“I knew It Was Likely I Would Never Work In The Gate Again”

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From top: Michael Colgan; The Gate Theatre, Dublin 1 and (clockwise from top left) Ciara Elizabeth Smyth, Ruth Gordon, Annette Clancy, Ali White, Ella Clarke and Grace Dyas;

Last night.

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth and Ruth Gordon joined Grace Dyas, Annette Clancy, Ali White and Ella Clarke in sharing their experiences of working with former Gate Theatre artistic director Michael Colgan who stepped down from his position at the Gate last year, after 33 years.

This brings to six the number of women who have made claims about Mr Colgan who was the longest-serving chief executive in Irish theatre.

Grace Dyas and Annette Clancy’s statements featured in last weekend’s Sunday Times and Irish Mail on Sunday – though the Irish Mail on Sunday did not name Mr Colgan.

The Sunday Times also covered claims made by Ali White. RTÉ has yet to cover the women’s testimonies.

The Gate Theatre received €860,000 in state funding in 2016. Mr Colgan was paid €231,000, including salary, expenses and pension payments in the same year.

Last night’s Ms Smyth, a theatre manager, recalled instances of Mr Colgan allegedly  inappropriately touching her while working in his office.

Ms Smyth writes:

“I cannot begin to document the plethora of inappropriateness and bullying that I experienced while I was in the Gate. Not all from Michael Colgan either. When it was him, with me, it was mostly behind closed doors.

“Constant touching of my thighs, back and very occasionally my bum while I sat beside him typing from his dictation. He made frequent comments about the size of my breasts and whether or not I’d contemplate a breast reduction, considering my small frame.

“He commented on other women and asked me if I thought they’d give blowjobs or what I thought that they fucked like. He showed me pictures of his girlfriend in her underwear and asked me what I thought of her ass. He would scream, swear and use physical intimidation if anything I did was deemed incompetent.

Ms Smyth also told how, while working as a PA to Mr Colgan and during an audition where other people were present:

“He – Mr Colgan – then drew his hand up high in the air, as if he was going to slap me. I put my hand out to stop him and said quietly, “Michael, don’t.” At this stage I imagined everyone was looking at us, but I didn’t take my eyes off him to check. Michael then said “Would you ever fuck off; I wasn’t going to hit you”. I smiled and turned on my heel to leave. The second I turned he walloped me on the ass.

“It caught me off guard and force of the slap caused me to stumble forward. I turned to look at him and the only word I could manage to say was his name.

“I checked to see did the group of men see what had happened and although their bodies were facing us, they had turned their heads in different directions. Mortified, I made for the door and again Michael grabbed me, around the wrist this time. “Sit in on this audition will you, I want to get your opinion on this actress”. This, I felt, was a consolation prize for the slap. A prize Michael knew I would be delighted by, under normal circumstances. I had once told him that if couldn’t get a job in theatre, I’d sweep the floors of the Gate.

Ms Smyth said she went to the office of the Gate’s Theatre Manager, David Quinlan, to make a complaint.

Ms Smyth said:

“As I spoke, the colour drained from his face and he became noticeably more reserved. He asked – had I told Michael not to do that. Yes, I said. He then told me that I needed to make my “boundaries clear” with Michael. I asked why David thought that I needed to tell Michael that he shouldn’t hit me. David said something to the effect of – if it happened, of course he shouldn’t hit me.

“Ignoring this comment, I asked what I could do as I didn’t want this to happen again. I was told I could write a letter of complaint, which would go to the Gate Board and they may decide a course of action. “But Michael is on the board” I said. “Yes”, he said. I left his office.”

Ms Smyth said she then went to Mr Colgan and raised the matter with him.

Ms Smyth claims Mr Colgan replied: “But darling I hit my daughters on the ass.”

Ms Smyth told him she wasn’t one of his daughters, but an employee, and that he shouldn’t hit her. She said he apologised.

Ms Smyth said:

“Unfortunately, in the weeks that followed, he ridiculed me for doing this. In meetings with the Heads of Department, while I was typing beside him and in front of people who I was meeting for the first time. Always in public. He would raise his hand as if to hit me, then punch me on the arm and say “Oh we can’t hit Ciara”. In one meeting, when he did that, I looked around the room at all the Heads of Department and everyone was smiling. Some people laughed. I was angrier with them than I ever was with him.”

