Deadly chickens

The following are some excerpts from the speech delivered in Dail Eireann by the Minister for Justice in defence of his actions in the Frank Connolly case.

 ‘As Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform it falls to me…to safeguard the security of the State and to prevent the subversion of our democracy.”

‘Undoubtedly, the Centre for Public Inquiry…aspires to be an organ of public opinion, but equally it is one which has, in subversive hands, the capacity to gravely undermine the authority of the State.” Â

Pretty heavy stuff; the subversion of the State and undermining of State authority. Â If it was all true it is easy to see why strong, even illegal action, might be justified to protect the State against such a serious threat.

McDowell’s boss, Bertie Ahern, however, had a completely different take on the matter. Speaking on RTEs ‘This Week’ programme, he said

‘The issue in this case…is that a false passport application was used and that was the key issue in this and the minister was quite right to make that known.’

So, according to Bertie, it was a false passport application that threatened to bring down the State. Are these guys talking about the same events? Are they living on the same planet?

Ahern knows, of course, that neither he nor McDowell will ever have to actually account for their actions/statements. He knows he can spout any kind of waffle; all he has to do is say words.

He could, for example, have said the following:Â

 ‘The issue in this case…is that Turkish chickens, travelling under false passports, were found to have, secreted up their rectums, vials of the deadly Asian bird flu…”

No one would have noticed.