I’ve been enjoying these Olympics but I’m still mad as hell.
An earlier blog indicated my delight for the bespectacled Daniel Wiffen. I’ve also enjoyed watching some of Siobhán Bernadette Haughey from Hong Kong (grand-niece of the mighty Charlie) and that performance last night from Leon Marchand, who cool as you like picked up a gold medal in the men’s 200 metres butterfly and a couple of hours later, another gold in the 200 metres free-style. No wonder the home crowd went mad.
Me, I’m feeling mad in another way. When I go to RTÉ to watch Jude Gallagher get beaten in the boxing, or Kellie Harrington run rings round her opponent, or the Irish rowers, what do I get? ‘You cannot receive this programme in your area’. My wife keeps telling me it’s got to do with the contracts the broadcasters have signed. The Brits signed for the UK, so that we got loooooooaaads of English athletes but Irish athletes only when they were at the Wiffen level. The South of Ireland, presumably, signed a contract that allows people in the South to view events with an emphasis on Ireland. But shamefully, we don’t get to see a second of the televised games from south of the border.
What kind of partitionist thinking works in the heads of RTÉ? If it’s possible for people in the North to avail of trading opportunities in the UK and the EU, surely to God the conniving, back-stabbing bunch out in Montrose could devise a deal where all of Ireland got to watch events involving athletes from all over Ireland. Not only would there be a hungry audience (including me) north of the border, this all-Ireland coverage would acknowledge that we here in the north of Ireland are part of a place called Ireland and are interested in seeing how Irish athletes are doing.
Two questions: who made the decision to make it impossible for Irish people in the North to watch the Olympics on RTÉ? And why did they make the fucking decision they did?
Kowtowing to BBC and all things British is nothing new for RTE or their bosses in Leinster House.
Jude,
It is total discrimination of the good people of the six counties but once again, by the indifference of the establishment and their lackeys. Oh! 32 where are uou?
Hit the nail on the head Seamus and Jack.FFG couldn’t care less
Sometimes I despair at the total lack of cop-on which seems to be endemic within RTE when it comes to the North. But the good thing is the times they are a changing and they can not come quick enough.
The problem is the powers that be (long time since I’ve used that expression) in RTE don’t really consider us northern savages to be part of Ireland. They think Ireland is the twenty six counties. They have had a century of partition and it has seeped into their subconscious. Michael Collins good, Martin McGuinness bad. Terence MacSwiney good, Bobby Sands bad. Killing of RIC members good, killing RUC bad. Even though they are exactly the same. It is a mindset and it has always been that way. It has gotten worse. It is called Free State Syndrome. The only cure is removal of the Dublin and Belfast ‘governments’ and free and fair elections for the whole country.