Cassandra Voices

Category: Comment

  • Ode to the Sausage Roll

    In George Orwell’s 1939 novel Coming Up For Air, at the beginning of chapter 4, issue is taken with substandard food products, which do not taste like the product promoted and, indeed, taste like something else:

    At this moment I bit into one of my frankfurters, and—Christ!

    I can’t honestly say that I’d expected the thing to have a pleasant taste. I’d expected it to taste of nothing, like the roll. But this—well, it was quite an experience. Let me try and describe it to you.

    The frankfurter had a rubber skin, of course, and my temporary teeth weren’t much of a fit. I had to do a kind of sawing movement before I could get my teeth through the skin. And then suddenly—pop! The thing burst in my mouth like a rotten pear. A sort of horrible soft stuff was oozing all over my tongue. But the taste! For a moment I just couldn’t believe it. Then I rolled my tongue round it again and had another try. It was fish! A sausage, a thing calling itself a frankfurter, filled with fish! I got up and walked straight out without touching my coffee. God knows what that might have tasted of.

    This brings me to mass-produced sausage rolls. We have been socially engineered to accept inferior products due to being ‘always on the go’ and ‘eating on the hoof.’ Thus one may enter a high-street establishment – the name of which I will not mention here – to purchase one of their sausage rolls in an act to stave off the morning hunger.

    Yet, it is a tube of pink cooked sludge – faintly reminiscent of pork –encompassed in a uniform pastry that is almost parcel-tight; a small, perfectly wrapped parcel.

    Imagine venturing into the post office and asking the lady behind the counter,

    ‘Can I post this sausage roll to Scandinavia here, please?’ With a stamp attached to one corner and a Sharpie scrawl to its destination. Would a mass-produced sausage roll make it in one piece to say, Gothenburg?

    I have eaten them.

    In a pinch.

    Don’t get me started on their bean thingy, which gives me rising acid reflux like molten lava in the chambers and corridors of the heart.

    The problem is with quality, which the main protagonist is concerned with in Robert M. Pirsig’s modern, philosophical treatise work, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values.

    Quality has dissipated due to mass-produced products.

    I remember in Botanic, Belfast, on the city side of the small hill, there was a bakery beside a laundrette. This was twenty-odd years ago. I remember they sold great sausage rolls. Inside, along with the pork meat was a little chopped-up white onion. The flaky, buttery pastry was fresh and delicious. A wee drop of red or brown sauce and I was in foodie heaven. The staff were friendly locals, and I recall the hearty chatter and warmth of the welcome. That bakery is long gone. I am unsure of its name now, which escapes me. Sadly.

    Wee bakeries – the one on Chapel Lane, city centre Belfast – served great homemade vegetable soup and sausage rolls. And Fifteens. Oh, yes.

    There was one near The Arches, East Belfast, and I was in one day as the baker was letting warm soda farls clatter onto the baking table. They were still steaming warm, fresh from the oven. I wanted to hit one with a drop of butter and strawberry jam, taken with a mug of tea. Who hasn’t wanted a fresh soda farl with crumbed ham, cheese, and tomato? Or a soda farl made with treacle? Or with Indian cornmeal?

    Years later, I would work with very that baker during nightshifts in a homeless hostel – how strange being in Belfast is at times, an almost Jungian synchronicity on the one hand, but due to the size of the city, perhaps no happenstance at all. He told me about the early morning starts and the wee bakery on the Woodstock Road, the cramped workspace above the shop. The lone baker works away in the early morning, while patrons sleep deeply through the morning darkness. Hard, honest graft.

    In 2001, I recall being in Sallynoggin, Dublin. I was labouring for a plasterer at the time. We were in Dublin, travelling up and down from the North over the course of a month or so, and in a Spar, I saw chicken-filet burgers – proper ones, bread-chicken-filet burgers with lettuce and tomato – and they looked delicious. There were also big sausage rolls with grated cheese in them, so when you warmed them up, they created an unctuous cheesy goodness with the meat and pastry. Oh my.

    When we enter a reality of accepting inferior products, we become ‘modified’ slaves to the corporate dominion and accept the way things are…

    I don’t accept.

    It’s easy to call into a high-street establishment without thinking.

    It takes a bit of choice to make a better decision to opt for a better product to consume.

    The other day, I was in a wee ‘local’ bakery and had a sausage roll with a drop of red sauce and a hot cup of tea; on a cold January day, it hit the spot. I left refreshed and warm, entering the biting, frosty air, wrapped up in my coat as I trudged home.

    You could support the local bakery. Goodness knows they need it.

  • America The Bisected

    Like most of us, I spent the past week in a state of deep reflection over our collective national fate. Like some of us, I mourned. The American political sphere seems to have reached an anti-zenith, one culminating in some dystopian rhetorical Babel tower built and sustained by hatred. What have I seen in my life and times? The death of nuance and curiosity. The death of (real) tolerance.

    I spent the past week reading status after status beginning with the words ‘Go fuck yourself if you_____’ regarding the election results—a decisive Trump majority. Trump himself engendered—I imagine because he had so much to gain, and now enjoys the fruit of his labor—this exact brand of vitriol, something like near-total dismissal from the left of the humanity of the right and vice versa. He now rules supreme over our fragmentation, the sole beneficiary. I cannot emphasize the extent to which I am certain the ‘go fuck yourself if’ approach to our fellow Americans—as sympathetic as it is, frankly—will keep men like Donald J Trump in power forever. I cannot emphasize the extent to which the left’s patent refusal to acknowledge a single human quality in the right* decisively lost what appears to be the entirety of the working class,* once a democratic bastion, and catapulted Trump to victory.

    I’ve been thinking about stereotypes, which served as the oil-slicks upon which we’ve slid rapidly down to where we are. The left’s general profile of the typical Trump voter is this: uneducated, uncultured, evangelical/fundamentalist, nationalist, and white. I hope they’re now asking themselves why Trump won 45% of the Latino vote, the highest for a Republican presidential candidate in history. Stereotypes run a troubled livewire between truth and untruth. Thanks to my up-bringing in a tiny conservative Midwestern town, I know many Trump voters personally, although few from my own inner circle voted for him (with some exceptions) – they are not, by and large, toothless xenophobes.

    They are—if you’ll allow me to generalize—rural, religious, and educated, but not to a standard that approaches the left’s quote unquote elite. Many of them remain in the small towns of their origin, and are proud to be there sustaining those communities. They pay attention to their money, hopeful for Trump’s promised economy, which is also the issue that solidified his Latino percentage. I’m speaking of people I actually know, people I grew up with, people worth understanding and—here’s something subversive—people worth learning from. Is their perspective on 21st century life in America smaller than or inferior to that of their left-situated counterparts? I’d say sometimes it is, and attribute this reality directly to the narrowness of perspective that’s nearly inevitable, should one never venture meaningfully away from one’s place of origin—meaning one receives any and all education (including four years of college) in that very place alongside—this is key—the same kinds of people and ideas they’ve always experienced, and the same norms they’ve always inhabited. Rural Americans typically can’t experience the demographic diversity (and this kind implies many other kinds) urban dwellers take as a matter of course. There are fewer ways of seeing and being, and more assumptions, therefore, about the ‘right’ ways to see and be.

