios give him the greenlight to talk the talk. Which suggests it is more advantageous to keep one foot in the cloister door;
Shifty Henry said to Bugsy for Heaven’s sake
No one’s looking now’s our chance to make a break
Bugsy turned to Shifty and said, nix, nix
I want to stick around awhile and get my kicks.
More of the Notice Box, perhaps,, than the Confession Box.
I heard bits of same programme, Perkin. I thought you had to pay for advertising on RTÉ; but maybe an exception is when it’s explaining how the PDs (oh, and John Hume) brought peace to them savages up north…
Always wondered, Esteemed Blogmeister, precisely what ‘The Sound of Silence’ signified and did not finally crack it till one listened down to the bottom of the Dame Dosh Finucane show.
When an outlandish statement verily bordering on the otherworldly was uttered by the silenced Beatific Brian D’Arcy, Muezzin of the Muzzle.
-Child abuse by a cleric is INFINITELY worse than child abuse by a family member such as a grandfather.
Although the cleric word is not actually used there is no need; for it is a doctrine of faith accompli that it is collared by that uber-abusive term ‘RC’.
And as the dogmas in the street know C of I clergymen are cuddly grandfathers too.
Let the Farcemeister D’Arce keep singing out of this authorized hymnsheet and there will always be a Failte on the Mat for him as long, of course as he keeps one mandatory hush puppy in the Mother Church door.
Dame Dosh is never unhappy to subcontract out work to unpaid clerical cosmeticians to apply the appropriate amount of mascara the better to camouflage her (alleged) jaundiced eye !!!!!!!!!
Hello, exclamation markness, my old friend.
Watched an interview about this on the BBC with some BBC big noise stating the rules. According to him it is entirely personal choice, they keep poppies on site in case anyone should want one before appearing.
Believe that if you will.