Could 26 February be the date of #GE2016?

The #marriageequality count at Cork City Hall, 2015. Speculation on an election date has been rife, with yesterday's Red C Sunday Business Post prompting some commentators to suggest it would be held before Christmas in order for Government parties to capitalise on the increase in their support. Galway journalist Enda Cunningham tweeted last week [...]

2018-12-01T09:55:47+00:00 September 14th, 2015|Categories: Opinion|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Women and work… and Leo Varadkar

Leo Varadkar TD at a Fine Gael press conference during the 2011 General Election Campaign. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A straw poll of friends and colleagues a recently revealed that many of the women I know are the primary – or the only – breadwinners in their families. The recession has caused a huge amount [...]

Make that empathy work

It’s been a strange week. I read an article in the Irish Times yesterday in which the journalist Michael Harding professed his shame and horror at being Irish, after the awful news broke about Savita Halappanavar. I think we all felt a little bit of that last week. To see him criticised on social media as [...]

2012-11-22T16:08:24+00:00 November 22nd, 2012|Categories: Opinion|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Hand-wringing and head-shaking

Fianna Fáil Press Office Billy Kelleher TD Spokesperson on Health 13 June 2012 Symphysiotomy victims should not be barred from civil action by statute of limitations – Kelleher Fianna Fáil Health Spokesperson Billy Kelleher has welcomed the publication of the report on Symphysiotomy in Ireland by Professor Oonagh Walsh. Deputy Kelleher said: “This first part of this report gives a very concise history of this procedure in Ireland and across Europe. The report says that the procedure was used in the majority of cases in an emergency and did assist with saving babies lives in particular before caesarean sections became common practice. The report says symphysiotomy "was wrongly used in a number of cases". “In the larger Maternity hospitals such as the Coombe, Rotunda and Holles street it was used very infrequently, 0.36% of cases (7 out of 5,874 births) in the Rotunda. It seems to have been used more frequently in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and the last case was reported in 1984 when most of the other hospitals would have stopped using it in the 1960's. The fact that it was still being used in 1984 should be investigated further as it seems totally unacceptable when alternative life-saving treatments were in common use by then. “Judge Maureen Harding Clarke investigated cases of women in this same hospital who had hysterectomies unnecessarily and this was done in a very swift non-confrontational manner. Minister Reilly should look at this model when the final recommendations are made.” The second part of this report will contain recommendations. Deputy Kelleher concluded that “there is no doubt that that these women should not be prohibited from taking civil cases by the statute of limitations.”

Political doublespeak, waffle, spin... call it what you will. It's incessant.

Politicians moving motions of congratulations, condolence, sympathy, at local authority meetings where nobody cares and they are simply wasting time they should be formulating policy and making decisions.

Politicians making vague statements - see previous post re Enda Kenny talking about "google for trees" when visiting Cork.

And politicians issuing press releases purely to be in on something. The very odd time, they have something useful to add. More often than not they are trying to involve themselves in a story that they have nothing to do with, that they have never contributed to in any meaningful way, and that they never intend to help with, really. But it's 99% perception, isn't it?

I got a press release yesterday from Fianna Fáil health spokesperson (and my local TD, who has never once canvassed my house in 2 years) Billy Kelleher, about the symphysiotomy scandal.

I watched Vincent Browne on Tuesday night along with thousands of other absolutely horrified viewers.

The dignity of the victim on that show was almost unbearable.

And we followed up on it for today's paper, with the story of a Cork woman on the front page. Her husband was justifiably angry about their treatment by politicians, who came and went, always making sure to get their name in the story.

Now.

Saying that someone "should not be statute barred" from pursuing a claim in court, is like saying the sky shouldn't be blue, we should have ink flowing through our veins instead of blood, and eating lots of chocolate shouldn't make you fat.

This is probably the most insulting press release I've ever received.

Reciting the content of the report, indulging in some headshaking, and generally bemoaning the state of the world.

Why on EARTH would I print that, in a story about the brutality suffered by thousands of women for whom justice has never been done?

You tell me.




It's nothing new

During Tuesday night's Prime Time programme about how carers and their loved ones are suffering under cutbacks, I watched Twitter for commentary on the show. It's a great way of monitoring how people are reacting to a TV programme or an ongoing debate, and the huge amount of comments on the subject showed that [...]

2011-06-02T12:26:50+00:00 June 2nd, 2011|Categories: Opinion|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Get on with it

The latest economic monitor report produced by Cork City Council tells us that unemployment in Metropolitan Cork increased by just 1.2 per cent between the end of 2009 and the end of 2010. There was a boost of 3.7 per cent between quarter three 2010 and quarter four (probably largely due to seasonal employment). [...]

2011-05-03T16:19:21+00:00 May 3rd, 2011|Categories: Opinion|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |