So the Dail is raising matters about Denis O’Brien which he thinks is none of their business. Mr O’Brien owns the Independent group of newspapers and two of the three main talk radio stations. That means he has financial charge of powerful organs that go a considerable way to shaping the thinking of the public. What he would now like to do is scrap Dail privilege: the right to express views that, if repeated outside the chamber, could lead to prosecution.
It’s a tricky one, this. Those of us living in this tormented green corner of the world may well remember another instance of politician privilege: the words of Douglas Hogg, who said there were too many lawyers in Northern Ireland who were too close to their terrorist clients. It didn’t take a linguistics expert to figure out who he was talking about. A few weeks later, the lawyer Pat Finucane was shot and killed as he sat having a meal with his wife and children.
Did Hogg’s words lead to Finucane’s death? It’s impossible to say. They certainly didn’t do anything to prevent it. But those who arranged the lawyer’s death had power over life and death long before Hogg opened his mouth.
O’Brien is in a different situation. He is a man who, somehow, has managed to gain control of vital communication media and in doing so, made himself inordinately rich. Given that he wields such power, it makes sense and is in the public interest that his financial activities be explored by our elected representatives. Despite O’Brien’s yelps of indignation, there’s little chance that what is said will lead to his death. It might, on the other hand, lead to a brake being applied to his massive influence over public thinking. Why that brake wasn’t applied years ago says more about the south’s elected representatives than it does about O’Brien. No, it’s not a matter of literal life and death; but it is a matter of people having the opportunity to hear other views than those coming from O’Brien’s bloated media empire.
Jude, you seem to think the Southern politicians are considering measures to curtail his influence in the media world.
To my knowledge what they are planning to restrict media ownership by any person or group to 20 per cent of the market.
But the law will not be retrospective, which means that the poor downtrodden Denis O’Brien will not be affected in any way, and in fact he could increase his ownership to 100% of the market!
I wonder whether such a law would be subject to appeal as it would be grossly unfair, in my opinion, to restrict one newspaper/radio proprietor while not restricting another.
Just as I wonder how the British Monopolies Commission can insist that Ryanair has to reduce its holding in Aer Lingus from 30% to 5% while at the same time BA, which also owns Lufthansa and Air France, can also take full ownership of Aer Lingus.
Seems to me different laws apply to different people.
Whether it`s Berlusconi in Italy, Murdoch in Britain or O`Brien here, these media moguls always seem to be able to call the shots .As for the words of that hideous little man Hogg, in any other proper jurisdiction he would have been charged with incitement to murder. However this is a far from normal part of the globe.
Denis ‘Cruise Ship’ O’Brien’s influence, Esteemed Blogmeister, does not merely apply to the, erm, ship of stateen known as the Free Southern.
Not unlike the Honourable Douglas Hogg himself, he also likes to cast the eye beady north of the Black Sow’s Dyke, from his medium-sized media empire in DOBlin.
That is why we all down here will be privileged, day on day, going forward, to receive a daily media briefing from the mellifluously-toned Martin O’Neill,, BL, late of Kilrea, County Londonderry. As part of the low-key build up to the next New Friendly of enormous significance between Eireland and the Enemy (Ould) next Sunday.
(Where a strict dress code, one understands, will be observed: bandoliers, plumed helmets, Glengarries, black berets, trench coats and the leg wrappings known as puttees are all on the banned list)
Mind you, the well-known warmonger, Sylvester Warbeck who does not believe in Friendlies, either new or old, is determined to be there in ‘full regalia’. Meaning, his legendary whatshegot: , “a row of forty medals on his chest, big chest”. Or as he prefers to pithily put it himself: ‘plenty of room for you and me’.
Yes, indeed: ‘one’s brother Sylves’. To his unfathomable chagrin, Perkie’s inner special olive-branch-bearing peace-lover has been thus far unable to discover an alternative remedy for the pestilence known as the Inconvenient Brother. Apart from the tried and trusted but alas, outlawed, Cain Method. Against which the Consensus has mutinied.