    The curled-lip sneer of the left-elite for the entire right—its steadfast refusal to attribute any moral integrity whatsoever to no less than half of America—will take us from Trump era to Trump era. It’s only a prediction, but let’s see. The Trump supporters I actually know (and I assume many of those I don’t) are not only NOT going to go fuck themselves, but continue to show up to the polls and vote for whatever powerful person that allows them to feel—however deceptively, however crudely—valued, seen and understood.

    The grief and pain of marginalized communities in view of a new Trump era makes more sense to me than I can rightly convey—the queer and trans communities, POC communities, immigrants. So let me be clear about those to whom I make this appeal. If, like me, you are white, privileged, educated, and generally able to tolerate and engage true ideological diversity and diversity of lived experience/identity, part of the ‘work’ to be done now may be disabling your elitist gag-reflex long enough to sympathize—not with racism, sexism or fascism—but the human beings to whom you hastily and even lazily ascribe these isms from your ivory tower. The more deeply we cling to our ‘fuck yous,’ the more robust Trump’s victory becomes—he has successfully deafened his supporters—your fellow Americans—to any condemnations you now choose to apply. ‘Fuck yourself’-style public engagement has led to two separate waves of Donald Trump. Can we agree it’s categorically failed, and will continue to fail?

    Trump (and men like him) are only in trouble when we award the status of full humanity to the opposing party. I’ll be more radical—it’s actually when we reawaken to that immutable status. I admit my hope is small, but I’ll do what I can. If you voted for Donald Trump, you won’t hear ‘fuck yourself’ from me, or see me stare down my nose. But if you want to participate in meaningful dialogue about why many people—specifically many oppressed people—so fear and despise him, please, let’s talk about that. Let’s open each other up and see what new things we can find. The old things have ceased to serve us well. If you are celebrating the incumbent POTUS, I guess I leave you to your victory. But I question whether any of us—any of us—should celebrate the completely bifurcated America we’re now forced to accept for four years…don’t you?

    Feature Image: ATC Comm Photo

  • Ireland’s Toxic Culture of Omertà

    Recently walking into a garage to pay for diesel, I scanned the news stand, as is my habit, to see if I had missed any of the day’s events. Something did catch my eye, and surprised me. A county Louth paper, the Drogheda Independent, had a headline about the Lourdes Hospital’s, disgraced surgeon Michael Shine.

    It seemed a group of his victims had come forward and the Taoiseach was considering a public enquiry. Such abusers leave deep scars that in many cases never truly heal, but he was enabled by the culture of that time. A toxic cowardly omertà still evident in Irish society.

    The reason the story caught my eye was that I was once a patient of Michael Shine. At the till, I reflected on that brief experience as a twelve-year-old.

    Much to my parent’s dismay, at age twelve, I was six foot tall, and had size twelve feet. My father was a fisherman, skipper and trawlerman in the Irish Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Wherever the fishing was at, he was there. He had a wife and four children who would literally eat him out of house and home. The four children that is, not my mother, who is a saint.

    The height issue was not so bad. East German army coats – available from the now long-gone army surplus store in Dundalk, Jocks – tended to grow with you, but getting the size twelve footwear became problematic. Decent footwear in Ireland has always has been difficult to find and expensive. Even now if I want a decent pair of shoes, I have to go to Dublin for the size, range and quality.

    Cheap footwear is a false economy, but when you’re size twelve at twelve back in 1989, you have to occasionally hang on until all the other bills are paid, and rightly so. None of us ever starved, but purchasing size twelve shoes, on occasion, had to wait, and this wait unfortunately caused a small issue over time to arise: an ingrown toenail. It went on for a while and caused some pain, which resulted in a referral to the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. I can’t remember whether I was twelve or thirteen by that stage.

    Drogheda.

    Small Scar

    I do remember that it was corrected very effectively through a small surgical procedure. As I type, barefoot, I can still see the small scar Michale Shine cut in, removing the side of the nail and the infected area of my left toenail. But before he did so, I had a consultation with him.

    I was brought into a medical examination room, high up in the hospital, from where I could look out over the town. The room had a lot of windows, but was far too high up for anyone to see inside. I walked to the side of the examination table, and I think I heard him say something about my toe, so I took off my runners and socks and went to get up onto the medical examination table.

    His response was “no, no, your pants as well.” I was wearing jeans at the time. I did as I was told and found myself on the examination table sitting upright, looking out over the roof tops of Drogheda. Boxershorts had not entered my wardrobe at this stage of my life. I think the under garment I was wearing are referred to as slips – men’s underpants. So, from hip to toe, on both legs, I was bare skin.

    Shine placed his right hand on my upper left thigh, for my ingrown toe examination, tapped my thigh twice with his palm, smiled a shark’s smile and told me I was a “fine big boy”. Now DaVinci’s Vitruvian man measures a palm as the width of four fingers and I say it with no shame that Shine’s hand was just the width of another four fingers away from my cock. I should probably say penis, but it’s not a word I would ever use and in fact it’s a bit creepy to be honest.

    The memory or indeed the incident has not affected me. It might have added some uninvited flavouring to my psychological or sexual development as a confused teenager that I could have done without. But honestly it has not adversely affected me.

    I am lucky, very lucky in comparison to some. That was as far as his hand went. In fact, when he said it, I said nothing but stared over his shoulder at the only other man in the room, a junior doctor. It is the memory of the look on his face, that has stayed with me ever since.

    I have learned a lot about people over the years. One thing is about how people perceive fear. Experience has taught me that they feel it in one of two ways: fear for themselves or fear for others. It can be a fleeting moment, which you can correct, or it forms who you are for ever more.

    In my time with the Airport Police, I was fortunate enough to have been trained in behavioural detection. What I have learned about people, through many life experiences, allows me to honestly assess my memory of that junior doctor’s fear. It was only fear for himself. The nameless coward was mute, grey with fear and looked at me as if to say: please don’t say anything.

    The enablers who reside within and contribute to the toxic culture of an organisation or indeed society are sadly simply cowards. Many are not bad people; in fact, most are not, but their cowardliness contributes to the very problems they grumble about. Some in positions of supervision and management are dangerous cowards, as they misuse their limited power and will push you under the bus in a heartbeat to save themselves.

    I wonder how many boys were not as lucky as me, and actually said something? You can imagine the enablers, can’t you? Silencing the innocent to save themselves. I imagine that junior doctor would have seen nothing if I had said something.