Theatre worker Ruth Gordon claimed last night that, during an interview, Mr Colgan asked her “How do I know you’re not going to go off in 18 months and have a load of babies?”

She also claimed he mimicked her during the interview.

Ms Gordon wrote:

“I told a few people in the upper echelons of theatre in Galway and Ireland – a manager of a large theatre company, a venue manager, and a festival manager, all of whom knew me and whom I trusted.

They all felt terrible for me and were appalled, but not surprised, by Michael Colgan’s behaviour, but they were at a loss as to what action could be taken that wouldn’t have a negative impact on my career.”

On October 18, UCD lecturer and trained holistic massage therapist Annette Clancy wrote on Facebook about an interview she underwent for a manager position at the Dublin Theatre Festival in the early 1990s. She was programme administrator of the festival at the time.

Mr Colgan was on the interview panel and Ms Clancy recalled Mr Colgan saying to her: “Well I wish you would give me a massage someday.”

Ms Clancy later took a case against the festival because of the interview process as a whole while Colgan’s remarks were referred to by Ms Clancy’s union representative in the taking of that case. Ms Clancy got a substantial settlement from the festival and agreed to a “voluntary redundancy”.

Last Friday evening, director, performer and activist Grace Dyas claimed she had the following exchange with Mr Colgan at the launch of the Dublin Theatre Festival last year.

Michael Colgan: “You’ve lost so much weight, I’d almost have sex with you”

Grace Dyas: “Michael! You can’t say that to me!”

Colgan: “What! I didn’t say I would fuck you. You haven’t lost that much weight.”

Later, after Ms Dyas told him this was inappropriate, Ms Dyas said Mr Colgan said: “Well Grace, as my mother always said, you won’t get very far in life if you can’t take a joke.”

Mr Colgan then admitted to Jason Byrne, a friend of Grace’s, that he did say it, and added “but it was a joke”.

Ms Dyas then says Mr Colgan got to his feet and roared at here, saying: “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. I never want to breathe the same air as you”.

After another friend of Ms Dyas’s asked him to calm down, Ms Dyas says he continued shouting: “She’s a pig, she’s a pig, I’d never ever, ever want to have sex with her. I wouldn’t say that about that woman, she’s a big woman I would never say that about a big woman.”

Limerick choreographer Ella Clarke wrote that during the four/five-night preview run for Sweeney Todd at the Gate in 2007, during which she was the choreographer, Mr Colgan was rude and hostile towards her.

Then, she claims, on the opening night of the show, he groped her buttock as he passed her.

Ms Clarke wrote:

“I choose to believe he didn’t recognise me because I wasn’t wearing my work gear. The thought of the groping being a calculated humiliation of me is painful. I did not call him out about the groping. I was shocked.

“I tell this story because it is my opinion that my career has been limited by this kind of power structure, and that speaking up in whatever way I did, when I did, brought me an image that was deemed ‘difficult’. I knew it was likely I would never work in the Gate Theatre again, which I haven’t.”

Meanwhile, at the weekend, The Sunday Times also reported:

“Ali White, an actress who performed a series of Beckett plays at the Barbican in London in 1999 for the Gate, claimed she was asked to change into a push-up bra, hold-up stockings and high heels for a photocall overseen by Colgan.

“The abuse of power I experienced first-hand at the photoshoot and witnessed on many occasions made me wary of him and ultimately angry that he was getting away with it,” she said.

White alleged Colgan subsequently made a lewd remark to her in public.”

We have contacted the Gate Theatre and await a response.

I’ve Been Thinking About Michael Colgan Lately….(Grace Dyas)

Previously: Barbarian At The Gate

UPDATE:

A statement from the Gate Theatre Board and Management says:

“The Gate Theatre joined with other theatrical institutions last week to condemn the issue of sexual harassment & abuse of power in the theatre world in Ireland and internationally.”

“The Gate Board and Management made it clear in our statement that we will listen to what people have to say and our aim is to foster a safe and supportive working environment in our Theatre.”

“If you have been contracted by The Gate Theatre or in our employment and wish to talk to us about any concerns please contact us on confidential@gate-theatre.ie.”

