THURSDAY
On Netflix
I ran out of space last week when making streaming recommendations. Another Netflix production recently recommended to us was ‘The Tinder Swindler’.
This is the true story of an audacious conman who swindled a number of women out of millions of dollars (he’s still on the loose). It’s well worth watching.
FRIDAY
What went wrong?
For almost five years, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs have lived in almost perfect harmony, co-existing happily in the Dáil chamber, in TV and radio studios too, probably even sharing bicycle clips/helmets in that €336,000 bike shed.
How then can one explain the extraordinary outbreak of tension that arose when RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime invited Thomas Byrne (FF) and Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) into studio today to discuss political matters?
I was stunned (and mystified) when the duo began to bicker – squabbling over their respective parties’ achievements. Hildegarde gave out about Thomas’ party and Thomas responded in kind.
After those five years of beautiful harmony, it was such a shock, akin to the Waltons or the Brady Bunch arguing over Dinner.
For the past five years, I’ve been under the impression that FF and FG are joyous bedfellows who work seamlessly together, and yet here they were, squabbling in public. At times, it sounded almost phony. All very baffling!
Unless it has anything to do with Simon calling that election…
FRIDAY
No carpooling…
Speaking of Simon, the Taoiseach went to Áras an Uachtaráin today to ask President Michael D Higgins to dissolve the Dáil, thus officially kick-starting the General Election campaign.
Shortly afterwards, Simon headed to the Aviva Stadium to attend the Ireland-New Zealand rugby international. And sure he was barely in the stadium when Michael D also arrived… but they travelled there in separate cars! Honestly, we need more joined up thinking from our leaders!
SATURDAY
Heated debate
Speakings of cars and carbon footprint… when former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan attended his last Cabinet meeting this week, he brought a series of memos relating to various aspects of climate change. But, he told the Irish Independent today, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael ministers roundly rejected his proposals.
“It was heated” he said of the discussion – probably an apt adjective given the subject.
SUNDAY
Field of dreams
Seamus Duke and Bernie O’Farrell were in Tuam for the Roscommon People and their coverage of Padraig Pearses’ fantastic win today is in our sports section.
I settled for TG4, seasoned with a bit of Willie Hegarty and Nigel Dineen (on Shannonside). Pearses were superb in the first half, recovering from two points behind early on to lead 1-8 to 0-3 at half-time. It was a stunning performance.
I missed the last few minutes on TV, as I had to pop into town. When Jack Nevin confirmed Pearses’ win, scoring into an empty net because the Corofin goalkeeper had joined his team’s attack, Willie was in his element. Describing the ‘keeper’s absence from goal, he compared it to a householder leaving all the doors and windows open. Then he compared it to sheep wandering into a neighbour’s field. This was a great day for Roscommon GAA, and there was certainly nothing sheepish about Pearses’ performance.
MONDAY
House not in order…
Oh dear. Tonight’s ‘Upfront with Katie Hannon’ Housing Special (RTE One) was far from enlightening. Instead, it was a series of predictable utterances from the usual suspects.
Six political panellists trotted out the familiar statistic-heavy claims and counter-claims, lobbing numbers and projections into the air as the studio audience and those of us tuned in at home watched in ever-increasing weariness.
As the promises dripped from their mouths, panel members just fell short of saying ‘You’ll need a girder there… that would depend on when we finish the house we’re working on… oh, anything is possible… yeah, we could make a nice feature wall there… well, that would be up to the electrician… yeah, no problem… eh, I’ll get back to you with a price on Monday’.
The ever-dapper Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien confidently outlined what he considers to be the progress being made, while quenching dissent from his peers at every opportunity; beside him, until being unleased about half an hour in, an impatient Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit) had sat like a frustrated dog under orders not to bark at the postman; Fine Gael’s unflappable Paschal Donohoe looked like he might be regretting not taking a big job in Europe; Rory Hearne of the Social Democrats threatened to steal the show, Labour leader Ivana Bacik a more reserved and less animated contributor (perhaps keeping her post-election Coalition talks options open); Eoin Ó Broin (Sinn Féin) spoke with the impatience of a man waiting to be granted entry to a boardroom after tirelessly knocking, while exclaiming through the keyhole that he has the solutions required.
There was a sideshow tonight too, which only vigilant cynics might have picked up on. It’s usual (tiresomely so) on shows like this – the BBC’s Question Time is a prime example – for politicians to, without fail, namecheck a member of the public when they’ve asked a question (doing so casts the politician in a very positive light).
E.G. ‘Tony’ in the audience reveals he’s been on a hospital waiting list for six months, and he wants reform in that sector. Politician X responds: ‘Firstly, can I thank Tony for the question, and I want to empathise with… I think it was Tony? So, Tony, what my party proposes is…’
Unfortunately, on ‘Upfront with Katie Hannon’ tonight, at least two of the panellists kept getting one audience member’s name wrong. ‘Chloe’ was namechecked as ‘Cleo’, then she was Chloe again, before reverting to Cleo. Katie kept correcting the embarrassed politicians.
It’s going to be a long fortnight.
TUESDAY
Friends or enemies?
Now Jack Chambers (Fianna Fáil) and Hildegarde Naughton (again, and still of Fine Gael) are arguing like children in a schoolyard (see also ‘Friday’) on Virgin Media.
All of a sudden, previously inseparable Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs are behaving like drunken cowboys crashing through the swinging doors of a saloon in the wild west. Not sure they’re kidding anyone.