    Perhaps you’re even one of them yourself, an enabler? It’s a disease in Irish society that needs to be challenged at every level. To target those who speak out, tell the truth and call it as it is, is an attack on your own safety and your own democratic right.

    https://cassandravoices.com/society-culture/a-whistleblowers-motive/

    False Rumours

    Sadly, enablers cannot see that and the coward in them likes to see the whistleblower get what he deserves, which reinforces their cowardliness. They may even spread a false rumour, like the DAA Airport Duty Manager who held court in the airport control room weeks after my departure, informing those present that I was in trouble for being a wistleblower. It is not the case; it was not the case.

    Or the Police Inspector who wanted me to facilitate and provide whatever training I could to a candidate for a position in the Airport Police Dog Unit, even before he had been interviewed. I might never have bothered pointing out how it might look to other officers, or how people would perceive that. I had wasted my time objecting, as the candidate still got the job. People like this all needlessly and carelessly damage our democratic society. We spend so much of our lives in a workplace; of course it is part of society. The values and culture we experience there permeates society.

    I can speak about these things as I declined DAA’s unfair dismissal offer of €4,800 in return for a non-disclosure agreement. An agreement that listed forty-two separate pieces of legislation that would have inhibited me from taking any further legal action against them. If they have done nothing wrong, why have forty-two pieces of legislation and a non-disclosure agreement? Evidently, I did not sign.

    The main evidence that I wanted was in a redacted report. The enablers’ legal team had the evidence statute barred. I wasn’t prepared to move forward without it.

    That legal interpretation, I will argue in the future, in employment law is a scam and one that the Workplace Relations Commission are failing to acknowledge as such. Perhaps because it makes their lives easier. The statute of limitations to take a case for unfair dismissal or penalisation in the workplace, under employment law, is six months. I would argue it is not six months for the admissibility of evidence of penalisation in the workplace. This is a legal scam that a weak Workplace Relations Commission are enabling! But don’t judge them too harshly.

    The enablers are alive and well in Irish society, just ask the victims of Michael Shine.

    Feature Image: Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda

  • ‘Oppie’

    So White Supremacist, U.S. Senator, Lindsay Graham, visiting Israel last week, called for nuclear Armageddon to be unleashed on Gaza.

    Apart from blatant attempts to curry favour with the genocidal regime in Israel, and his Far Right base back in the USA, Senator Graham must (one presumes) be aware that in January, only three months into the catastrophic mechanised slaughter by Israel in Gaza, ‘the weight of the explosives dropped by Israel exceeded 65,000 tons, or more than the weight and power of three nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima’.

    With the bomb payload now, as Israel – under pressure – drops more, and larger bombs, every day, killing a child every ten minutes, reducing Gaza to rubble and sand.

    Gaza has already suffered the equivalent of nuclear Armageddon for over eight months.

    Not enough blood Senator Graham and friends? You need more?

    It got me thinking about the Daddy of Armageddon, ‘Oppie’, and his lionisation in Christopher Nolan’s ‘blockbuster of the century’, or ‘the epic, biographical, thriller, drama’ (Wiki),  we were all mightily encouraged to go see last Summer, ‘Oppenheimer’.

    But was ‘Oppenheimer’ the movie really an ‘epic, biographical, thriller drama’ about the guy who invented the nuclear bomb, or was it just the Patriarchy up to its old tricks – glorifying War, shiny weaponry and ENORMOUS bangs whilst blatantly ignoring Wars mostly female and child victims? Not to mention that which is never, ever mentioned, the catastrophic effects on our shared planet, Mother Earth?

    Cillian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer and Matt Damon as Leslie Groves

    Cillian Murphy

    Of course like everyone I was proud of our own Cillian Murphy and his portrayal of Oppenheimer, eerily channelling the brilliant, charismatic, ‘overwhelmingly ambitious’ scientist co-opted by the American military to create the bomb to end all bombs, Murphy so  committed to faithfully portraying ‘Oppie’s’ legendary intensity, and skinniness that legend has it during filming while the rest of the cast sat around chomping down on convivial suppers, the wine flowing freely, Cillian retired alone to his trailer to consume one cashew.

    Dedication to the cause.

    The real Oppenheimer was the eldest son of wealthy German-Jewish immigrants to the US.  Brought up in New York, schooled in America, England and Germany’s (pre-Hitler) finest universities, he hung out with the greatest scientists of his day.

    When asked to create an atom bomb, offered billions in funding, 760 scientists, and an entire purpose-built town in New Mexico to do so, he accepted. For an incredibly ambitious scientist it was too tempting an offer to turn down.

    Creating the bomb was an extraordinary achievement. Terrible, but extraordinary. As they watched the first test go off in the desert only three years later, Oppenheimer said: ‘Some people laughed. Some people cried. Most people were silent’.

    But here’s the thing: Christopher Nolan’s three hour extravaganza about the  bomb that doesn’t question the morality of making such a hideous ‘weapon of mass destruction’; that doesn’t show us Hiroshima or Nagasaki; that perpetuates what U.S. journalist Greg Mitchell calls ‘America’s dirty secret’ in not calling out the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as war crimes, isn’t that a falsehood?

    Isn’t that endorsing the terrible lie at the heart of the Patriarchy: that might is right. That military might is righter still?

    For decades we were soothed with platitudes around America’s decision to bomb: America had to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki! It was the only way to ‘save’ lives! The Nazis were about to build their own bomb! The Soviets were minutes from building theirs! The Japanese were nasty slitty-eyed monsters, bad, bad people trying to take over the whole world, of course they had to be bombed!

    The Enola Gay dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

    The usual claptrap

    None of which claptrap the film interrogates.

    It doesn’t tell us:

    a) that the bomb could have been dropped on the many military targets dotted around Japan (as opposed to being dropped on a city packed with civilians).

    b) that the bomb could have been dropped over an unpopulated area, or over the sea. A demonstration, and warning, of America’s new and deadly power.

    c) that with the Soviet Union launching a separate attack, if the US had waited two to three more months, Japan would have sued for peace. No bombs needed.

    d) that the Nazis were already defeated, barely capable of raising a fart, never mind a nuclear bomb.

    e) that the U.S. top brass’s estimation that it would take ten years and one million US soldiers to ‘subdue’ Japan sounds about as scientific as UK and US claims that Saddam Hussein had ‘weapons of mass destruction’ ready to destroy us all within minutes.

    Tragically, and as per damn usual, the drum beat for War drowned out all other voices. Sadly for us all, Christopher Nolan goes  with the central platitude: of course Japan had to be bombed.

    One of the main reasons the American ‘brass’ wanted to obliterate two cities in Japan was the seriously bloody nose inflicted by the Japanese on America at Pearl Harbour, when 2,400 American military personnel were killed, and tons of military equipment destroyed.