“Any experience shared will be treated in the utmost confidence and we intend to appoint an independent professional HR advisor to handle any issues raised.”

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132 thoughts on ““I knew It Was Likely I Would Never Work In The Gate Again”

    1. realPolithicks

      That just about sums it up. The real problem at this point is that there are a lot of these pigs still in positions of power and still behaving in this manner.

  1. lolly

    well done for publishing this Broadsheet.
    regarding the other Irish Weinstein as reported by Ciara Kelly, please also publish that once it comes to light. I guessed immediately who Ciara Kelly was talking about (happy to tell you if you don’t know ;-) – you have my email!). I’d say Kelly is gathering her witnesses so they can come out at the same time. If they lose courage
    could Broadsheet perhaps take this on?. the guy will be no surprise to anyone that ever heard him interview a woman.

    1. newsjustin

      I had thought they were one and the same as Ciara Kelly’s tweets and this story came out around the same time. Obviously not.

      I wonder…

    2. martco

      more like would the Guards take him on?
      for me without further ado there’s some concrete sounding assault accusations…what’s stopping him being hauled in and interviewed by some nice detectives like today, immediately?

      ?

      1. Helga

        The Gardai? Are you serious? Sure they’re too busy faking breath tests, dealing drugs, robbing banks and covering up crime.

    3. lolly

      so I have to be careful here. to confirm what Ciara Kelly said the person has been in the media in Ireland for around 40 years. I guessed because I knew this person had made very lewd suggestions/recommendations to a friend of mine about 35 or so years ago when he gave her a lift home. she was lucky and came away relatively unscathed (although it is still a horrible memory). others over the years were not so lucky. I have heard this guy give horrible interviews to women over the years, deeply misogynistic and unpleasant person. I confirmed I had guessed correctly through a friend mine who knows Ciara Kelly. I need help to know what kind of hints I can give without being obvious!!

      1. Milo

        I really wish you would report it to the Garda rather than tease people on here. In fact why don’t you?

        1. bad@memes

          Ah, the old ‘why don’t you tell the Gardaí?’ line.
          – It doesn’t work like that and we all know it.

      2. lolly

        sorry you had to edit me Broadsheet! to the rest of ye, there were a few hints in the post above that got removed…

      3. Sham Bob

        You’d think the bit about horrible interviews with women would narrow it down enough, but unfortunately not. Still, I’m willing to give the younger practitioners of that dubious art the benefit of the doubt, they’re more awkward and unthinkingly sexist rather than sleazy. Though, in the main, so is the person I’m thinking of. Anyway, whoever it is, I hope they make him walk the plank!

    4. Happy Molloy

      Bad advice that could prejudice a trial, once the data is gathered they need to go to the guards rather than social media. The case Ciara Kelly was talking about referred to a rape remember, not just publishing how creepy someone is.

    1. pedeyw

      I also don’t recall sexual harassment as one of the charges thrown at persecuted women labelled as witches.

  2. Shayna

    I wouldn’t necessarily be a violent type, but I would kick the bejeezus out of Colgan. No man has a right to waver power over any woman in any circumstance.

          1. Mary Lambe

            That seems very nasty and indeed somewhat threatening. I’m going to have to report this comment to the Guards Milo.

    1. anne

      I was thinking the same…I’d have to be dug out of him.

      Where the fupp are all the perverts coming from lately? Or were they always there & we just weren’t hearing about them?

        1. Brother Barnabas

          Sorry.

          Fellow above me (physically, not metaphorically) has been playing Phil Collins all afternoon. I’m a little tense.

          1. martco

            ugh..hope he’s not playing the same track over n over…in the air tonight? jasus I imagine that’s used by torture specialists

        1. Milo

          All I’m dismissing is your use of the UK Daily Mail to make any point. Its the UK Daily Mail. Its another country, another matter and its the UK Daily Mail. What point were you trying to make that your only evidence was the Uk Daily Mail. Id rethink my point and look for fresh clues to back it up. They would laugh you out of court with the UK Daily Mail.

          1. Nigel

            Evidence That Woman Got Attacked In A Newspaper Dismissed Because It Consisted Of A Woman Getting Attacked In A Newspaper.