Let us not be too hasty to forget, in the fusillade of scatter shots that have been fired by the usual bowsies across the bows and beetle-brows of the Nabob of News in DOBland, the large lad’s largesse.
For it is his bank rolling, oops, ‘making of funds available’ to the FAI that made it possible for that patriotic pair of poppy-wearers, Martin and his mascot, the rotweiller known as Roy,to wear the bib of bui/yellow, with Bainisteoir on its back. The latter now is safely muzzled and always kept on a continual tight leash, after some earlier scares.
Such as happened when the heroes of Hibernia FC, (currently pigeonholed at an oxygen-mask ranking of 72 in the latest, critically-acclaimed FIFA list) were trying out their latest world-class manoevres at their training ground. Which is thoughlfully located near to Dublin Airport. In the event of a, erm, Quick Get Away.
In the early days, the rotweiller known as Roy thought this was an open invitation to test his canines on the underperforming ankles of the carpet-bagging zig zaggers between the de rigeur traffic cones of the training ground.
Competition being the very heart-beat of the business known as biz, the second ranked or Tanaiste in the FSS not-guilty rich-least is not behind the door or doras, on a day on day basis.When it comes to lessening his largesse in the interests of the Bootyful Game in that beautiful isle of dreams, Eireland.
That would be Dermot Desmond, aka The Big Kahuna of Celtic F.C. No sooner had the Taoiseach of the not-guilty rich-list hired the pair of patriotic poppy-wearers than the handlebar-moustachioed DD was up on his High Nelly and peddaling like billy-o in the direction of Ballybeg, aka Glenties.
Wherein did dwell, one Jim McGuinness.
Not to beg, mind, but rather to peddle his legendary spiel about the superiority of the Bootyful Game over the pathetic pastime of the Paddy Stinks and Mickey Mudds: bogball.
Thus, we have Slim Jim morphed into McGuinnes the Export King of Donegal Blanket PLC / Pluid Dhun na nGall Teo. The influence of Slim Jim is to be seen on any sub-zero day in Reserve Team grounds such as that of Aughtermuchty FC when the Celtic FC reserves are well wrapped-up and adequately defended against all encroaches of Hypothemia FC.
We are indeed deeply indebted to Dermot for having the foresight to be surnamed . Desmond rather than Thomond.
This robust competition also extends to the Off-season of the Bootyful Game. As witness the rush of The Unionist Times to whimsically sign up Slim Jim as its latest columnist to cast a grim eye over the bog-standard game of bogball aka Projectile Puking.
You will forgive one, Esteemed Blogmeister, for going on at some length about the politicized treatment of sport in the DOBlin media. But space prevents one from dealing with the less politicized prism through which mere politics is viewed in same.
By way of conclusion, and to illustrate the ‘politicized treatment’ (see above) of sport in as succinct a fash as is possible.
Over the weekend, by another of those freaky-deaky coincidences with which Planet Perkie is rife: Four Goals were notched in the two big and different games of Footie in the neighbouring Atlantic Isles of the UK and us.
Arsenal 4: Aston Villa: 0. Dublin 4; Longford 0.
So?
The DOBlin sporting media has been shrill in its communal demand to apply SANCTIONS to the onward inroads being made by bogball in Dublin, while simultaneously waxing orgasmic about the wonder goal of SANCHEZ.
That the Bootyful game in which Arsenal were involved stank of crap was conveniently wiped away with perennial grass.
Mind you, Shay Given could have done with one of those factory-damaged blanket defences of Dun na nGall Teo.
Perkie, I am disappointed. Only ‘BL’ after Martin O’Neill’s name? What about MBE, what about OBE? Men have been sent to the Tower for lesser omissions.