    Just as Afghanistan and Iraq had to be destroyed by an enraged American military after the surprise attack on the Twin Towers, just as Gaza has had to be pounded into rubble, thousands of its people slaughtered ‘because’ of Hamas’s incursion into Israel, Japan had to be fucked in the head by the American military because of Pearl Harbour.

    Yōsuke Yamahata photographed this child incinerated in Nagasaki. American forces censored such images in Japan until 1952.

    No Matter What

    Weeks after Oppie and co. ran the first test in New Mexico, sending radioactive plumes fifteen kilometres into the sky, turning the desert sand to glass, poisoning the land from which its indigenous inhabitants had been driven, Hiroshima, then three days later, Nagasaki, and their completely innocent inhabitants, felt the full force of the nuclear bomb.

    210,000 people were ‘vaporised’ instantly. 95% of them civilians. Most were women and children. Hundreds of thousands more died horrendous deaths from ‘radiation sickness’, in the hours, days and years to come. One survivor remembers the sound of cracking. Not of the wooden houses burning, but human beings’ limbs, heated to impossible temperatures, snapping off.

    Eerily akin to Israel’s current destruction of Gaza’s health system, 90% of Hiroshima’s doctors, nurses and medical staff were killed, or injured. Forty-five hospitals were either destroyed or damaged. Medical help for victims was poor to non-existent.

    Nolan also conveniently forgets to mention the indigenous peoples driven off their lands so that ‘Oppie’s’ town could be built. Their lands destroyed to this day by the nuclear testing. ‘Our land, our sea, our communities and our physical bodies carry the legacy of these deadly experiments, with us now, and for unknown generations to come’.

    Oppenheimer in 1946.

    Important Men

    While the first two thirds of ’Oppenheimer’ is super busy with what my friend called, ‘Important Men rushing along corridors, writing mysterious calculations on blackboards and peering into pipettes’, as if to make up for ignoring the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the final section of the film is taken up with the crucifixion of Oppenheimer at the hands of America’s military. Essentially for refusing to say the bomb was 1,000% brilliant.

    Brought in to visit President Truman, Oppenheimer worried he had ‘blood on his hands’. As he left the Oval Office Truman hissed he never wanted to ‘see that cry baby scientist again’.

    Oppenheimer, the darling of America, became Oppenheimer the Jew. The Communist. The spy. The unmentionable.

    Horribly, his Jewish ancestry made him vulnerable. Jewish anti-semitism was embedded in every layer of American society at the time. Recommending a young Oppenheimer his Harvard professor said, ’Oppenheimer is a Jew but entirely without the usual qualifications’. At Berkeley, attempting to get a position for a colleague, he was told No. ‘One Jew in the department is enough’. Which was ironic, since the most brilliant scientists in America were Jewish refugees from Hitler’s genocidal Germany would soon be working in Los Alamos with Oppenheimer. Many of them women – another blindspot in Nolan’s re-telling.

    Prophetically, Oppenheimer himself died of cancer at only sixty-two years of age. The guy who unleashed nuclear Armageddon on the world succumbed to radiation’s deadly kiss himself. An extraordinary black and white clip on YouTube shows him, more ghost than man, whisper: ‘Hiroshima was far more costly in life and suffering, and inhumane, than it needed to have been, to have been an effective argument for ending the war.’

    Sadly Nolan shows us none of this. Like so many other big beasts working in Hollywood he seems dedicated to the glorification of weaponry. Of War. Most of all of minimising War’s terrible human cost to innocents.

    The Patriarchy’s pet project

    War is the Patriarchy’s pet project. How the Patriarchs, including those nasty handmaidens to the Patriarchy who never get their own hands dirty, love it. How they make millions from it in their arms factories. How conveniently they forget that it’s women and children, who always pay the highest price.

    Always.

    Can we honestly claim to be civilised democracies as Gaza is reduced to dust, with billions in ‘military aid’, i.e, 2,000 lb bombs from America the UK and Germany, with thousands of its people killed, maimed, burnt alive, buried alive under the rubble of their houses in front of our eyes?

    As the orders of the highest courts in the world – the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court – are openly flouted by Israel, America and Britain?

    As we enjoy blockbusters glorifying War’s killers?

    Can we?

  • The Politics of the Last Announcement

    In December the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) published a comparatively critical review of the government’s Budget 2024. Criticisms of ‘bad budgeting’ arose from the ‘lack of transparency,’ and the use of ‘fiscal gimmickry.’ IFAC defined the latter as ‘creative accounting techniques’ used to make the numbers ‘look more favourable than they are.’

    The Irish Times described this as ‘an extraordinary broadside against the Government’, with RTE referring to IFAC’s assessment as ‘controversial.’ However, as IFAC made clear in February, they were standing firm behind their ‘perfectly valid’ analysis which they stated was backed by ‘substantial evidence and reasoning in support of this conclusion.’

    This episode had me wondering whether similar kinds of “fiscal gimmickry” are at work outside of budget time, specifically when Ministers are out making what are nominally ‘new’ funding announcements. You will of course be familiar with this type of thing.

    It goes something like this: a Minister appears on RTE, or broadcasts via their social media platforms, that they are ‘delighted’ to be announcing x million for some initiative. Now the ordinary person probably never stops to consider whether this is new expenditure for a new program, additional expenditure for an existing program, or simply existing expenditure for an existing program.

    But to be fair to the average voter, there are a few Ministers that probably never to stop to ask this question themselves. What matters to them is that they are out and seen to be doing things – energy in lieu of action. If taking a bit of creative licence results in positive media coverage, then some see that as all well and good.

    I must confess that for some time I’ve been puzzled by how some Ministers seemed to be making ‘new’ multi-million announcements every other week, whilst for others such announcements were few and far between. So, I thought I would investigate the matter. As we’ll see, this is where a kind of “fiscal gimmickry” meets the ‘the politics of the last announcement.’

    In Table 1 we can see the number of funding related announcements made by all our current government ministers (excluding the Taoiseach) in 2023. We have a total of fourteen Ministers spread across seventeen Departments. The median amount (think middle value) of funding announcements made last year was 11.5, so just under one funding announcement per month.

    As we can see, half of our Ministers made less than this, and some significantly less. For instance, Messrs McGrath (6) and Donohue (5), perhaps the two Ministers most associated with the word ‘prudent’, were certainly amongst the most judicious. The same goes for Minister McEntee (4), although she was off on maternity leave for a period.

    Just three Ministers; Harris (32), Martin (30) and Humphreys (21) were significantly higher. But to be fair to Heather Humphreys she is Minister of two departments (Social Protection/Rural and Community Development), so it’s really just Harris and Martin that were so far ahead of the pack.

    What’s the explanation?

    Could it be that they occupy larger spending Departments and hence their respective Ministers need to make more funding related announcements? Considering neither of these Departments is in the top five in terms of expenditure, however, and indeed Martin’s is forth from bottom, that doesn’t seem to account for it.