          2. Milo

            No. Evidence that a woman got attacked in the UK Daily Mail is not evidence that women don’t get heard or understood when they make claims of harassment. Its evidence that the UK Daily Mail behaves that way. For a man who usually makes an effort to be accurate, you are going full Lancelot on this one and hang the begrudgers. I admire your fervour, but you only weaken your case by a) Overstating it, and b) Using crap evidence to back your claim up. The danger with this is that you become part of the hysteria that you claim diminishes the seriousness of the cause.

          3. MoyestWithExcitement

            “Evidence that a woman got attacked in the UK Daily Mail is not evidence that women don’t get heard or understood when they make claims of harassment. Its evidence that the UK Daily Mail behaves that way.”

            Does your ability to judge individual entities on their own merits and your wisdom not to assign their characteristics to other entities extend to women, Muslims, liberals and leftists?

          4. Nigel

            Actually, you’re usually not this sloppy. All I said was ‘here’s what happens when one woman spoke up.’ Which was that she was attacked across two pages of the daily Mail. Now you can dismiss that if you like, and you have, but don’t go saying I said things I didn’t say. It was, as my first comment makes clear, a response to a link in the previous thread where someone dismissed the claims beginning to surface in Westminster as ‘hysteria,’ according to the commenter, and a ‘witch hunt,’ according to the link. If anything the attack stands out so much because in a post-Weinstein world, people seem to be actually listening.

          5. MoyestWithExcitement

            “You’re in Ireland. Please speak English.”

            I’ll take that as a no. When right wing men are accused of sexual assault, it just speaks to those individual men. When women or Muslims do anything, it speaks to all women and Muslims. Good lad.

          6. Milo

            Many other things happened when she went public. You chose to mention the daily mail and nothing else. Not the support she got, just the abuse.

            It’s a bit like the ghouls who stalk BS sniffing out the outrage so they can jump like hyenas to wring the last bit of misery from an already miserable situation. Like Paddy o Gorman scoping the queue outside Arbour Hill.

          7. Nigel

            Ye, I did. That s literally what i did. Pointed to a two-page attack on her in the Daily Mail. You’re one of those people who thinks drawing attention to something bad is worse than the bad thing itself.

          8. Nigel

            Um Milo in the previous thread to which I was referring you likened the whole thing to The Crucible, calling it a bandwagon. Now you’re giving out because I’m not accentuating the positive side of a slew of revelations about sexual misconduct?

          9. Milo

            It is precisely your type of selective reporting of information that leads to the Cruciblesque hysteria I mentioned. I am giving out because you offer yourself as a reasonable chap, and yet you are utterly biased in every utterance and thought, completely selective in the evidence your proffer, and narcissistically, fatally enchanted by the halo of your own virtue.

          10. Warden of the Snort

            It’s hardly a fatal enchantment though is it Milo?

            It might be more of a gee I look in the mirror and slap myself on the ass saying man was I virtuous today. Hardly life-threatening

          11. Nigel

            Jaysis, Arthur Milo, if I’m living in your head to this extent I hope you’re not one of them Dublin slumlords, that I’m not crowded in there in unsanitary conditions with everybody else whose existence drives you to a tizzy.

            I’m not a reporter, by the way, I don’t claim to objectivity. I notice you talked about a more positive side of this affair, but you didn’t present them as a balance, you merely attacked me. Perhaps you should reconsider whether you’re more concerned about my tone and bias than the actual story, and why it is you prioritise one over the other. What does it matter if I think I’m virtuous? Perhaps what you see as me virtue signalling is simply me responding to the things that make me angry – anger is not a balanced and unbiased emotion as your own posts make clear. You and Clamps and Warden seem more put out not by what I post but for what you suppose my reasons to be for posting. And look, I’m as guilty as anyone for making these exchanges about personalities. I’m trying to be better. More… virtuous..if you will…

          12. Sham Bob

            ‘ fatally enchanted by the halo of your own virtue’ – flaming nora, that’s one convoluted way of disguising the phrase virtue-signalling.

    1. rotide

      Is this the woman who said that it had been sorted out years ago and that the fuss about it demeaned actual victims of sexual abuse? I’m actually not sure , but that was defintely a case of someone putting their hand on someone elses knee

      1. Nigel

        That was the link I was referring to, but she didn’t specify who or which incident she was talking about, though it was weird that she took that attitude because the pattern so far since Weinstein is for these things to multiply when a few people start to speak up.

