Could somebody ever remind the Israelis that Pat Kenny is a Hamas leader?
Sorry, let's start again. I'm a bit confused. It's just that there's so much shite, shit-stirring and provocative claptrap in the Irish tabloids at the moment about alleged connections between terrorism and this year's May Day protests that your brain is bound to get frazzled and you start imaginging things.
RTE is almost as bad. While channel-hopping on Friday night I came across a 'Late Late Show' thing about the terrible chaos and terrorism that was about descend upon our little island.
It was, as one P45er put it, the Mrs Mertonese "Heated Debate" bit of the show. And to set the agenda, Pat Kenny had prefaced the item with some news archive of the Genoa riots - the clear message was: are we gonna get this in Dublin too?
The panel included Darren 'The Boyler' Boyle. Now the Boyler is a bit like a Brillo pad - a very abrasive, thick-skinned, tabloid journalist, who hangs around a lot of dirt. There he was, wanging on about infiltrating (don't you just love it?) the Wombles in London, while they were planning their protests for Dublin on May 1st, and it all sounded very sinister.
And Declan Power, ex-army and a "security and defence analyst", was on the panel too. From much of the conversation you might have got the impression that next week during the EU summit the very fabric of Irish society was about to be ripped apart, with the large rip starting in Parkgate Street and ending up in Farmleigh House.
Then there was Aileen O'Carroll from the Dublin Grassroots Network - the people who are organising the march on Farmleigh. She was impeccably dressed: black top and black trousers, with hairclip, glasses, very neat, in a sort of Agent Scully kinda way. And in television, as they say, appearances are, well, almost everything.
She also sounded calm, measured, thoughtful. Or at least she was trying to, but Kenny kept interrupting her. Kenny could interrupt for Ireland, and he kept diving in...
Kenny: You're saying that if they [The Wombles] were plotting anarchy, they certainly wouldn't be doing it in this public forum?
Aileen: I'm saying...
Kenny [interrupting: I'm not saying that they are plotting, but if they were, they wouldn't do it in that way, is that what you're saying?
Aileen: It's a bit like asking 'When did you last beat your wife?', isn't it, you know, because...
Kenny [butting in again]: No, but you don't advertise your strategy, do you?
Aileen: Well we do. All our meetings...
Kenny [jumping in once more]: But if you were an anarchist you don't...
Aileen: I AM an anarchist and...
Kenny [diving in yet again, head first, feet in mouth]: Oh you are, alright.
Aileen: ...all our meetings are public.
Kenny: Well how do you define anarchist by the way?
Aileen: Yeah, I'd love to answer that because it's been used in the media as a sort of shorthand for terrorism. Now I'm an anarchist, that means I believe in a combination of economic equality and grassroots democracy. Now that might not be everybody's cup of tea, but something I can talk about over a pint - it's as far away from terrorism as Fianna Fail is.
Kenny: I see [audience cracks up laughing]
Kenny [losing it]: Don't tempt me!
Posted by mick cunningham at April 25, 2004 10:03 AM | Email a friend this entry
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"it's as far away from terrorism as Fianna Fail is."
That'd be, what? About 70 years?
Posted by: The Shamrockshire Eagle, editor and sole proprietor of at April 25, 2004 09:39 PM