Better the Devil You Know
Today’s so-called “historic” vote held to find a leader to steer the supposed “largest part in Ireland” descended into what was inevitably going to be a bland and murky affair. The media speculation, adulation and hype ahead of the confidence motion in Enda Kenny today was nothing short of a blessing in disguise for Brian Cowen as he slipped away to keep the country going at meetings in Brussels. Fine Gael brought the nation’s media gaze upon them only to flip flop on such a boring and unnecessary question – who should ‘lead’ Fine Gael. The fact that no one really cares didn’t seem to bother them. Deciding whether to choose Bruton over Kenny is much like tossing a ten-cent-piece – two sides of the same coin.
In the end, it fell to party Chairman and Galway TD Pádraig McCormack to bring the news no one was in any doubt about – Enda Kenny won. And in true cloak and dagger fashion, the actual result wasn’t defined in the number of votes cast for each. So as some speculate the margin of difference was as much as six, I suspect it’s much closer to even than that. This was really a contest of who could keep the status quo. As a result, Fine Gael is very firmly divided tonight – and will be for some time to come.
Richard Bruton took the under hand of the party leader in an awkward pose on the plinth outside Leinster House in a move to show the country that the wounds were healed. But the rift is palpable. Those who lost today’s vote now face working with a leader they publicly castrated over the past few days. For Bruton himself, the next logical step now is to resign. To serve again in a Kenny cabinet would undermine his principles and show him in a faltered light. Likewise the likes of Leo Varadkar who’s ambitions are known to all will now have to consider their position carefully.
From an elective standpoint, Fine Gael are now the blunt side of a double-edged sword. An unknown quantity. A chip pan on low heat with the cover on. This is not the end of the ambitions of those who wish to oust the West of Ireland leader from the party. Haughey had the night of the long knives, Kenny now has the summer of discontent part 2. This will not go quietly into the night, nor will it vanish without a fight. Kenny will live on, but for how long?
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read moreConfidence in Cowen
Well the hardly surprising word from Dáil Éireann this evening is that Brian Cowen has survived along with the Fianna Fáil coalition government in a confidence vote overshadowed by the shadowy figures in the shadow cabinet. While ‘Fwinne Gwael’ have been crumbling apart in even mounds of political rubble all day, Brian sat back in the Dáil and took it all on the chin. Even the ramblings of former Labour golden boy Ruairí Quinn didn’t knock a feather out of the man in charge in Ireland. Cowen won praise from Brian Lenihan, a nod to the support he enjoys from his number two, unlike the Enda / Bruton saga.
So my predicition now is that Fianna Fáil will continue unabashed in government for the rest of 2010. There’s a nice long break for the summer coming up and Fine Gael have to find out which decade they lost their soul in and hopefully they can find Dr. Evil and his “Time Machine” to retrieve it. I can’t see Enda surviving on Thursday, nor can I see Bruton leading a split party for too long. The next poll will no doubt show Labour dip in support again as the questions on their “policies” start to bubble to the surface.
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read moreEnda’s Last Grasp
Enda Kenny is on the way out. The slippery slope that he’s been see-sawing on since he became leader way back when has finally gotten slipperier, with Richard ‘Dick’ Bruton pouring a fresh coat of engine oil on it over the weekend. Enda saw the red flags and took out the political shot gun and fired it squarely at the so-called ‘heave’ today and let fly at Bruton, taking him to task as the leader of this movement against the man from Mayo and sacking him today.
This has now resulted in an element of emerging backers showing clearly the divide between Fine Gael. The party of the aristocracy, the old money and the foreign imports is now in a battle royale that will rock it to its core. In the blue corner, we have Richard Bruton, John’s brother who has a yearning to lead the deflating baloon that is Ireland’s “largest” political party. He has backers from all corners in Dublin, some who’ve not even put their head above the parapet. In the other blue corner, we have Enda ‘Inda’ Kenny. The grandfather of the Dáil and now the longest serving politician in Ireland today, Mayo’s answer to Charlie Haughey is a man with an odd haircut, a strange Cashel-barr accent and a penchant for making stupid statements. He’s receiving support from the country lads and no doubt will see support from fellow Mayo luddites like John O’Mahony and Michael ‘Shout if you can’t hear it’ Ring.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Enda Kenny will never be Taoiseach. This is even now more apparent. However what I hadn’t banked on is that it’s now seriously doubtful that Richard Bruton will ever be Taoiseach – let alone leader of Fwinne Gwael. A compromise candidate will have to be selected in the next few weeks to breathe life into this strange party of oddballs. The Dublin side of the party will suggest either Brian Hayes or Leo Varadkar with the country boys backing the likes of Simon ‘Should’ve Gone to Specsavers’ Coveney and probably someone else (to be honest, I don’t know enough names in FG to be able to mention them here).
