Marian Finucane (Sunday) was still very upset about the Ireland/Iceland joke on a recent Newsnight programme (See previous posting).
I suspect that Marian and her panel are more upset because the joke, which most people have already heard, was made by the ‘old enemy’ and proves the point that most Irish people are still struggling towards national maturity.
“We’ll it’s something that gets up my nose I have to say while I do think we have made mistakes, the subprime which has caused disaster right across the world originated in the US and I don’t want to be hurling insults at anybody but I mean that is where it started. So as it is the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Herald Tribune quoted that (Essentially, Ireland is corrupt) which is probably not doing us any good.”
Businessman and property developer Noel Smyth agreed with Marian
“That’s exactly the type of comment that you don’t need…we’ve had all the jokes…now we’ve had enough, shut up and let’s get on with it…we’re the wild west according to somebody in Germany (sic), somebody else said in the New York Times you wouldn’t invest in Ireland because you’d lose your money. Stop it; we’ve got to stop that.”
As Smyth spoke he was supported by a chorus from the panelists – Yes, that’s right, that’s right.
There was no discussion or acceptance that what these newspapers are saying about Ireland is actually true. Even as the financial tsunami that’s engulfing the world begins to expose the truth of our corruption we’re still shouting – ‘Shut up, stop it, we don’t want to hear the truth’.
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Marian Finucane