OK – for those who chose to spend yesterday evening doing other, more life-enhancing things than watching RTÉ’s Prime Time, and for those of you who may have watched it but suffer from a hearing defect or are in need of a closer relationship with Specsavers – here’s what I wanted to emphasise then. And now.
1. I think sexual assault is a cruel, cowardly and revolting crime, and those guilty of it should be pursued to the bitter end and brought to justice. And justice should be exercised using the full rigour of the law.
2.I think sexual assault is a cruel, cowardly and revolting crime, and those guilty of it should be pursued to the bitter end and brought to justice. And justice should be exercised using the full rigour of the law.
3.I think sexual assault is a cruel, cowardly and revolting crime, and those guilty of it should be pursued to the bitter end and brought to justice. And justice should be be exercised using the full rigour of the law.
No, that’s not a typing version of Groundhog Day. It’s repetition for the sake of emphasis, so that nobody is any doubt of any kind about my position on such crimes.
The other thing I wanted to emphasise then and now is the following:
1. To accuse someone of a crime requires the support of evidence. That’s what the law is built on. I may say that my neighbour is a tax cheat but if I can’t supply evidence for the charge, I may rightly find myself receiving the attention of the law, not my neighbour. A world where accusation of guilt is seen as equating conviction of guilt is a world where witch-hunts thrive.
2. To accuse someone of a crime requires the support of evidence. That’s what the law is built on. I may say that my neighbour is a tax cheat but if I can’t supply evidence for the charge, I may rightly find myself receiving the attention of the law, not my neighbour. A world where accusation of guilt is seen as equating conviction of guilt is a world where witch-hunts thrive.
3.To accuse someone of a crime requires the support of evidence. That’s what the law is built on. I may say that my neighbour is a tax cheat but if I can’t supply evidence for the charge, I may rightly find myself receiving the attention of the law, not my neighbour. A world where accusation of guilt is seen as equating conviction of guilt is a world where witch-hunts thrive.
Yes I know, I’ve done it again. But I thought it important to stress. My debating partner last night was Niall Collins of Fianna Fail (no relation, I promise you). I don’t blame him for attacking members of Sinn Féin – his party and the Shinners are political opponents at a deciding point in the history of Irish politics. What else would they do? Or vice versa for that matter. But I do wish Niall and others would stop using the plight of those who may be victims as a club with which to bludgeon opponents. To claim that Fianna Fail’s attacks are motivated solely by compassion and have nothing to do with political ambition has the stench of hypocrisy. And anyone who doesn’t see that the case of Paudie McGahon and others have a political dimension…well, maybe in their case it’s too late for Specsavers.
I could triplicate that last paragraph as well but I’ll assume you’ve got the message.
Agreed, no more to be said!
That’s your problem Jude, you always give a different analysis from those who have governed these two states in Ireland for the best part of a century and they just don’t like it. Beir bua!
Absolutely 110% correct Jude. Expect many more attacks on Sinn Fein as the southern media goes into melt-down mode coming up to the elections Their constant focus is to never let the need for evidence get in the way of a good story. Attracting that kind of attention is a back-handed compliment by the media as to how much they fear Sinn Fein’s advance.
Of that, there is no doubt – plus the fact that the wholly biased main-stream media has been in full-on attack mode for nigh on 12 months against Sinn Fein. They saw that the arrest of Gerry Adams had the reserve of what they expected in the Elections. Besides that, The Irish Times has once again been weighing in over the past few days / week as to SF funding from every angle it can find – even offering a pdf to download as regards who and where. – Not something i’ve ever seen it do for ‘The Galway Tent’ crowd / Labour – or any other political party in the South. Then again, it’s new Editor is an avowed Unionist from Athy (It’s not the end of the World – but you can see it from there) – as the saying goes. (It’s a few miles down the road from where i live – and i vowed never to set foot in the place ever again after being there a number of years ago. It’s deemed a ‘twelve-toes town’ by many, many a resident of Co.Kildare). So the even further demise of the I.T. comes as no surprise – including editorial and ‘opinion’ pieces of late.
Maureen raises a very interesting (and somewhat worrying) point re; the Guest Slot on Newstalk. – Will we be seeing another new columnist to the Sindo – or the Irish Times?
– And there was me thinking UK politics was dirty. The media here will stop at nothing over the next 12 months. – And another accusation to fall right into their – and FG / FF / Labour’s laps.
Last night on Raidió Teilifís Éireann…
“The broadcast last night (27 April 1999) by RTÉ of ‘States of Fear’ showed the most appalling, widespread and systematic cruelty of children in industrial schools.” These were the words spoken by Mr Joe Higgins in Dáil Éireann on 28 April 1999 concerning children who were not offenders, they were not delinquent, they needed care and the State failed in its duty of care.