    The second largest spender is the Department of Health, but Minister Donnelly made one of the fewest amounts of funding announcements (6). In fact, the size of a Department’s expenditure seems to have almost zero relationship with the number of funding announcements that its Minister makes.

    As we can see from Figure 1 there’s no statistically significant relationship between the size of a department’s expenditure and the number of funding announcements its respective Minister makes.

    Minister Department(s) No. funding related announcements (2023) Department(s) Gross Expenditure €000/rank (2023) Comment
    Simon Harris Further and Higher Education, Research and Innovation 32 €4,092,446

    (6th place)
    Catherine Martin Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media 30 €1,165,509

    (13th place)
    Heather Humphreys Social Protection/Rural and Community Development 21 SP – €23,901,145 (1st place)

    RCD – €428,981 (17th place)

    		 Minister for two Departments
    Norma Foley Education 13 €10,025,107

    (3rd place)
    Charlie McConalogue Agriculture, Food and the Marine 12 €2,164,509

    (9th place)
    Roderic O’Gorman Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth 12 €5,931,759

    (5th place)
    Darragh O’Brien Housing, Local Government and Heritage 12 €6,414,089

    (4th place)
    Michael Martin Defence/Foreign Affairs 11 Defence – €1,209,737 (12th place)

    FA – €1,057,144 (15th place)

    		 Minister for two Departments
    Eamon Ryan Transport/Environment, Climate and Communications 10 Transport – €3,516,269 (7th place) Environment – €1,066,060 (14th place) Minister for two Departments
    Simon Coveney Enterprise, Trade and Employment 7 €1,621,413

    (11th place)
    Michael McGrath Finance 6 €600,240

    (16th place)
    Stephen Donnelly Health 6 €21,358,420

    (2nd place)
    Paschal Donohoe Public Expenditure 5 €1,670,513

    (10th place)
    Helen

    McEntee

    		 Justice 4 €3,428,623

    (8th place)

    		 Maternity leave for a period

     

    We’ll zoom in on new Taoiseach Simon Harris for three reasons. First, he’s the most prolific in terms of making funding announcements – averaging almost three a month; secondly, he’s the new Taoiseach so it could provide a window into what his tenure might look like; and thirdly he’s the only Minister I am aware of that has ever been accused of making re-announcements dressed up as new spending measures.

    In January Simon Harris appeared in DCU for a carefully choreographed photo opportunity. This was off the back of a big announcement he made about seeking Cabinet approval for a ‘new’ student housing policy. Note: this policy is almost indistinguishable from its predecessor.

    Off the back of this he appeared in DCU with the big funding announcement that he was there to ‘unveil plans for 500 student accommodation beds,’ something he again alluded to during Fine Gael’s Ard Fheis over the weekend. The glaring problem with this was, of course, that he’d already announced it last year, with an almost identically choreographed photo opportunity.

    The Students Union of DCU had clearly got wind of the Minister trying to pull a stunt and were there to confront him. Soon after the Union of Students Ireland chipped in accusing the Minister of recycling old announcements which amounted to ‘engaging in smoke and mirrors’ in the hopes that ‘no one will look beyond the headlines.’

    So, is this characterisation of Harris fair? Let’s take a look at some of his other creative accounting announcements. In June 2023 he announced: ‘Today I am launching a €9 million fund for higher education institutions to improve access to higher education for students with an intellectual disability.’

    It was in 2022, however, when he first launched what was then a €12 million fund. It was to work as follows; €3 million would be disbursed in 2022, with the remainder disbursed over 2023-25. So, essentially it is €3 million a year over four years. Yet with Harris’ approach €12m can be announced one year, €9 million the next, €6m the year after and then €3 million in the final year!

    If you weren’t following closely, you would be forgiven for thinking this has been a total of €30 million (12 + 9 + 6 + 3) rather than the €12 million that was originally set aside. Now the Minister could surely counter that what he said was technically correct, and he would have a point.

    Such announcements, however, as the USI pointed out, are made on the assumption that most people don’t look beyond the headlines. Or read the Department’s press release which will usually contain explanatory notes.

    In October in the wake of Budget 2023, where the Minister was severely criticised for having produced no new funding for student accommodation, he suddenly appeared to announce that he was ‘Delighted to announce a new €434 million student accommodation partnership, which will help build over 2,000 beds on college campuses across the country.’

    This one seemed to catch everyone off guard, including the universities, his Cabinet colleagues and the opposition. One of the glaring problems with this announcement was there was nothing new in it. Not only can the universities already borrow from the EIB, they already have significant borrowings. Their issue isn’t being able to access borrowing, it’s their ability to repay the money sustainably. Several universities are already grappling with financial deficits this year. Indeed, the entire sector has to deal with a core funding deficit of over €200 million, which is a hangover from the Austerity period – a shortfall he was supposed to address but has now left to his successor to sort out.

    If his past Ministerial performance proves a good indicator of Simon Harris’ future performance as Taoiseach, then we can expect big announcements, and then big announcements with even bigger bells on. But scratch beneath the surface and you’ll probably find some fiscal gimmickry afoot. I just hope that when these big announcements come, they will be met with equivalent levels of scrutiny by our media and state broadcaster.

  • Anatomy of Disgust – Northern Irish Style

    This piece is not intended to provoke. It is more a look at the way people’s minds are shaped, how people think, and how that is articulated towards others.

    I realized something was ‘ratten’ in the state of ‘Norn Ireland’ when I was about four. My half-brother of about six or so and I were walking the street just on the periphery of our Nationalist Catholic housing estate, whereupon a teenager brandished a samurai sword, and with a twist of anger in his face said to us: ‘Youse are Fenian bastards.’

    I was perplexed even at that young age. We would venture around the estate pretty often so it was nothing new being out on our own during the day but this situation was … as I would grasp later, characterised by something that I would often hear in the rising and vitriolic anger during my life

    ‘Dirty Fenian bastard!’ and, ‘Fucking black bastard!’

    These sectarian epithets, ‘terms,’ are learned from family members, from the local community, whether it be friends, etc., and were reinforced in those communities when I was growing up. Handed down. Indeed, I have repeated some sectarian hatred and bad language myself to tarnish ‘the other side’ i.e., the hated, and much-vaunted, enemy.

    They are known in psychological terms as Interjections – or interjects. Which can be defined as the unconscious acceptance of terms, ideas, and personality traits of parents, guardians, and others we are close to when developing.

    This language of physical revulsion, termed ‘the Sartrean Other,’ is purely tribal; a visceral reaction to ‘difference.’ The anatomy of disgust – physical revulsion. One is revolted by this other person, who does not worship the same way and that is to be feared, ridiculed and mistrusted – whole-heartedly.

