Ireland is the kind of country where the Government monitors the opinions of citizen’s by operating a special unit that does nothing else but listens in on major talk shows and other media sources. In true banana republic fashion the unit does not work at weekends.
It is the kind of country that tolerates a rogue Justice Minister who uses police files to target and destroy the livelihood and good name of an innocent citizen.
A Minister who presides over a police force that has been discredited as largely incompetent and corrupt but which is given increasingly draconian powers to fight gang crime that the same Minister only recently declared was utterly defeated.
A Minister and also Senior Counsel whose standard of accountability leads him to suggest that a major inquiry into State corruption should be wound down because ‘we have the gist of what it’s all about’.
It is the kind of country where the Prime Minister can continue in office after revelations that he actively cooperated in corrupt practices with the most ruthless and corrupt politician in the nation’s history.
Where the same Prime Minister can describe such massive corruption as mere ‘lapses’ and refer to the downfall of the culprit as ‘a great tragedy’.
Its the kind of Country where begrugery is rife with a certain disaffected minority constantly sniping from the sidelines. Where the media is dominated by “west brit types” whose sole ambition is to overthrow the legitimately elected Government (are you listening Geraldine Kennedy, enjoy your days in the Tribunal) Where the loafers and the freeloaders are given a disproportionate representation relative to their true size (are you listening Joe Duffy) but where democracy is still strong and where the vast majority of decent Irish people will see that good Governments are re-elected when they have proven over many years that they deliver the kind of prosperity that most people want.
Democracy is of course a major disappointment to Anthony, Geraldine Kennedy, Joe Duffy and Co but its not possible to please all the people all of the time.