Madame La Guillotine made an appearance on RTÉ last night. There was no place for scepticism, facts or due legal process. Tabloid journalism will not help individuals who have been subjected to sexual abuse. It will not help their families to deal with trauma. It will not help the families of perpetrators to deal with trauma. Therapeutic services are needed to enable each individual to obtain healing and redress as a result of sexual crime. Politicians who choose to score cheap political points from such suffering only make it difficult for victims of sexual abuse to seek and obtain justice.
Madame La Guillotine did not cut to the chase last night. Madame La Guillotine should reflect on the failure of the State to address the issue of sexual abuse. Madame La Guillotine should question the lack of ethical procedures concerning alleged and actual sexual abuse. Every victim should have access to help, support and justice as a human right.
Poor Jude stuck on a chilly balcony in Belfast when he could have travelled to a warm studio in Dublin and met his beloved Miriam O’ Callaghan !!
What an erotic imagination you have, Argie…
I am told that Mr. McGahon made a statement on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny show regarding Sinn Fein’s tax proposals. Now I ask you why would a victim of any crime be questioned on a political parties economic policies?
Another point that keeps emerging from these allegations is the need for a mechanism to deal with the past in some other manner than the political witch hunts and trial by media we presently have.
Of all the signatories to the GFA, the Republican movement has been the most vocal in support of this. The Irish and British governments not so much – the past is the biggest weapon in their arsenal. They’re not about to let it go, victims and society be damned.
The fight for the status quo is getting very dirty indeed.
You mention, Esteemed Blogmeister, that your co-participant Niall Collins on the pogrom, oops programme last night is no relation,
One can see where you’re coming from; the wee six Indeed, if you had chosen to go so far as to say there were more than the normal wee six degrees of separation between you and him, one would have nodded sagely in the time-honoured intimation of comprehension.
A Fianna Fail TD for Limerick West, he inherited a seat previously held by not one, but two uncles no less, though not simultaneously: Gerry and Michael J. Collins. The more celebrated (and celebratory) Gerry first snot,oops, shot to prominence for his ability to play The Walls of Limerick in a truly idiosyncratic fashion on the tin whistle .
By inserting the tin whistle (Clarke’s, key of C) into his hairy left nostril and blowing the airy tune..
While it is not known if his brother, and successor, Michael J. Collins shared this quirky method to woo the shrew of moosic (presumably by blowing through the right nostril, possibly his own) what is known for sure is that he inserted the J between the two nostrils of his name, Michael Collins. It is unkown what the J stands for. As indeed what Fianna Fail stands for is an equal mystery.
This was to distance himself from one of the same identical name, the scion of the Corkonian Collinses.
By coincidence (1) there was a participant in a programme on Newstalk FM this morning who has always adopted a policy diametrically the opposite. That would be Nora Owen. This is the former Blue Blouse TD who first entered politics by megaphoning to all who would or would not listen that she was related to Michael Collins (without the J).
While is not recorded if Nora inserted the mike of the mega into either of her two nostrils. what is certain is that she was not on her own: she was joined in this megaphony approach by her sister, (and similarly related to The Big Fellow), the exotically married Mary Banotti, sometimes abbreviated to Bean Otti.
This elevated the sisters (not least in their own eyes) to an exalted rung in the ranks of the Blue Blouses: .ie, the Blue Stockinged wing of the Blue Blouses.Or, the Blouse Sister were known, though theythemselves would have preferred, The Blouse Grandnieces or something equally tenuous.
There would appear that is something about the pairing of these Collins or Collins-related in Irish politics: is Esteemed Blogmeister the only one to escape the curse/blessing of being pear-shaped?
Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael occupy what might be described as the higher slopes of Morsup, the highest peak in Irish Politics. By coincidence (2) they were joined today by the latest party with aspirations to inhabit with them this elevated Morsupial region.
That would be Renua whose leader is Lucinda which rhymes with Inda.
(There is no fada over the e; having already been bestowed on The Sleepless Beauty as a token of solidarity, thereby solving one of Eireland’s little linguistic mysteries).
That they are Morsupial in their aspirations was immediately left in no doubt, much less left hanging in the air by a mountaineer’s rope, by their denunciation of, erm, kangaroo courts. They will, they made clear (abundantly) be not courting the support of those who act as KC’s in k.c’s.
The Morsupials distance themselves from the Marsupial.
-Thump, thump, thump.
That would be Schrodinger, Perkie’s pet Peckinese cat, thumping the linoleoum with his tail, seeking clarification. He must be having one of his not infrequent slow days.
Morsupial is, of course, derived from :Morally Superior. A political traiteen which the Free Southern Stateen has never been know to suffer from a shortage of.
The sisters from Uncle (see above) always delight to point out that their Famous Fallen Hero never stooped to anything more violent in his day,no matter how cross he was, than the issuing of parking tickets to the Crossley Tenders of the Black and Tans. And the slur that he was the one who introduced the Saturday Night Special into Irish political discourse was just that: a slur, shur.
