Hope, Suspicion And Hate

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Fine Gael leadership candidates Simon Coveney (left) and Leo Varadkar (right) on the hustings last week

Of the choice awaiting Fine Gael…

Gene Kerrigan writes:

…In the real world, the great majority work because we want to work, and it pays better than the dole, and it opens possibilities for the future.

The great majority of us respect one another. We are occasionally let down, but mostly we recognise ourselves – our ambitions, our fears and our satisfactions – in the lives of our neighbours.

And where our neighbours are brought down by circumstance we wish them well, we hold fundraisers and we send them cards with flowers on them.

And when we’re occasionally brought down ourselves, we’re thankful for the helping hand that keeps us going.

We don’t share the miserable contempt and suspicion of humanity that both Varadkar and Coveney have displayed in this competition between the second-rate politician and the third rate.

These wretched people, so mistrustful of their fellow citizens, are in the process of waving goodbye to a beloved Taoiseach.

A Taoiseach who lost an election in 2007, couldn’t get a majority in 2011, took a hammering in 2016, who helped fashion a prosecutorial system that can’t prepare statements for a trial; who presides over hospitals where people die on trolleys in noisy corridors; who can’t keep track of the number of scandals that have afflicted the police force; who still seems complacent about the number of people sleeping on the streets..

…And as he leaves, two of those who helped him make this country what it sorrowfully has been reduced to are competing to replace him. And doing so in campaigns that offer a little hope, wrapped in a whole lot of suspicion and hate.

Is This Really The Best Fine Gael Can Offer? (Gene Kerrigan, Sunday Independent)

Earlier: Five More Days

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15 thoughts on “Hope, Suspicion And Hate

  1. I'm "alright" Jack. Mad Jack is on annual leave.

    It’s absolute garbage what’s written here
    The Taoiseach doesn’t micro manage investigations

  2. Ross

    Haha, what state has Ireland been ‘sorrowfully’ reduced to? We’re in a better position now than we ever were, outside of the unsustainable boom years. That’s even counting the huge debt we have as a result of the crash. Varadkar knows there is a sizeable number of people in the country who want everything for free and who are economically illiterate. Fighting back against the doomsday brigade is what’s needed. Stop attacking people who make money.

    1. Otis Blue

      Nice deflection.

      How about some basic level of efficiency and value in our public services?

      Or a system that works for and respects its citizens?

      Or even a modicum of accountability in Irish public life?

      Let’s start with these. We can deal with the naysayers after.

    2. Ron

      It’s ok everybody.. Ross obviously suffers from a condition called HMG (High Moral Ground). It’s estimated it affects 1 out of every 4 adults in Ireland. This guys moral ground is SO high that he doesn’t have any oxygen to breathe up there. This causes his brain to become starved which in turn fires neurons which stops the release of the chemical Seretonin. Symptoms of a lack of this chemical are usually unhealthy attention-seeking behaviours such as this guys comment. The only known cure for High Moral Ground is a healthy dose of reality, which is usually accompanied by some event in their lives that shows they are not so perfect and helps take them down a peg or two.

    3. Frilly Keane

      Here Ross
      Who da’ púc d’you think you’re fooling

      The biggest sum’ting for nothing entitlement junkies are Politicians and Senior Public Servants
      With their FU pensions and payoffs before they’re even 60
      With púc all contributions and even less productivity to show for it

      Who exactly is cheating the Irish Tax payer
      Tell it wha’
      Tisnt anyone on a Social Welfare pension

      1. kellma

        Except for my workshy ex-husband….I have first-hand experience of the unbelievable sense of entitlement and the delusions that welfare is a career choice. He is not the only one BUT I do think it has been blown out of proportion by Varadkar. Thankfully his like are fewer than we are led to believe. You just notice them more when they are there because they p you off so much.

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