According to Irish Independent journalist Ailish O’Hora the horsemeat drama is symptomatic of how we lost the run ourselves during the tiger years.
This is pure lazy journalism.
If Ms. O’Hora was a properly informed journalist she would be aware that the scandal has no connection whatsoever with the tiger years.
She would, for example, be aware that scandals and corruption in the meat industry go back decades before the tiger years.
She would also be aware that corruption between business and politics has been rampant since the establishment of the State in 1922.
She would be aware of the fact that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state where scandal and corruption form an integral and fully acceptable part of the governance of the state.
I received two emails from Senator Harte in response to my post regarding social media abuse.
Sorry to disappoint you I wasn’t forced to shut it down. I did it voluntarily.
And shortly after:
Dear Mr Sheridan,
I wish to inform you that my Facebook site was closed 6 days before the death of Shane Mc Entee.
I would expect that you clarify this with your Facebook friends today or the matter will be referred to the Press Ombudsman
I’m very happy to clarify Senator Harte’s claim that he closed his Facebook and Twitter accounts six days before Shane Mc Entee’s death on 21 December 2012.
I’m still puzzled though.
It is obvious from media reports and Senator Harte’s interview on Newstalk that he is very angry and upset by the alleged abuse he received on social media.
The obvious question is – why did he wait a full month before telling the rest of the world about his decision?
According to Irish Examiner columnist Fergus Finlay recent comments by Pat Rabbitte were in response to the personal abuse of politicians on social media rather than media criticism of politics in general
Mr. Finlay is 100% wrong in his assessment as the words of Pat Rabbitte himself clearly demonstrates.
The denigration of politicians has always been there and most politicians accept that it comes with the territory.
It’s the damage to politics that concerns me because if you consign politics to the dustbin of history, what is the alternative? And five unrelenting years of pervasive negativity is having an impact.
Mr. Rabbitte is clearly not referring to the recent personalised comments on social media.
He’s specifically referring to the general media criticism of the political system since the catastrophic collapse of the economy in 2008.
Rabbitte went on to say that it was the media that was fermenting a good deal of the anger felt by the public.
Again, in addition to insulting the intelligence of Irish citizens, Rabbitte is clearly attacking the media for its commentary on the financial crisis rather than a few anonymous, personally abusive, comments on social media.
Clearly Mr. Finlay, despite a long career in politics, is suffering from a severe bout of naivety.
Labour senator Jimmy Harte has become the latest politician to exploit the tragic suicide of Shane McEntee as a potential opportunity to introduce restrictions on freedom of speech.
He provides no details other than the ‘threat’ he felt when his home address was published on Facebook. This is despite the fact that Senator Harte openly publishes his home address on his own website.
When it was pointed out to him during a Newstalk interview that he could easily block abusers on Facebook he weakly replied that the effort (about two to three seconds) wasn’t worthwhile
Fine Gael TD, Ciaran Cannon, in the same interview, gently tore Senator Harte’s victim allegations to shreds by simply telling the truth.
Cannon has been on Facebook and Twitter for years and has rarely being the object of abuse. When faced with abuse he simply blocks the abuser, something he has had to do only twice in the last three years.
When he receives abuse in the post he dumps it, when he receives abuse on the phone he hangs up.
He stated, correctly, that there were already in place plenty of laws to deal with personal abuse, slander and libel.
Cannon said he was concerned by suggestions from some politicians regarding the control of social media.
Tellingly, Senator Harte said that he may ‘review’ his decision to close his accounts at a later stage.
Here’s a prediction:
The ‘bullied’ senator will quietly reactivate his accounts as soon as he believes every advantage has been sucked out of Shane McEntee’s suicide.
Copy to:
Senator Harte (with my name and contact details)
It really annoys me when RTE presenter Paddy Gorman interviews people in queues waiting for so-called social welfare.
Throughout all the years I have been listening to RTE programmes (I am 45 next birthday) I have never heard an interviewer ask any rich person a question similar to the questions Paddy asks people in queues.
The super rich will never have to queue, so Paddy will never get to ask them what contraception they use, if they enjoy a drink, or if they have a man or woman in their life.
Can we please have a show where Paddy meets people queuing for the toilet in the Shelbourne and asks them questions like “Where did you spend all the billions given to you by the Labour/Fine Gael government?”
Received a message from Meabh about a discussion taking place in the European Parliament in Brussels today (Discussion here). The discussion will centre on how corruption affects young people.
Corruption and fraud worsened the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. With more transparency, young people might not be suffering as much.
These are the thoughts behind the next Connect.Euranet debate that will take place in the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels on September 19, 2012, at 12h00 CEST. Broadcasting live from the heart of the EP, students from the University of Vigo, Spain, Radio Moreeni of Tampere, Finland, Trinity FM Dublin and Radio Kampus Warsaw will ask MEPs and other VIPs what the EU is doing to tackle corruption in their institutions and across all member states.
People attending this debate.
God trains her hands for battle, makes her feet nimble as a deer and shields her from the punches of her opponents.
Katie Taylor believes that her god was largely responsible for her winning a gold medal at the Olympics.
Ms. Taylor is a member of the Pentecostal church. The Pentecostals or Born Again Christians believe that their god communicates with them by speaking in tongues.
They also believe that Hell is a real place where all non-believers and members of all other religions are doomed to spend an eternity.
Catholic militant David Quinn believes that his god was responsible for Ms. Taylor’s victory but, confusingly, he seems to be aware that he is destined to spend eternity in hell.
In fact, ‘born-again Christian’ Christians take their name from the New Testament and especially the passage where Jesus tells his followers “I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again’.