    Bigotry came swarming from the pulpit, the soapbox, and the barstool from fervent rhetoricians stoking tensions. Revisionism is a strong pill that many swallow. Leafing out the hurts and wrongs of the past from the blood-soaked history of the place. Darkness lies there amongst the weeds where goblins live and thrive. The goblins of fear-mongering suspicion – like you have an aura around you defining you as a being from a particular community, and once confirmed that aura becomes a symbolic role: to hate, to destroy, and to kill.

    I have witnessed the teeth-binding, red-faced fury of hatred during a riot in Belfast when the two tribes were pitted against each other – the furore of two communities each on one side of the road separated by the police.

    © Daniele Idini.

    The din was deafening. I remember thinking to myself, ‘What circle or balcony of Dante’s Hell is this?’

    Reinforced bigotry, non-capitulation, and plaintive victim-hood have been the two imposing forces that have fitted so succinctly into a certain kind of joint which once forged is forged into eternity in a union of unrest and hatred.

    I once worked in a factory setting in East Belfast and while on a break went over to the table in the canteen. A colleague pulled out a chair, put the book he was reading down into an open holdall – a Noam Chomsky work by the way – and smiled. His arms were swathed in tattoos. He was stocky but friendly with me. I cannot recall if we chatted much or not but I did wonder if this fella was a Loyalist paramilitary. By the look of him, I’d opt for, yes, but looks can be deceiving. One thing is for sure, he looked like a tough individual.

    Afterwards I wondered about the Chomsky book and thought to myself, ‘Fairplay, you’re reading Chomsky of all folk. For East Belfast, that’s a brave step in self-education.’ I smiled to myself at this autodidact. It was Chomsky’s Who Rules The World?

    I told these guys like him, and guys from East Belfast during my shift and on the assembly line, that I was in recovery from alcoholism and do you know what? They listened and nodded their heads and some said, ‘Yeah, my Da was an alcoholic. A terrible alcoholic. Fairplay to you that you are working on it.’ I replied, ‘Sorry to hear that, and, thanks.’ It was gracious. Maybe God was looking over me. Who knows?

    I was never queried if I was ‘A taig?’ I have no idea if they thought it. I surmise that it was because I was quiet, well-mannered, and honest with them: ‘I am from Ballymena and I am in recovery from addictions.’ Which is true. I was, and I am.

    I worked late a couple of nights and through the night, a few shifts, at the factory and was never, ever questioned or challenged. I worked hard, and in many regards, was silently respected for my hard work.

    Then a couple of years ago, I was working with a few guys from the Shankill and, again, do you know what? We became rather friendly.

    Shankill neighbourhood. © Daniele Idini.

    After our shift(s), they gave me lifts up home to a Nationalist area. Maybe seeing where I lived. Possibly. But that’s the cynic in me, maybe, showing some caution too.

    Don’t get me wrong, thirty-odd years ago I could have been taken to a quiet area say, up further than Ballysillan, made to get out and down on my knees and blasted in the back of the head with a gun – a couple of shots for good measure. ‘There goes another Fenian bastard.’ The supposed killers may have said. Blasted into eternity. Like the other victims of sectarian violence. Boom. Gone.

    But sectarianism doesn’t just hold a grip on the minds of people back home, from working-class ‘sectarian’ communities. Indeed it can apply to people who refer to themselves as ‘Christian’, and who can be just as evil as the balaclava-clad gunman.

    I know because when I was homeless, and in a homeless hostel, in Belfast. I was harassed by a naïve, and arrogant member of staff who would profess themselves to be a ‘Christian’. Their harassment was down to pure green-eyed jealousy. Their religious ethics, and morals, were overtaken by the temper of ‘Getting one over on another human being.’ Because they felt inferior.

    Basically, I was getting some attention from a female member of staff, who was to be my ‘link worker.’, This other member of staff did not like this and wanted to put an end to it. There was nothing going on, we just got on, but people noticed. Nothing would happen, nevertheless, this person glowered and bristled in their own way. It was selfish and clearly jealousy.

    That’s a pretty bad situation to be in if you feel you have to harass a homeless person in a hostel just because you wanted other staff members in the hostel to worship you.

    If you ask me, that was a disgusting way to act toward someone who was going through a difficult, and vulnerable, situation – someone without a familial home or any support. I was coming to terms with my alcoholism, but still in the early stages of accepting the reality and had not hopped on the wagon by that stage. I was struggling.

    I also remember working with a young woman from Loyalist Tiger’s Bay on a project, in Belfast. We were chatting together and she said, ‘You know, Neil, there’s no difference between us, this sectarian and religious stuff.’ And I replied, ‘You know, you are 100% right.’ Her conversation released me from the infinity of it, and I knew things would be different from then on; meaning I would have to leave in order to move on with my own life, and be free of it.

    People in power, usually part of some particular establishment have a vested interest in preserving the statelet and write about it – with bias. As in, our side, our argument is more legitimate than yours. Hogwash.

    Things can be different. As I have outlined my experiences in that factory and with those guys from the Shankill. I simply listened to their story. They listened to mine.

    It would be great if you could challenge yourself and listen too. You may learn something. I know I did.

    Feature Image: The Cupar Way ‘Peace Wall’ © Daniele Idini.

  • Local Government Falls Short

    Long ago I read a wry assertion that local government in Ireland is ‘central government locally organised’. The writer lamented that local authorities, especially county councils, have limited financial and other powers to provide local services and depend heavily on the financial largesse of central funds allocated by different government departments. It is different in other parts of continental Europe, where local administrations can garner money by levying local taxes and other charges on residents.

    In Ireland, councils have to go cap in hand trying to squeeze more money for repairing country roads, bridges and to provide access to historic sites. When it comes to local election campaigns one candidate can say ‘vote for me and I’ll get the rickety stone bridge repaired’, while another in a different townland will promise to fix the potholed road to Ballyhoo. If it is a seaside county, hopeful candidates may focus on a sea erosion or a fishing pier requiring urgent attention.

    County council electoral areas are divided into wards and these wards are divided into clusters of townlands allied to towns, villages and parishes. Ah yes, parishes. Too many county councillors are parochial in outlook and activity. They sit on county committees of various kinds, but their constant gaze is on minute details affecting their own electoral base.

    Another limiting factor is that no county stands alone. The issues facing people in one county also engage the minds of people in adjacent counties. And the issues spread out into regions and provinces. The regional aspect is acknowledged when a group of county councils agree to co-operate on attracting tourists. Sligo-Leitrim-Donegal tourism is a case in point. The successful national promotion of the Wild Atlantic Way – whoever coined the term deserves to be honoured on a postage stamp – has indeed brought domestic and foreign tourists to the region, but there are problems with accommodation during the high season.

    Moreover, while the wild jagged coastline of Donegal enthralls visitors from France and Italy, who cherish fish landed at Killybegs from waters not affected by nuclear power plants, not all county councillors are so enthused; representatives of inland areas hope the Atlantic tourers deviate inland and explore the rolling hills and pristine lakes, and the recreational activities these areas offer.

