God it’s gas too, isn’t it? The way the Shinners have shot themselves in the foot, knee, arms and ear. I just LOVE IT! And people can say what they like about Irish media, but when it comes time to step up to the plate and whack the ball down the Shinners’ throats, no one can possibly fault them.
D’you read that bit by Fintan O’ Fo –oops, Fintan O’Toole in the Irish Times today? Side-splitting, I’m telling you. He was comparing Sinn Féin to the Catholic Church, the way they didn’t come out when the media called and confess their sins in public. I know that sounds a bit weird, even tedious, but to give you an idea, Fintan at one point was talking about Cardinal McDonald! God, I was near doing myself damage, I laughed that much.
Whaddya mean, did Talkback play its part? Of course Talkback played its part. They always have played their part, they are at present playing their part like it was a banjo, and they definitely will go on playing their part. Crawley urged on his guests by pretending to be bewildered by the number of things that were going wrong for the Shinners. “How long is this going to go on for?” he asked at one point. That’s what they call a rhetorical question. It’ll go on as long as the Irish media want it to go on. Because believe you me, RTÉ is full of it, Prime Time is on a sort of loop, where they whack the Shinners and then rest up for a night or two and then they come back and whack them some more. Oh – nearly forgot. Crawley did read out a few texts in support of Sinn Féin, one even daring to say they’d do better than expected in the election. You could almost hear the sniggering as he read it aloud.
But do you know what I heard? And it’s something that no media outlet has yet had the cojones to report? The pet-eating thing. This man who knows about things like this told me that the Shinners go out at night in masks and with baseball bats, with lumps of string in their pockets. What for? To kidnap pets.
Once they get their hands on them, they rip out their entrails – no, not the Shinners’ entrails, the pets’ entrails – and then they the Shinners put the dog or cat or whatever’s bits in a saucepan with a dab of butter and fry them with onions for forty minutes. When they’re having one of their big meetings, like their annual Feshmahogany, this man says they like to order up a St Bernard or an Irish wolfhound: that gives them piles to chew on for days on end. Of course, they don’t want this pet-kidnapping-and-eating to get out, which is why I’m doing my civic duty and telling you.Same as the media have been doing for days now. I mean, it really is horrible. Bad enough to lose a pet, but to think that the Shinners then eat them – put dog or cat or budgie bits in their mouths and chew – it’s enough to make you want to throw up.
Anyway, you gotta hand it to our media. There was a time when they handled the Shinners with kid gloves; now the gloves are off and they use knuckle-dusters and hob-nailed boots. It’s the only language these people understand.
And did you hear there’s going to be an awards ceremony on RTÉ and BBC NI simultaneously, shortly before the South’s election, for the awarding of a trophy they’re going to call an Eagle – that’s after the Skibereen Eagle, of course it is – and also the Organ of the Year will be declared, and there’ll be an Eagle of the Year framed parchment as well. I can’t make up my mind who’s most deserving of that. I guess it’ll come down to a final vote between your man Fintan and that Northern guy with the simper and the weird look. Can’t recall the name but it doesn’t matter, I think it’ll be a cake-walk for Fintan. They’re both full of magnificent anti-Shinner bile, but Fintan will take the trophy because he knows how to write- which yes, is kind of handy for a hack.
But here- isn’t it feckin’ great the way things are going, with from morn to night the satisfying sound of another boot being planted in the Shinners’ softer parts? As the poet said
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to have such a media very heaven!”
What more could any fair-minded person ask for?
The media north and south have left us in absolutely no doubt as to where their loyalties lie in regards to Sinn Féin, or more to the point the real issue, partition and unity. What we haven’t heard is where the electorate stand on this . That will be another story, we’ll know on Polling Day. (Won’t we?)
The way UTV and BBC nI go on and on about those horrible nasty Shinners reminds me of how GB News obsess with Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. Paul Clarke has been asking the same questions for the last three weeks at least. Bringing on the usual suspects. I suppose we can just wait until Jeffrey’s trial before the narrative changes. Clarke and Nolan when they mentioned the former DUP leader we’re always very careful to preface it with a “of course Sir Jeffrey is innocent until proven guilty” which has been noticeably absent in the case of the text message scandal. Some of the people on the unionist side jumping on the bandwagon are the same people who express support for that great paragon of morality Donald Trump. You would almost think they were being political. I am such an old cynic.
Sure we’ll just ignore the fact that Sinn Fein gave references to a child sex offender Jude? They have nobody else to blame but themselves for their current troubles unfortunately.
Sinn Féin Did NOT give references to McMonagle. Individuals gave personal references in contravention of party policy. Try to see through the haze.
Looks like Michael might be one those very same Trump supporters , easily spotted, didn’t pay enough attention at primary school. Sinn Féin didn’t actually give references to anyone involved but that’s the sort of detail Trumpians would miss, or prefer to miss or opt to lie about. The Voters are not stupid people they can see what’s going on here.The same thing happened prior to the 2020 election , for example ‘The Biggest Mouth in the Country’ spent an entire month of programs trying to connect a well known Sinn Féin person to the murder of Paul Quinn, without a shred of evidence. The day after the elaction he never even mentioned Paul Quinn and afaik hasn’t mentioned him since. Sinn Féin got a massive vote in that election despite all the BS from the partionist Press.
Certainly anything to do with abuse is just not acceptable. In the case of sexual abuse victims face a difficult journey to recovery .
Emphasis of SF seems to be on performance rather than on procedure ….nevertheless their expressions of regret , in the particular instances ,appear genuine .The refusal of certain sections of the media therefore to accept that mistakes have been made raises questions .
Might the real issue be a probable border poll with an anticipated successful outcome for those who want reunification?
Tactic may well be to smear SF and ensure the electorate get the message .
Very good jude free Palestine