  3. TheRealJane

    So is it time for the thread to hear about how it’s only a handful of stupid so-called women and if they had anything about them they’d handle it all without whinging plus someone slapped my arse that one time and it was all grand so basically, shut up.

    1. Warden of the Snort

      One of them actually did more or less say that, she said she didn’t mind at first working with him because he was good craic and quoted Beckett, but it was the WAY she had her arse slapped that she didn’t like

      sorry I’m just having a laugh with you
      idiot

  4. rotide

    That first story sounds like bang-to-rights sexual harassment in the workplace alright. Did she go to the board in the end?

  5. Syd Differential

    Well,I be blowed.,
    I thought everyone who worked in the theatre was gay.
    The things you learn

  6. Spaghetti Hoop

    But why didn’t anyone report his behaviour at the time? I will never understand this. If a boss touched me I’d have him standing in front of an employment tribunal in no time.

    1. edalicious

      I think the point is that these were people that could destroy your career if you spoke out against them, in areas where people have very particular skills that aren’t hugely transferable, like choreographers and actors, etc.

    2. martco

      yep

      albeit that in the workplace context things can be murky sometimes but from what’s written above there’s at least seems to me some outright serious actual assault complaints to be made.

      she must goto her local station today and make a formal complaint by whatever means of assistance etc necessary. Colgan needs to be interviewed by a detective.

    3. GiggidyGoo

      Might depend on the person’s appetite for advancement in their career. I agree with you that the correct thing to do is what you say. But some may be worried about destroying (they think) their career

      1. martco

        yep, however another angle on this:
        the assaulted party (feeling under duress for whatever reasons) fails to bring this to the attention of the Guards – the assault never gets dealt with and the perp (and perhaps others around him) see that it’s a-ok to assault & continue to assault….

        right is right and wrong is wrong

        goto local station tonight and report it else you’re becoming part of the problem

        1. GiggidyGoo

          I know. Times are, or should be, different now, and a trail should be blazed to the Gardai. And if there are advancement repercussions then more public shaming should happen.

    4. Sham Bob

      ‘Hello, employment tribunal here. Sure, we can pencil you in for Wednesday afternoon. Wear something sexy. ‘

    1. mildred st. meadowlark

      To the best of my knowledge, yes it is considered to fall under the category of mental illness. But then, the term ‘mental illness’ is covers a whole spectrum of ailments.

      That said, I’m not a doctor so correct me if I have that wrong.

    2. anne

      Apparently, the likes of narassistic personality disorder, or borderline personality disorder for instance are much harder to treat than say depression or anxiety. What’s the chances of the likes of Donald Trump ever recovering from his particular personality disorders? You could have a dedicated team if psychiatrists working round the clock to make him normal and he’d still be a delusional, pathological lying, narcissist. It’s hard to treat as the likes of him believe their own lies. They don’t know they have a problem.

    3. anne

      Apparently, the likes of narassistic personality disorder, or borderline personality disorder for instance are much harder to treat than say depression or anxiety.

      What’s the chances of the likes of Donald Trump ever recovering from his particular personality disorders? Slim at best..You could have a dedicated team of psychiatrists working round the clock to make him normal and he’d still be a delusional, pathological lying, narcissist. It’s hard to treat, as the likes of him believe their own lies. They don’t know they have a problem.

          1. Lizzie

            Why are you bothering to post just to attack other people? At least Anne posts stuff worth reading even if I don’t always agree with what she says.

  7. Charlie

    I’ve met this man twice and on each occasion I totally disliked him. He was obnoxious, arrogant and impossible to work for. I subsequently informed those that contracted me that I would refuse to deal with the idiot on any further work.

  8. Lilly

    Thanks Mildred & Anne. I suspected as much. When I read the details of these encounters, I can’t help wondering how much free will MIchael Colgan was truly exercising.

    1. Lilly

      That’s not to exonerate him either, but it really is so far removed from normal that it begs the question.

      1. anne

        How far removed from normal is rape? A rapist can’t help himself? These deviants are opportunists..they know what they’re at.

        1. Warden of the Snort

          Anne hit the nail on the head here.

