An Irish woman’s social, political and domestic commentary
Basically
On RTE’s News at One today, Eileen Whelan did a 3 minute report on today’s Moriarty Tribunal. Apart from the fact that they keep referring to “Sir” Anthony O’Reilly, despite the fact that Irish citizens aren’t supposed to have titles; she used the word ‘basically’ 15 times. I counted. Basically, I think journalists should stop using this word.
Fine Gael and Independent Newspapers
Former Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach John Bruton gave evidence at the Moriarty Tribunal this week. At the Tribunal he described a meeting he had with “Sir” Anthony O’Reilly, chairman of the powerful Independent Newspapers. For foreign readers he’s also a former chairman of Heinz. In 1996 O’Reilly requested a meeting with Brutal when both were holidaying in West Cork. At the meeting O’Reilly complained bitterly about several slights against his companies by the coalition government. Heinz were trying to build some factory. Chorus, a TV wireless cable company in which O’Reilly was involved was in difficulties because illegal deflectors were providing tv channels to locals; his mining company Arcon need planning permission for a mine in the midlands and…the consortium he was associated with didn’t get the 2nd GSM licence which was awarded to Denis O’Brien instead.
Brutal agreed to look into the matter and two months later his programme manager Sean Donlon met senior executives from Independent Newspapers. At that meeting the executives threatened Donlon that if the matters were not resolved to their satisfaction the coalition ‘would lose INP as friends’. The government did not accede to O’Reilly’s various demands and within months were facing the most extraordinary onslaught from the Independent group of newspapers which have a huge domination in the Irish market. They include the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Evening Herald, Daily Star, Sunday Tribune and more regional ones. The attacks were generally very personal and adopted a sneering tone towards particular individuals. Finally on polling day in 1997 the Indo published an editorial on their front page (unprecedented: never before had they put an editorial on the front page) urging people to vote for FF and the PDs. Faced with this kind of attack the coalition was duly voted out and FF have been in since.
Two interesting things to note since.
Firstly, the campaign was remarkably effective because to this day most people speak about Fine Gael in the same sneering tones which the Independent adopted at that time. You have to remember that the government at that time was actually pretty good. There was growth in the economy and with the sole exception of Lowry there were no personal scandals, so the attacks had to be personal and convince the public that the government were incompetent and inefficient. This is the view that people to this day have of FG.
Secondly, the Independent is still at it. They were furious with this government when they failed to stop the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) selling the rights to Ireland’s soccer games to Sky thus depriving the aforementioned Chorus from showing the matches. The NEXT week, there was a huge huge headline “Promises, promises” on the front page on the Indo outlining the failure of the FF/PDs government to live up to various campaign commitments, and from that moment on the Indo has consistently attacked this government. Chorus has since gone bust. Last week Aengus Fanning, editor of the SINDO did a soft soft full page interview with Enda Kenny, current leader of Fine Gael. Perhaps the wheel has turned. Great if FG benefit this time, but how sinister that the commercial interests of the Indo are so blatantly pursued in their editorial.
Reinactment of Brutal’s evidence here. (Vincent Browne show on RTE – click on Tuesday and forward into 24:00)
Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke, Tory MP was a real shit, and yet the television adaptation of his famous diaries starring John Hurt has endeared me to him. But first his ’shit’ credentials. He was a Tory minister for defence at a time when the Brits were selling attack helicopters and missiles to the Indonesians who were using them in their appalling oppression of the harmless East Timorese. Clarke was unapologetic about this and was famously interviewed by John Pilger, the left wing journalist. Pilger began by confirming with Clarke that he was a vegetarian. “Yes”, Clarke replied. “And you are a vegetarian because you are deeply concerned about the manner in which animals are treated?” asked Pilger. “Yes” replied Clarke. “And yet”, queried Pilger, “you don’t seem concerned about the way the Indonesians are slaughtering the East Timorese?”. “Quite frankly,” said Clarke “what one bunch of foreigners does to another bunch of foreigners really doesn’t bother me”. Outstanding and vile.
Yet the diaries show fascinating accounts of how open he was about lying. What I mean is that some liars will spend a lot of time convincing themselves and others that they are not really lying at all. Clarke just told outright lies and knew it. Furthermore his arrogance didn’t translate into confidence. Every time he screwed up he fully expected to be fired, wondered should he resign, he anxiously awaited word of his forgiveness, was openly disappointed when he would fail to be promoted and despite all his outrageous affairs and philandering (he fancied Margaret Thatcher and his descriptions of her are hilariously at odds with one’s normal perceptions) its obvious he really loved his wife. I can’t help liking him. Very odd. Perhaps its comforting to witness others richer and apparently more intelligent and succesful than myself walk themselves into trouble and sweat in their discomfort. Or it the Tony (Soprano) syndrome. We love to see frailty in the strong.
One final note. Describing his first appearance on Question Time he admitted that Sue Lawley the presenter didn’t like him because she realised that while he was lecherous he didn’t fancy her. Double offence! Some other notes here and some must read quoteshere.