This is the End-a of the lads. Captain and First Mate will end up retiring shortly because of the damage they do. And it’ll be up to the Silver Fox Frank Flannery to clean up the mess in the media.
diarmy
read moreRTÉ Fail in Europe, AGAIN!
Well congratulations to Germany and that really annoying girl Lena. In a landmark result for the ESC, Germany came from nowhere to win in Oslo with a song reminiscent of Lily Allen and Dita Von Teese. The slight annoying girl took the competition by storm with an awful song and a terrible performance, ensuring that Europe’s most wealthy country will get to host the juggernaut that is the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011.
While the UK came dead last with yet another terrible Pete Waterman classic, Ireland failed to move beyond second place for most of the night’s nauseating results show. After a few late charitable donations from some unlikely candidates, Ireland left the competition with a measly 25 points in 3rd last position. Lena may have one of the most successful songs in the former Reichstadt but Ireland’s entry, while gaining the first standing ovation of the night, failed to woo the interest of the European super-states.
Here’s where RTÉ played their part – they’re responsible for our entrant. Ireland stood firmly behind Niamh Kavanagh, a former winner, but our enthusiasm for a revisit of the ESC to a recession-thronged Ireland wasn’t enough to captivate the optimism of Eastern Europe – the bulk of votes in the ESC. As posted on Thursday, RTÉ fielded an awful set of candidates on the Late Late leaving only one which would ever be voted on. Yes I believe a conspiracy was a-foot here, and at the time, I too drank the Kool Aid.
But the words of Johnny Logan that night are burning my ears tonight, as I realised he knew that Niamh’s song, a ballad about nothing at all that sounded suspiciously like a Céline Dion number, wouldn’t win. Johnny of course should’ve been consulted, as he is quite popular in countries like Germany and the former Eastern Block countries. But RTÉ’s refusal to talk to the 3-time winner – publicly acknowledged by Logan himself on the Late Late and in the media in general – goes to the core of the problem here. RTÉ seem not to want to win the Eurovision. Pushing out the boat last year with a slightly edgy performance of ‘Et-cetera’ which failed to qualify led the team at the national broadcaster to wheel out the old tried-and-trusted ballad. ‘It’s for You’ was in good company this evening, but I’m sure that aside from the Belarussian Butterflies and the Waterman wash-out, Ireland failed to get out of the bottom three.
It’s now time for a quick tribunal of enquiry into the method of choosing a Eurovision entry in Ireland. Terms of reference should include, ‘Who decided on the songs which went on the Late Late?’, ‘Did RTÉ sufficiently advertise the song competition to all people who wanted to enter?’, ‘Why did RTÉ not consult properly with Johnny Logan on the type of song needed to garner points?’, ‘Who decided that Niamh should wear a purple dress and be supported by two male backing singers who couldn’t sing?’.
The way I see it, as long as RTÉ is allowed to run this sham of a Eurosong competition her, Ireland won’t win ever again. Had an act such as Lena been presented to the Motely Montrose Crew, it’d have been hushed up in my opinion. Lordi won for Finland with ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’ but I doubt a similar entrant would have been supported by the authorities here – same with the semi-bondage outfit of the Turkish entry this year.
Are we really to believe that there are no good-looking, stunning, sexy, attractive women in Ireland who can sing?? No offence to Niamh this evening, but she was competing with beauties from Ukraine, Romania, Armenia and others who failed to qualify. Germany too, while incredibly annoying, had a very attractive entrant. If Ireland isn’t ready to play the sex-game that is the beauty contest in Europe, we should no longer force entrants to degrade themselves in Europe. I actually feel sorry for Niamh because I don’t believe RTÉ thought she’d win. Someone of her stature should not have been, in my opinion, stitched up like this.