          These are the kind of people that if they get any smell of weakness in another person will resolutely press it home, fundamentally insecure and threatened by anyone who appears more contained than they are. Only interested in having power for its own sake and obsessed with keeping at the top of the slippy rope and telling us how great they are.

      2. Mary Lambe

        Nah it’s quite normal. Studies show that battered women keep going back to the abusers and that reinforced the psychological hold the abuser had.
        The women here all continued to work with this man after these incidents ( apart from the one who turned out for the interview) this reinforced his apparent power over them. Scumbags are prepared to go a little further than the rest of us and it’s usually not very far they have to go to be honest to keep a step ahead

  9. SDaedalus

    Not really that abnormal at all. I have worked with at least one female boss who had very similar characteristics to Colgan as described above. There were no sexual advances (though there were some extremely intrusive creepy remarks on clothes, appearance etc), there was no physical violence, but there were jokes in meetings, bizarre aggressive verbal behaviour, and general weirdness which was similar. Everyone else was terrified of her and reacted in the same way as the Gate staff.

    As with the account above, you wouldn’t know initially if it was deliberate or if she was all there at all. However having gone through it in the long-term, I can say that it was definitely deliberate and a strategic approach used by this lady to dominate, advance and maintain career supremacy. She was the same age as Colgan (though not in the same area). Possibly this type of psychological role-play was what one did to get to and stay at the top if you were a 1970s Irish graduate?!

    1. Lilly

      Dunno. At the very least such behaviour points to a total absence of empathy, which isn’t normal. Life is too short to be around that.

      1. SDaedalus

        Lily, my theory is that people like this are created at least partly by the educational system in place at the time of their school years. The Colgan experience sounds eerily similar to accounts I have heard of pre-1980s Christian brothers education.

        1. Warden of the Snort

          Possibly. I think however they have always been with us. The CBS system probably formed the ideal condition in which this kind of carry on could flourish.

        2. Lilly

          @SDaedalus – I agree with you, but I think it goes even deeper. Many people who had the exact same education managed to emerge from it, decency intact. Do you not think there was something compulsive about Colgan’s behaviour?

          1. SDaedalus

            God yes. But I think the bullying Christian Brothers education system contributed by creating the obsession with power and/or the decision to exercise power in that particular way, by using people’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Charles Haughey would be a great example of a similar type character.

            There are many great people who came out of the Christian Brothers but I’d suspect most of them were despite the education system and the ones who speak highly of it were often the ones who became like the Brothers to fit in. I’m sure there were some good educators among the Christian Brothers but there were a lot more very abusive educators.

            Yes quite possibly he finds it very difficult to refrain from behaviour which may well be a learned compulsion and he’s his own worst enemy. However he has to bear some responsibility.

          2. SDaedalus

            Oops, one other thing Lily. I was reading old interviews with Colgan last night and one of the most interesting things in them was that he studied psychology at college. I did wonder whether or not it’s not as compulsive as it seems and instead part of a tactic to gain and retain power. He has been very successful at doing that. There was a great story about how he got the Gate – there was a plan to have rotating heads and he went up to the person making the decision (architect Michael Scott) and said that is rubbish and it won’t work. You have to have very good psychological understanding to be able to pull off a gambit like that and win.

          3. Lilly

            I’ll have to read up on him. He strikes me as classic NPD; the need for admiration is palpable. The obsession with power, money and sex would necessarily involve constant strategising – hence the interest in psychology to add to his armoury. Add to that a lifetime reading people closely a) to blend in and b) to gain advantage – and the result is an unstoppable force.

      2. Mary Lambe

        ITs far more common than you think. Empathy is over rated as a psychological trait these types know when to turn it on though

        1. Lilly

          Too much empathy probably puts a person at risk of being a sucker – but on the plus side, it goes hand in hand with compassion. People without it tend to be selfish, whereas people with it are almost incapable of intentionally causing hurt. It’s definitely not a desirable trait for a wannabe Machaevali.

    2. anne

      I’ve always found bullies back right off when you stand up to them… If I don’t like someone’s tone, I’ll say it outright, dont like your tone, conversation is over. I don’t care who they are. Remarks about your appearance? I’d be saying excuse me, I find that very inappropriate, please do not comment on my appearance again.. the wagon’s head would be spinning.
      She was doing it as it was working for her..as you said people were scared of her. Just my tuppence.. : )

      1. Mary Lambe

        Says the one who has been mercilessly bullying Frilly Keane in here for years picked up a few tips along the way did you?