Interesting article on same: http://www.dannymorrison.com/wp-content/dannymorrisonarchive/227.htm
Mea culpa agus mor mo leithsceal, Esteemed Blogmeister,but one thought ‘BL’ was blaggardism enough for the poor,oops, rich wee MO’N..
Just as one had considered suggesting Slim Jim McGuinness, in search of a summer job, had been afforded entry by The Unionist Times into dreamteam punditry by the, erm, ‘backdoor’.
Indeed, it was only after due deliberation on the possible misconstruing of the term by non- bog-standard sports buffs in the wake of the recent For Feck’s Sake Referendum, that one desisted from using the term. One is glad one did so now.
Not to mention not mentioning the massacre gene which seems to inhabit the DNA of Dublin V Longford games.
Last Sunday the sun, if there had been a sun, would have shone down on the nothing new on the (unfinished) Croke Park..
Back in 1960 Dublin showed just how wooden their hearts were (GI Elvis P had just come home from Germany) by hockeying Longford on a scoreline of 10-13 to Shhh.
Top scorer that day was Johnny Joyce who was credited with 5-3.Though it ought to have been 6-3 as one of his goals was marked down as an o.g.. Perhaps the only o.g. (as distinct from Og) in the history of the GAH. A record which will never be broken as these were the days of those hours of glory, the 60 minute games.
(Note well, the Og there).
1960, as it happened, was almost equidistant from last Sunday’s massacre and another massacre which occurred in 1882 in the County of Mayo. This was the infamous Maamstrasna Massacre in which a family of five was slaughtered in their mountainside cabin.
That was the family of a sheepfarmer by the name of John Joyce. There was only one survivor. {Patsy Og, aged 9 ) who was found in the kitchen beside a neighbour’s dog who was licking the blood off the flag-stone floor.
Patsy Og was later taken to Dublin where he was brought up in the Artane Industrial School.
Johnny Joyce (see above) was his grandson.
Should one’s last remaining reader accuse Perkie of making all that up, one will take it as a compliment.
Desist not from lowering the boom at the DOBlin media and other wannabe OBE’s, Esteemed Blogmeister,
Ar aghaidh leat, Obi-wan Kenobi !
A matter of interest
What lies behind the Dáil rhetoric concerning keystones and cornerstones of democracy? Why is the Taoiseach rendered speechless on this issue? Does it boil down to preferential treatment on the part of a financial institution to one customer?
If one had borrowed say in excess of €1300 million, one would prefer to pay an interest rate of less than 2% instead of up to a rate of 8%. This poses another question. Are all borrowers charged the same rate of interest? Do some borrowers pay an interest lower than the going market rate in general?
Mr Hogg’s statement in the House of Commons did not generate much discussion in Dáil Éireann. There remain many unanswered questions about the murder of Pat Finucane in 1989.
Many individuals in mortgage arrears may be interested to know how financial institutions set individual interest rates. As a matter of interest, is it reasonable to expect more than an eloquent silence from the Taoiseach on this matter?
Does Democracy even still exist anymore in our modern society?
I don’t mean to portray the average Joe in the street as an unthinking, dim individual but when it comes to important stuff like politics, economics, etc most average Joes wouldn’t even know (or care) what “APR” stands for when taking out a loan or what is the main function of the Irish Senate or House of Lords.
Most of the Public are brainwashed or distracted into being more interested about the latest sexual affair going on in EastEnders or whose the father of the baby on the latest DNA episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show. Point I’m making is the public, in general, are detached from very important things like politics, economics, etc and anything they do know about those topics usually come from the media. So the media is providing all the information, its up to the media what is true or false for the public and ultimately its the media telling the public how to think.
So how can democracy really exist today if a lot of people (if not a majority) are being made to think, feel and vote the way the media wants them?
I remember hearing once on ITV, it must’ve been the 2005 or 2010 general election, that it wont be the British Public who decides the next Prime Minister, it will be Rupert Murdoch. And I agreed with that statement 100% then and still do today.