Yearly Archives: 2016

doug

Doug Leddin writes:

Yesterday evening I shared a story about my struggle over the past 10 years with depression and trying to encourage others to open up and talk to friends and family.

In 12 hours its been shared a few thousand times and watched over 200,000 times and I am getting so many positive comments from friends,family and strangers.

[Dublin radio station] Spin1038 shared it off their own back and it made me think maybe I should reach out to news outlets I read every day. I am a big reader of  Broadsheet and think the video (above) and article [link below] could help some people. Thank you.

Doug Leddin (facebook)

ffroscommon

dan

From top: Roscommon Fianna Fáil General Election literature 1977; Dan Boyle

It is time to end the necrophiliac practice of Irish politics [canvassing at funerals].

It diminishes us all.

Dan Boyle writes

As the prospect of another election in 2016 slightly recedes, I’d like to give some attention to one of the more distasteful aspects of Irish political campaigning.

A good friend recounted to me the antics of a very successful, and renowned candidate, from the recent general election.

It was his habit to attend as many local funerals as possible, in order to place his colourfully liveried 4 x 4 in front of the funeral cortège to allow for maximum public visibility.

I would have had my own experience of this, if not as blatant. Before my election I would have worked as a community development worker for Muintir na Tire in County Cork.

A high profile, key volunteer with the organisation would have experienced a terrible family event, when a teenage son would have succumbed to cancer. The funeral was a major event in the most remote of rural parishes.

Ten minutes into the funeral mass a local Fianna Fáil TD put into play his well practiced routine. At this time he deliberately and calculatedly entered the church. He walked up the centre aisle looking for the highest available seat. All in the name of maximum visibility. I have despised the man ever since.

A third distasteful incident was listening to the tributes in Dáil Éireann on the death of Sean Doherty, former Cathoirleach of the Seanad, Minister for Justice and TD for Roscommon. He of journalist phone tapping fame, and probably more famous for his Nighthawks TV interview that stuck the final knife in the back of Charlie Haughey.

A Roscommon TD recounted a story to the Dáil that he felt was humorous.

The story concerned the rivalry between Doherty and his Fianna Fáil stablemate, Terry Leyden. The death of a person of status in Roscommon made all public representatives adjust their schedules accordingly.

Sean Doherty managed to attend the funeral. When sympathising with the widow he needed to find out where he stood as regards his rival.

“Has Terry been?” he asked when offering his ‘sympathies’.

“He came to the removal last night Sean,” the widow responded.

Slightly panicking at this answer, he was forced to think on his feet.

“I’m glad. I had asked him to come along,” replied Sean, ‘honour’ thus being retrieved.

Jesus wept I thought as I was listening to this. It elicited laughter in the chamber, but to me it illustrated so many of the things that continue to be wrong with Irish politics.

It has always been thus and will always be thus you might say. I don’t. It is receding and is now more of a rural than an urban preoccupation.

That it exists at all reflects badly on all of us. It is time to end, to bury, this necrophiliac practice of Irish politics. It diminishes us all.

In my public career I had a strict friends, family, neighbours rule in relation to funerals. It probably cost me votes, although I don’t care if it did or not.

Seeing an end to this type of gombeenism is a funeral I would gladly attend.

Don Boyle is a former Green Party TD. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

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https://www.youtube.com/embed/lCHTvcBk_OA>

The Mighty Stef – playing farewell gigs in May

Here’s what you may need to know…

1. The Mighty Stef are a band, led by namesake Stefan Murphy. But after four albums, two EPs and a decade of gigging, they’re about to call it a day, announcing their final live dates earlier this year before assuming other projects.

2. Most recent album Year of the Horse, released in September 2014, picked up critical plaudits, and distribution via London tastemakers Rough Trade. The entire Mighty Stef discography is streaming here, a patchwork of punk, alternative, and assorted influences that maps the changes the band has undergone over the years.

3. Onward and upward for the band, however: the titular Stef is working on the debut album of new project COUNT VASELINE, Gary Lonergan is developing a live set for his solo electronic compositions, while Daniel Fitzpatrick is recording solo material with Tom Cosgrave (The Minutes) and running O’Donoghue’s Open Mic, one of Dublin’s oldest open-mic nights.

4. The band wind it up at the Empire Music Hall in Belfast on May 12, and say their goodbyes to the city that inspired the band’s existence on May 13 at Dublin’s Button Factory.

Verdict: Come out and show support for one of Irish music’s most enduring fixtures before they head for pastures new.

The Mighty Stef