Poet Theo Dorgan, who dazzled last year on The Eleventh Hour, was interviewed by Charlie Bird (sitting in for Marian Finucane) on RTE R1 on Saturday about the Quinns, Bertie, Ireland and the role of the poet. And genuinely illuminating the chat proved.

It followed an interview with Fr Brian D’Arcy about his public support of Sean Quinn.

Charlie Bird: “What do you think of the whole controversy surrounding the rally in Ballyconnell last Sunday.”

Theo Dorgan: “I think probably media study classes of the future will listen to that interview with Brian Darcy as the most extraordinary example of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds that I’ve heard in years. I find it very difficult to follow him in his equivalence of a march for victims of abuse in Dublin and a march in support of a man who took the 5,000 jobs he created – for which he is to be praised – and gambled them on the property market and lost and now feels sorry for himself. I can’t see why Brian couldn’t offer pastoral care in a personal capacity to the Quinns if they’re feeling distressed.
But quite honestly the courts of the land found that €500 million of money, owed not to Anglo but to the Irish Bank Recovery [sic] Corporation, the IBRC – our money, money we need for schools, hospitals, guards, road repairs, all of those things that make a civil society – the Quinns have decided it’s not our money, it’s theirs, in defiance of the courts, and any public figure who supports them in that is standing against the rule of law.”

Bird: “But he makes the argument…”

Dorgan: “It’s got nothing to do with compassion, this is to do with the law.”

Bird: “But let me just… He makes the argument that he was there basically as his pastoral duty and also as a friend, somebody from the area.”

Dorgan: “I’m quite sure that he’s – and he’s clearly a genuine man I just think that he’s morally very confused. You can offer pastoral care to a person… I have friends who’ve broken the law. I don’t condone their breaking the law. I will not publicly support them in their continued defiance of the law. Whatever compassion I feel for them on a personal basis, is a personal thing, and I do feel compassion, and I am aware that Brian Darcy has been in the Maze and Portlaoise, and I know people who have had great personal comfort from his human heart. In this case he made a political decision to take a public political stance in defence of a man who is defying the courts of the land. And that, I think, is a distinction he needs to reflect on, and I think in time, I think in time, because he is an honest man, I think he will come to see that there is a very important distinction.”

Bird: “OK, before – just one last question before I go on to talk about your own sort of career: Is there not the, you know, here is something, what happened in Ballyconnell last Sunday is it not maybe, you know, I don’t want to call it the urban rural divide but, you know, people in an area rooted in the soil, rooted in the earth, they want to be seen to support their own. And it could happen down in Cork, it could happen in Kerry, it could happen in any other part of the country.”

Dorgan: “I had this conversation with a friend in Ballinamore 48 hours ago. They were making the case saying ‘why are they coming after our Sean?’ My question was, well, if he was the fourth or fifth person to be prosecuted for owing money to the state, would it make a difference? And when exactly does the rule of law apply? It either does or it doesn’t. I mean, you know, a lot of people who know me will think this is a curious position for me to be taking, because you know there are many things on which I disagree with the state and would be prepared to break the law as an act of civil disobedience. But squirrelling away money, that is so badly needed, because a gamble failed.
I’ll tell you what I think. I think that Sean Quinn did an extraordinary thing in his area, in opening his quarries and opening the Slieve Russell and that – albeit that all his truck drivers were on piece work I’m told, and they drove seven days a week to make a living. But he took those livelihoods, that he had helped build up, and he felt he had the right to put all of those livelihoods on the line in a gamble that failed. So it’s not Anglo Irish took those jobs away, it’s not the IBRC or the Irish taxpayer, it’s not the High Court. Sean Quinn took those jobs and put them on the line and lost.
Now, people are hurting, they’re hurting desperately in that area. They’ve had to struggle with the reconciliation of a dying war; they’ve very few employment opportunities; they see, immediately in front of them, ‘we had jobs and they’re gone’. I think they’re blaming the wrong people.”

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