Career breakthrough
Have become overnight journalistic sensation 
. My SATC article is published in today’s Irish Independent. (reg. reqd but you never know). Article discussed on Ryan Tubridy show on 2FM and am doing The Last Word and BeatFM later.
Only blip: byline not given on web version of Indo 
but very clear in print edition)
Madrid
A quote from Paddy Woolworth’s article in today’s IT. Its long but on the same theme as my previous post.
“In fact, however, the argument that terrorism will increasingly condition democratic decisions cuts both ways. It is quite obvious that terrorist acts force us to make a response, but the reality is that we always have a choice as to what that response should be. And that is where the Iraq issue kicks in again, but on another level.
“The paradox of terrorism,” the El PaÃs journalist Patxo Unzueta wrote some years ago, is that “by itself it is impotent to overthrow the democratic state. But a mistaken response by that same state can seriously destabilise the system.” He was writing about the terrorism of Eta, but the point also applies to the international conflict heralded by the September 11th attacks.
So far, the response of the democratic powers to the real and now terribly present danger of Islamist terror attacks has been to counter-attack. They have often chosen targets, and methods, which many democrats believe to be mistaken and even illegal.
Iraq and the Guantánamo Bay internment camp are two cases in point.
They have also paid precious little attention, and fewer resources, to the conditions which make terrorism an attractive, even morally compelling, option for many Muslims today.
In this context, I was struck by something Paul Reiderman, an EU official from Javier Solana’s office, said to an American foreign affairs forum in Iowa last September.
“No cause can justify terrorism,” he said, “but nothing justifies ignoring the causes of terrorism.” But the most disturbing thing about the leading warriors in the so-called war against terrorism is their undemocratic contempt for open and constructive debate. “Those who are not with us are against us, and therefore wittingly or unwittingly in the terrorist camp,” is a fair summary of the attitude of George Bush to his critics. It also characterised the attitude of the outgoing Spanish prime minister, José MarÃa Aznar, a man who saw a world without shades of grey, in which he was a white knight.”
Madrid
Here is a lesson which the British government in Northern Ireland only learned in the past 10 years. It’s a lesson that the US clearly has to learn and a lesson that Blair needs to remember (coming as he did into a peace process in NI that was well on its way).
When you try to fight terrorism illegally you only help it. The terrorists are the ones who must remain in the wrong; legally and morally. As soon as the legitimate governments step outside the law in an attempt to beat the terrorists all they do is ensure that recruitment into said terrorists groups is increased. Exponentially.
There were several classic cases of this in Ireland. In 1916 after the Easter Rising, the rebels were despised by Dubliners and had rotten fruit thrown at them as they were being brought into Mount Joy jail. Within one week, as they had been executed one by one, including James Connolly who, due to this injuries, had to be tied to a chair to be shot, they became instant heroes of Irish Freedom and martyrs to the cause. In more recent times we had the recurrence of the ‘Troubles’ in NI. The British government responded with Internment: the wholescale rounding up young men of dubious background and detained without trial. They queued up to join the IRA. The refusal to negotiate with the Hunger Strikers (in which 13 men starved themselves to death) was an even bigger mistake and saw a marginalised terror group become part of the mainstream within the 6 counties. This does not mean that you do not deal with terrorists through security measures; you just make sure you do it legally and without handing over the moral highground so that the appeal of the group spreads beyond the original few nutters.
This is where the Bush/Bliar axis failed the victims of 9/11 and now Madrid. Let us not forget that after 9/11, the Afghans offered to hand Bin Laden over for trial to a neutral country if the US could provide any shred of evidence that he had some connection with 9/11. That’s a standard legal requirement for extradition. In fact, the perfect place to try Bin Laden would have been in the International Criminal Court which the US still refuses to endorse. Instead, Bush bombed Afghanistan back into the Stone Age and claims credit for liberating the people from the dreaded Taliban; the oppressive regime the West were quite happy to leave in power as long is it was only women they were oppressing. How did bombing the miserable inhabitants of that country do anything to stop Al Qaeda?All it did was provide a cause for more militants to join.
Then they proceeded to invade Iraq against all international opinion and the clear will of the people so that the neo-con’s dreams of taking the balance of power from the Saudis would be realised. Their motives were so transparent and their evidence so flimsy that it is astonishing that Bliar still claims that ‘history will vindicate him’. In the meantime, fundamentalists arrive in Iraq on a daily basis to kill Iraqis who take jobs from Americans.
In Spain previous governments tried to fight the so-called ‘dirty war’ against ETA and simply got themselves into trouble. It wasn’t until Asnars ruthless, but legal campaign against ETA coupled with some pretty major political concessions, that ETA became a spent force. It’s repeated over and over again all over the world. You must fight terrorists by legal means.
Madrid
The spinning and sophistry over the catastrophe in Spain is quite extraordinary. John Waters takes a preposterous line but one quite consistent with the rest of the VRWC. I’ll quote here at length from his column in the IT since they require a subscription
“to propose that we should not act on principle because of what others may do in retaliation is to say: lie down and the monster will not hurt you. The West is plagued with such thinking, exacerbating the growing danger. At a time when, as Tony Blair said last week, resolve is what is needed to safeguard our people from the evil without, our leaders must instead defend themselves against naivete from within.