        1. notsoniceann

          Warden of Snort is attempting to play good cop , bad cop, the lamb and the wolf.
          Warden = Mary. They comment on the same threads and are struggling at Foundation English.

  10. Lilly

    These revelations are helping me understand why I haven’t been on a steady trajectory to the moon, career-wise. I’ve never valued a job more than the need, where it arose, to give a toxic boss a good kick in the bum. There must be a happy medium between endurance and scorched earth.

        1. Warden of the Snort

          Would the pair of ye ever give it a rest? This thread is about a serious topic, not about you

    1. Niamh

      An unstable person doesn’t successfully retain professional control of the second theatre of the state for 33 years.

      The likes of Michael Colgan,like all abusers, only ‘lose control’ when they feel it is acceptable to do so, and that they will get away with it. Hence bullying female subordinates in a male- and class-dominated industry.

      This ‘must be unstable’ argument kind of gets my goat. It really means ‘this behaviour is so bizarre to me I must Other it totally and never never never countenance the fact that actually it’s the extreme end of a spectrum of male privilege I benefit from too’.

      And, if you want to know WHY Colgan et al do it: male insecurity. Raised to see women as props to male ego, placing a lot of power in the hands of women, therefore women can potentially upset ego. Therefore seek to defensively police women. Therefore dehumanise women. This is why we get raped and killed more often. Because we are a threat to a particularly savage form of male ego. I didn’t make that up by the way – it’s basically Lacan.

      1. Pip

        But isn’t it a kind of uber security, too.
        In your nice gilded palace, surrounded by your courtiers, generously funded from the public purse and yet commercially successful too. Almost a cult, in fact.
        Thinks, I feel so good today – every day – and pretty much everything I do seems, well, pretty great.
        And sexy. They love me. They have to. I am a sort of god.

        1. anne

          eh hello.. it is male dominated, like a lot of other industries.

          & 96 percent of all homicide perpetrators globally are male.
          (2013 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

          So yeah men kill more men & women

  11. Lizzie

    The ultimate abusive male script….
    A play in 5 predictable acts.

    1st woman: “He did it”
    Him: / Choras of hims and some women: “You’re making it up”
    “You’re imaging it”
    “Look at the state of you”
    “You should be so lucky”
    “No man would want to fv<k you"

    1st woman: "I have witnesses and I wrote the horribleness down"
    Him: / Choras of hims and some women: "What were you wearing"
    "How were you acting you clown"
    "Had you drink taken"
    "Why wait all this time you B1t<h.. (and more unhinged swearing)?"
    1st woman: "because I….."

    Chorus of other women and a few men: You do not have to explain yourself , it reeks"
    2nd/3rd/4th other women…. " it happened to me too"
    Him: / Chorus of hims: "It is just attention you seek "
    "They are all liars and tarts"
    "Bandwaggon jumpers"
    "This is why I hate women – they are all a shower of 'vulgar name for ladyparts'

    Chorus of other women and a few men: We BELIEVE YOU
    Him: / Chorus of hims and some women: "It was just words"
    "It was just bants"
    "It was just slap and tickle"
    "Relax love, keep it in your pants"
    "The lesson here is don't employ stupid women, shallow and fickle"

    Chorus of other women and a few men: "The lesson here is do not rape or molest"
    Him: / Chorus of hims and some women: "We CANNOT believe you said THAT"
    "Presuming that one rapey male is the same as all the rest"
    "Some women falsely cry rape to police and judge and friends"
    "How do you explain that!"
    "Teach women to stop doing the things that tempt the menz"

    Chorus of other women and a few men: Rape culture is real and is a thing"
    "Do not downgrade these horrendous acts"
    "By calling them accousting or molesting"
    Him: / Chorus of hims and some women: "Oh FFSakes…."
    "You're all fat, single, miserable old lezzers"
    "To get a man, you do not have what it takes"

    Close curtain. Chuck out audience. Repeat ad nauseum.

      1. Nice Anne

        Good thing none of the women have admitted they needed an abortion eh or you might take a different stance on this?

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