Of course, there is another political party in the Free Southern Stateen which also occupies the higher slopes of Mount Morsup. How remiss of Perkie’s inner political nerd to omit them ! That would be, sans doute, the Irish Labour Party. the Cruise O’Brien rather than the Connolly one. Perhaps because they are mosquito sized is an explanation but is certainly no excuse. for overlooking them
Their low rating after all, if anything contributes to the shrillness of their high (extremely) moral tone.
There was Jan O’Sullivan, TD, Minister for Education, in Sinister House yesterday getting all morsupial about things marsupial. Waxing all indignant, she wor. To judge by her facial contotrions.
We were reminded of her performance this monring on another pogrom, oops, programme on a different wireless station with a different radio wavelength but the same political one as Newstalk (mentioned above) by the praise, lavish, shovelled upon her by her party colleague, P.Rabbit, TD. To say he was patting her on the back just does not cover it.
A regular rarebit is Pat . As befits a former Stickie there is none so adept at getting stuck into the Shinners. He was joined on the programme by a hack (interchangeable) from the Sindo Cult who kept repeating, mantra like, with regard to the Shinners ‘we must see the whites of their eyes’, ‘we must see the whites of their eyes’ with the emphasis on the w-word increasing in volume with each repetition that one could imagine it growing to capital-sized letters: WHITEs.
Indeed, at one moment it looked as if P. Rabbit were going to take out his tin whislte which it is said he always keeps secreted about his person, and to insert it into the left (must be the left or sinister nostril) to accompany the Sindo hack with a rendtition of ‘The Night before Larry was Stretched’.
To conclude with an apology, for the repeated mis-use of the word ‘porgrom’ instead of ‘programme’. But where Limerick is concerned, the confusion is perhaps, understandable. It was, after all, where the, erm, Limerick Pogrom happened or it happened not at all.
Come to think of it, it was on the back of said atrocity (one tomato nose, two caulfiower ears and three black-eyed peas: oh, the horror !) that Jan first entered politics. While claiming no relationship (see above), possibly because, erm, O’Sullivan has such a singular ring to it, it was more of a relationship with moral indignation in her case She has never lost it.
Jim Kemmy, TD, was her local hero: the cham cham cham chameleon who changed party skins more often than even the prawnfaced Frank Ross, TD, in his day. It is said that the only reason this duet of throw away the key merchants just stopped short of joining the Tory Party was on account of its name being too, well, outlaw-like for their taste. But that’s a Torai for another day.
But back briefly to Jan.
There was some surprise at her appointment to the portfolio of Education,by the Laurel and Hardy of Sinister House, the Prime Time Minister and his Yawnaiste. Not least on account of Jan’s patent inability to do her sums, as evidence by her adding up one nose, two ears and some eyes and some other vulgar fractions and getting ‘pogrom’ for an answer.
And then there was her difficulty in chronicling the very months of the year, a crucial disability one would have thought in a Government Minister whose school-fixated portfolio is more concerned in terms of the months of the year than most other portfolios.
This difficulty was evidence in her very maiden speech which was actual played to the tune on tin whistle of ‘Shine on, Harvest Moon’:
-January, Feb……..June and July.
Till it was pointed out that this song once featured in a movie called ‘The Flying Deuces’, starring Laurel and Hardy and was a particular favourite of their counterparts in Sinister House.
It is not known if the Jan O’ Sullivan the morally superior Minister for Education actually plays this tune by the insertion of a tin whistle into her left nostril and blowing. But the possibility is there.
After all, it’s a Limerick thingy.
Indeed,
Oh Perkie – so much riches! “Indeed, at one moment it looked as if P. Rabbit were going to take out his tin whislte which it is said he always keeps secreted about his person, and to insert it into the left (must be the left or sinister nostril) to accompany the Sindo hack with a rendtition of ‘The Night before Larry was Stretched’.” I screeched and fell to the floor at the reminder of that wonderful choon…Btw, I remember Uncle (Da?) Gerry in UCD. He’d been there seven years, they said, without acquiring a degree, but on t’other hand he kept being elected President of the Student Union, using what was referred to as The Machine…Nothing changes..
Ta me buartha, Esteemed Blogmeister.
Just after catching the Prime Time Crime against Sondheim – they keep sending in the clowns to the comfort of uninterrupted studio schmooze.
While leaving the likes of your good self cursed with a brain to freeze on a distant mountain ledge in the Cold North.
I think it’s called The Eiger Sanction.
Ach, is e priomh-fhath mo bhuartha na: they’ll keep you very, very busy come Tuesday.
They’re trying to turn you into Priomh-mhaor/ Grand Marshal of The Ancient Order of Hypothermians.
Bi curmach, bi an-an-churamach.
I note you are not getting great reviews on The Pensive Quill!According to Anthony Mc Intyre ” Jude Collins on Prime Time while not completely taken apart was wholly ineffectual,managing only to dent his own credibility through erroneous reasoning while accentuating the absence of those who should have put in an appearance ” I’m sure they’ll give you an opportunity to reply!