The greatest threat to democracy may not arise from the evil of Islamic extremism, but from the virus of pacifism that attacks our best hopes of self-defence. The perpetrators of recent horrors, demonstrating an acute understanding of Western culture, are clearly intent upon exploiting the West’s weakened resolve….
Notwithstanding that their pithiness fails to inspire the pitiless, such ideas are engrained now in the culture of the West, placing us in mortal danger. We stand, following the paralysing discussion about Iraq, at a point where the leaders, Bush, Blair, Aznar, who were forced to take a stand are at risk of being replaced by others who would pander to the general woolly belief that everything becomes possible with a little peace, love and understanding.”
This argument and others like it maintains that the Spanish people ‘gave in’ to terrorism by electing an anti-war governent. No one has a right to tell the Spanish people that they gave into terrorism. They had supported the PP’s extremely tough line on ETA and it was that line that would have helped re-elect them. What they have demanded in this election is that the mistakes their previous government made with regard to Bush/Bliar are reversed. That is quite reasonable.
The Spanish people’s outrage at the PP was twofold.
1. Aznar took a spectacularly pro-Bush/Blair line despite the fact that 90% of Spaniards were opposed to the war. Millions marched against it on the international day of action. They didn’t do that because they were afraid of becoming targets; but because the knew the war was so bogus. Anyone, except those relying on Cheney and Fox news for information, knew that Al Qaeda didn’t exist in Iraq because Saddam, secularist to the end, had thrown them out. Of course, now that thanks to the war Al Qaeda has managed to associate its cause with Iraq, Spain did become a target and why wouldn’t the people be extremely pissed off that their government’s appalling error of judgement has walked them into this tragedy?
2. The final outrage was the government’s pathetic efforts to blame it on ETA despite a denial from Batasuna and an admission from Al Qaeda!
The Spanish are well able to be ‘tough on terrorism’ as they have proved in the near elimination of ETA so to portray them as cowards who have given in to violence is really insulting. More later.
Westlife
WARNING – soppy and humour free post. My musical taste has never been what you might call ‘happening’. It’s not that I object to cool music – I just can’t keep up. I rely on my hippier friends to introduce me to the best stuff but am usually lagging behind. When I finally catch on to something really good you can be sure it’s on the way out. The careers of Fat Boy Slim and Moby were doomed when word got out I’d purchased their CDs. With this warning in mind, I can’t let the week go by without noting the defection of Bryan McFadden from Westlife.
I’ve never been one to slag off Westlife, despite their obviously manufactured provenance, the fact that they’re managed by greedy guts Louis Walsh and the preponderance of BIG ballads in their repertoire. In fact, I really admire their total professionalism. These guys work really really hard, they can sing and they are very articulate. Fatty McFadden (as he was known in school) always did seem the least interested and this week he announced his departure from the band and I believe him when he says he wants to spend more time with his family. The boys were off on a world tour and he just couldn’t leave his lovely kids and the lovelier Kerry, formerly of Atomic Kitten and recent popular winner of I’m a Celebrity Get me out of here! She was fantastic on that show; got more beautiful every day while the other women fell to pieces, was funny, vulnerable and didn’t take any shit from anyone. It’s obvious that they are truly in love with each other and couldn’t bear to be apart for the tour. So I say, Brian – you are a model for the post-modern man. Sarah wishes you well. Isn’t it nice to have something nice in the world…….(ok, that’s enough of the sop)
LUAS
Very busy week so apologies for absence.
Personally I’m looking forward to Dublin’s light rail system but apart from gross overspending, bizarre incompatibilities on two different rails, works causing dreadful accidents and the ruination of businesses on the construction route, Kevin sends this link to an NYT article on light rail systems in general. Here are the highlights.
….”There is a desire named streetcar among planners,” said James Dunn, a political scientist at Rutgers who studies public transit. But if lightly traveled rail lines do little to serve transportation needs, that is almost beside the point for the politicians who want to build them, he said.
In the political sphere, “it’s a benefits regime” that distributes jobs, contracts and influence, Professor Dunn said. “The costs are the benefits.”….
…The project has cost about three times more than the earliest estimates. Since 1996, the state has paid $476 million for the contract to design and build the system and $100 million for consultants. In borrowing to keep the project afloat, the state paid outside bond underwriters and lawyers, although those costs are minuscule in comparison to the $48 million a year to be paid in debt service….
….Clifford Winston, an economist at the Brookings Institution, argues that public ownership of transit is governed by political – and therefore hugely expensive – spending decisions, and that planners routinely overestimate demand for new projects. “I do mind how much these things cost,” Mr. Winston said, “but I mind more when no one uses them.” …
….Like many transportation experts, Mr. Pucher said areas like South Jersey, where development is scattered, are much better and more cheaply served by buses. But bus service is notoriously hard to sell, he added. “Even the Federal Transit Administration has said that the main problem with buses is they don’t look like trains.”
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