But despite this, had Ireland won, I don’t believe RTÉ could’ve topped the Norwegian production. We may have the location in the Aviva Stadium, the O2 or even in Croke Park, but we don’t even have a decent HD production here. Switching between BBC HD and RTÉ this evening demonstrated that. Graham Norton did the BBC proud with his commentary performace, while Marty Whelan provided the odd giggle of shame for Irish viewers. The quality of the visual production, cinematography, visual effects and design creativity would’ve been stifled by such examples of bad television production as the Late Late, St. Patrick’s Day Parade coverage and other hideous broadcasts such as Fair City, the Craig Doyle show and, though much improved, the News.
I’m annoyed.
diarmy
read moreEircom NGB Hates Kerry
There’s a lot on DDN about how Eircom fail time and time again to provide broadband to rural Ireland. In fact, there’s a lot on almost every tech-related blog about how broadband is missing from rural Ireland. However, Eircom, everyone’s favourite crap ISP / national telco, has recently shown its true colours. The shades of gray that turned from blue are really tinged with bias and a tendency to neglect.
We’ve all seen the latest advertisements on TV about the loveable hip and cool wannabe ‘Jim’ from Eircom. In one ad he tells a customer who complains about disconnected cables that resetting the router will solve the problem, neglecting to mention how the little fecker of a child she has who disconnected the cables would have rendered a reset useless without reconnecting the friggin cables. We also see ‘Jim’ looking out the window of his space age office at trees as he tries to up-sell a customer to a phoney (pun) ‘bundle’ which masks an unfair line rental charge that the customer gets no return on and is among the highest in Europe. Lately we’ve seen ‘Jim’ do a ‘Minority Report’ on some of the products Eircom peddle. Real classy!
But since last week, a new ad started appearing on the nation’s tv screens, promising something called “Next-Generation Broadband” or “NGB” as the trendy blondes in marketing have called it. The titillating and tantalising mentioning of ‘fiber-network’ in the ad would have the viewer believe that Eircom have finally copped on that copper is shite. Oh no. Next Generation Broadband according to Eircom is about reducing contention ratios. That’s fantastic, but it’s so 2005. I guess it was too much to hope for.
So tonight I decided to check out their flashy microsite at www.eircom.net/ngb only to find something a little disturbing. NGB is being rolled out between now and December and parts of Dublin are apparently already in service. Hmmm, I thought – no surprise there and they’ve hardly laid fiber to the door so it’s still copper. But to my shock and horror as I checked the rest of the country, I came across something even MORE disturbing. THEY’VE COMPLETELY BLANKED THE COUNTY OF KERRY! How the fuck can this be? I’m sorry for swearing, but this is a national disgrace. Every one of the other 25 counties in Ireland is covered in some way. Even Leitrim. But Kerry gets nothing. Nothing West of Mallow gets the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ treatment, never mind the tantalising orange of ‘now enabled’.
I’m sorry but this is just a disgrace. Ireland’s most popular tourism county is Kerry. Almost all of the national conventions held by unions and political parties end up in Killarney at some stage. The two highest mountains in Ireland are in Kerry. Fungi is Ireland’s most famous animal attraction. Dingle is a favourite town of most Irish people including celebrities like Matt Cooper, Bertie Ahern and the late Charles J. Haughey. But Eircom doesn’t see Kerry. Way back when I was living there, Ballaghaderreen in Roscommon had broadband before Dingle – a town of twice the size! Geography or no geography, you cannot disenfranchise an entire county when you’re serving 25 out of the 26 we have left! I’m so pissed right now!
diarmy
read moreCowen Wolf's Blitzer
Brian Cowen visited the CNN Situation Room while on his mission to the USA this week. While it seemed to slip by me, I caught the video on the Fianna Fáil website from a twitter link posted by @fiannafailparty.
Check it out here: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviews Taoiseach Brian Cowen – Fianna Fáil Website
Cowen sits down with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and in a few short minutes, Blitzer focuses on all that is bad in Ireland at the moment. But Cowen seems to have held it together long enough, and the Irish handshake at the end was a nice touch. Can’t imagine Enda Kenny being in that chair though – too much looking into the past for CNN’s viewership.
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read moreFollow @diarmy