    Lough Glenade, County Leitrim.

    I know of one councillor, an owner of a pub serving good grub with live music on the weekends, who at his own expense printed brochures with a special map indicating routes for motorists and cyclists around the ward in which he is a public representative.

    My view is that elected councillors from neighbouring counties should meet formally at least twice a year to look at the overall regional picture and to consider concerted action on particular issues. Common concerns about infrastructure, social housing, waste disposal, potable water sources and environmental conservation need regional and provincial focus.

    Having Individual councils seek extra money for roads or piped water supplies is a recipe for loud speeches in council chambers. Bombastic councillors love these scenarios. They pound on the table to get their mugshots in the local papers.

    Such public figures like to pretend that they have a hot phone link to the relevant cabinet ministers. Civil servants in Dublin strengthen this impression by sending copies of new money allocations to T.D.s and councillors affiliated to the party in power. This allows T.D.s and councillors ‘to welcome the announcement by the Minister’. Waving magic wands and claiming special influence with central government is a game of smoke and mirrors.

    My plea to county councillors is: Think Regional and act Local.

    Feature Image: RUN 4 FFWPU

  • Re-Imagining Dublin Port

    I’m a filmmaker and Kerry based farmer, currently on a residency at the Fire Station Artists’ Studios in the heart of the city for the next two years. I’m very familiar with Dublin, and it’s fair to say it’s my second home since I came to Ireland in 1981.

    I will also be heading to the bothy project (Sweeney’s Bothy) in Scotland in January as part of my research. This is on Eigg, and the island is owned by the community and completely self-sustaining (Eigg Electric).

    My research will focus on the concept of dematerialisation in urban environments. The idea is to explore how cities can become more sustainable, efficient, and culturally enriched by re-imagining the use of physical materials and objects. This concept may be aspirational, but I think that is the artist’s privilege.

    I cycle to the South Wall, through the docks, past the sewerage treatment plant, incinerator and power station almost every day for a swim. You cannot ignore that the city’s waste is not managed properly, the stench and volume of overflow is there to be seen by everyone.

    Moving the port and repurposing the land offers tremendous possibilities, it is obvious when cycling through it. I wish, however, that this vision could be taken even further by considering innovative ideas such as transforming Poolbeg into a cultural hub akin to the Tate Modern in London.

    This could not only celebrate art and culture but also serve as a focal point for sustainable energy and food production using recycled waste.

    It seems to be that waste management in general in Dublin is oversubscribed and under serviced. There is a saying in farming “where there’s muck, there’s money” and I firmly believe this. People need to face up to their sh!t, people who clean it up should be rewarded more – it shouldn’t be such a dirty job!

    There is ample opportunity to reimagine waste management in a way that is both enjoyable, productive and eco-friendly. By making waste management a clean and fun part of everyday life, we can contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable city, it is in fact a no brainer. Why are there no communal gardens?

    In my opinion there should be an emphasis on high-rise, high-density living – with greater emphasis on rewilding and natural green spaces to keep people, and their dogs happy. By incorporating such features into the redevelopment plans, we can create a dynamic and efficient urban landscape that embraces modern living while reducing our environmental footprint.

    I believe there should be more imaginative thinking and bold ideas in urban development. The transformation of Dublin Port would be a significant step in the right direction, but I think the exploration of additional creative possibilities could make our city a more vibrant, sustainable, and enjoyable place to live.

    I hope Dublin can evolve into a city that embraces innovation and imagination, it has everything going for it.

  • Why is the U.S. Supporting Israel?

    As we witness the barbaric bombing of Gaza by Israel, and as the deaths and horrific injuries of civilian men, women and children rise exponentially, it is necessary to ask: who (apart from the Israeli government) is behind this murderous campaign?

    Over decades the United States has liked to portray itself as an honest broker in an intractable conflict between Muslims and Jews, or Palestinians and Israelis.

    However, with American naval battle groups now in the region to provide ‘air defense or air combat patrol, if necessary,’ according to Aram Nerguizian, from the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington, this claim seems increasingly hollow.

    Nerguizian emphasizes that the current deployment is ‘not intended to be used in an offensive role.’ However, he acknowledges that this could change quickly if Israel finds itself in a ‘total, 360-degree conflict’.

    Moreover, despite more kids being killed in Gaza over the past three weeks than in all armed conflicts in each of the past three years, the Biden administration is proposing to send $14.6 billion dollars of war aid to Israel, while the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen intitially suspended aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave.

    Meanwhile, in the West Bank illegal Israeli settlers have increased their attacks on isolated defenceless Palestinian villages, murdering one farmer collecting his olive harvest and leaving leaflets on cars and bloodied dolls at schools, warning Palestinians to leave or be killed. We appear to be witnessing a third wave of expulsions, following in the footsteps of 1948 and 1967.

    Indeed, even the New York Times is reporting that attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are surging. At least 115 have been killed, more than 2,000 have been injured and nearly 1,000 others have been forcibly displaced from their homes because of violence and intimidation by Israeli forces and settlers since Hamas’s attacked Israel on October 7, according the United Nations.

    America does not only give Israel political cover in the United Nations, it is also continuing to supply them with weapons of mass destruction. Along with the British and the French, the United States appears to be playing a more active role in this conflict.

    With stalemate in Ukraine, it seems that the U.S.-led NATO alliance is determined not to see an ally lose in Gaza. We can only speculate as to why this is happening, but Joe Biden has repeatedly stated ‘If there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one to protect our interests in the region’. Israel’s war on Gaza acts as a veiled threat to any nation considering joining a fledgling multi-polar world order.

    Many Israelis want to expel Gazans into the Sinai in Egypt and West Bank residents into Jordan to complete the Zionist dream of conquering all of Palestine and expelling its inhabitants.

    The current Israeli government that includes far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir may not stop at that, as the illegal occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights and Lebanese Sheba Farms testifies to the endurance of a Greater Israel project, coveting lands much larger than those currently occupied.

    Palestinians, however, will not go meekly into the night. Many would rather die than allow another Nakba to take place.

    While parents write their children’s names on their bodies so they can be identified in the event of their being slaughtered by American munitions, and as people collect body parts of the dismembered dead around the blast sites, we can only imagine the despair felt by 2.2 million people hopelessly corralled into an area of just 365 square kilometres.

    It seems as if Israel is hoping to occupy Northern Gaza and then expel the refugees into Egypt in a campaign of ethnic cleansing seemingly supported by the U.S., its main NATO allies and the European Commission.

    Of course, it was Britain that created the problem with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 supporting the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’, along with the secret Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 between Britain and France envisaging the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.

    The current turmoil in the Middle East may be traced to the British and French policy of divide and conquer, a tactic subsequently employed by the U.S..

    Perhaps, it is not the words of their enemies but the silence of their friends that Gazans may  remember after the deluge – at least those lucky enough to survive.

  • The End of RTÉ’s “Drive Time” Omertá

    And so, the omertà as to the RTÉ personnel getting ‘freebie’ cars has finally broken. It’s no coincidence that this was the only outlet probing this matter five years ago. We knew the topic was highly unlikely to be picked up by media reliant on revenue streams from advertising cars.

    We also knew that covering the topic was unlikely to win any friends for this publication in the state broadcaster – generally not a wise move for a fledgling operation trying to make it in the Irish media landscape. Despite the obvious pitfalls, the editor published my original piece – and then followed up the matter in his own stoic fashion.

    Sure enough, five years on, despite countless topics having been forensically covered by Cassandra Voices, and despite the editor having previously appeared on prime time RTÉ shows, they have never contacted him or this outlet regarding any topic featured herein. Cassandra was ‘cancelled’ almost as soon as she commenced.

    “Drive Time: The Irish Media’s Message“

    Accounts and Accountability

    Over the last week a series of details have emerged of a culture in RTÉ of personnel entering ‘side-deals’ where they benefit either by additional cash payments, or in kind – by way of high-value items such as cars or other luxury outings to prestigious sporting fixtures. Nice if you can get it.

    This has come as a revelation to most Irish people – yet readers of this publication know that there has been a serious issue going back two decades. Unlike commercial operators, there is an onus on RTÉ to be accountable to the public as it relies on approximately €150 million in state funding via the licence fee each year.

    Hence, it has long seemed apparent that there is a clear need for transparency to avoid conflicts of interest, especially when RTÉ employees engage in extra-curricular commercial arrangements.

    “RTÉ: Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams“

    Á la CaRTÉ?

    Cassandra Voices has long since called on RTÉ to release an easily accessible register of interests, as occurs with personnel who work at the BBC. Yet RTÉ have steadfastly refused to countenance such a notion – and for that, they are now having to answer.

    It is now of crucial importance to assess whether a Freedom of Information (FOI) request filed by Cassandra Voices with RTÉ in 2018 was answered with full and proper disclosure, as required by law.

    At the time, RTÉ were asked to disclose records of payments, or payments-in-kind, from car dealership to leading RTÉ stars, approved by RTÉ ’s management since January 1st, 2017 under the Personal and Public Activities Guidance.

    RTÉ’s FOI officer responded to say there was no record of any such payments or payments-in-kind. That FOI request was filed with RTÉ following an article by this writer, in which we outlined instances where RTÉ presenters had vilified other road users, notably cyclists – without making it clear to their audiences that they had ‘side-deals’ with car companies.

    It seemed obvious to us that there was an ongoing culture of side-deals with car companies, especially given there had been previous public references to this by the then Labour TD, Tommy Broughan.

    In hindsight, it was very brave of Broughan to raise the topic, given that TDs depend on media coverage to be elected. Today it turns out, courtesy of the Independent that there are in fact numerous side-deals between many RTÉ personnel and car companies. How credible is the FOI officer’s claim in 2018 that no such deals existed when asked by this small, independent media outlet?

    BMW i3

    Buy a Car to Save the Environment…

    The real problem is not that personnel have enjoyed such arrangements, but that there is a lack of transparency – and that this coincides with an apparent de facto black-out of transport issues being covered in an adequate manner.

    Dublin has been rated as the worst European capital among thirty for public transport by Greenpeace in 2023. Moreover, last year the OECD issued a stern assessment that castigated the Irish authorities for transport policy that is dependent on electric cars and mega-projects.

    Yet there seems to have been little probing by RTÉ into the strategic issues underpinning this malaise. Instead we find the blithe assumption that the airport metro will be a panacea, and in the meantime, sure why not buy an electric car to save the environment?

    New cars, by their nature, are of course bad for the environment – and electric cars bring their own set of problems, not least issues relating to mining for batteries, disposal of same, and, potentially, greater erosion of road surfaces, arising from the increased weight.

    In many instances, it may make sense to keep an older vehicle, used infrequently, on the road – rather than buying a new car.

    It is understandable, if lamentable, that commercial media should shy away from damning stories as it may scare advertisers. That is why the role of a public broadcaster working in the public interest is so important.

    Train In Connolly Station – Dublin.

    Fail Rail

    A good example of how RTÉ operates is how they covered the ‘re-opening’ of the railway that passes through the Phoenix Park tunnel in Dublin. That railway connects the two main railway termini in Dublin, Heuston and Connolly Stations, linking the Cork and south-west commuter line from Heuston, through the north city centre, onto the Sligo and north-west commuter line that runs into Connolly.

    The railway has been present for over a century, and for years, carried passenger trains between the two termini – provided the trains were empty. At the same time, Irish Rail, were proposing a multi-billion euro tunnel, DART Underground, so as to create a new link from Heuston around to the lines linking into Connolly.

    Hence there was a line that could have been used, which Irish Rail were effectively refusing to use – but were instead proposing to spend billions. Why wasn’t RTÉ probing this matter?

    Ultimately, the Phoenix Park line was brought into use in 2017, but the new operation is not without problems. Most obvious is that although trains now run between Connolly and Heuston Stations, the services do not stop at Heuston Station – and instead simply fly by an idle platform!

    Although the new service passes through some of the most densely populated areas in the state, such as Ballyfermot, Inchicore, Cabra, and Phibsborough – the train only stops once in fifteen kilometres at Drumcondra, between Connolly and Park West Stations. A fit-for-purpose public broadcaster would surely have examined the issues involved, flagged to the RTÉ Dublin correspondent John Kilraine at the time.

    Instead, having studiously ignored the existence of this railway for many years, on the day of the re-opening of the tunnel to passenger services, the matter was simply presented as a ‘good news’ story.

    The modus operandi of RTÉ in this instance appears to have amounted to a suppression of the facts, until state policy mandated a change, where upon it was a case of ‘hooray for happy days’. Such an approach is not good enough. Irish Rail would not have been able to obscure the existence of that key railway had RTÉ been doing its job properly.

    Irish Independent, 2008.

    UnchaRTEd territory?

    It remains to be seen if RTÉ staff can redeem the reputation of the state broadcaster. This week’s outings to the Dáil did not inspire much confidence – particularly when the Chief Financial Officer was unable to recall his own payment levels; two hundred thousand euro, as we subsequently learned.

    As RTÉ correspondent Paul Cunningham observed, it turns out that there has been a ‘special arrangement for special people’.

    Although Cassandra was the lone voice raising such unpopular questions a few years ago, the levee has now properly broken, and it has emerged there have been all sorts of ‘side-deals’ and unusual accounting procedures that have facilitated junkets, luxury outings, ‘freebie cars’ and hidden payments. It will be interesting to see what else comes out. The public deserves a lot better from its national broadcaster.

    Feature Image: Daniele Idini