Kevin Myers

Last night.

Five months after his sacking by the Sunday Times, columnist Kevin Myers appeared on RTÉ 1’s Claire Byrne Live to discuss his removal and the fall out.

Mr Myers was told he will never work for the Sunday Times again after he used a crude Jewish stereotype in an article on BBC pay.

The paper’s move was supported by Taoiseach Leo Vardkar.

Kevin Myers; “…Nobody has the right to say this man will not be employed again. No one can do that. And then what happened next was even worse. The Taoiseach came out and said that The Sunday Times action was wholly justified and so did the Táaaiste [Frances Fitzgerald].

Now Claire, I’m not like you. Nor the people out there. Nor the people at home. I chose to be Irish. I had a British passport initially. I chose. That was going to be my nationality, my identity.

And never in the history of the Free State, or the Republic and the Free State before, has a government sided instantly with a multinational against the interests of a citizen of that state. it has never happened before, since 1923. There was no consultation, no discussion, nothing. My reputation was destroyed.”

Claire Byrne: “Have you had any support of people in the media, in public life, in politics since all of this happened?”

Myers: “A very small amount of support from the media, apart from David Norris more recently, he was abroad at the time [of the sacking], none that I could speak of in public. Privately they’ve said what’s happened is a great shame but nobody in public has spoken out…”

[Later]

Byrne: “You write very challenging things about women? You write that men work harder than women, men are more charismatic, you write that men get sick less frequently than women, men seldom get pregnant.”

Myers: “That was a joke. Of course.”

Byrne: “What about the rest of the stuff? Do you believe that men work harder than women?”

Myers: “The issue is am I allowed to say that? The issue is not my beliefs. The issue of freedom of speech is the real issue here. Otherwise you’re going to have one set of beliefs, uniform and compulsory across the entire media…are we allowed to differ from the politically correct consensus norm which now dominates the media.”

Watch the full interview here

‘sup?

City Renter writes:

I am renting in Dublin 8, I can’t afford to move. Basically, I’m convinced my bed has some bed bugs. I say this because I sometimes wake up with bites and because I have twice seen a small bug in my bed this week.

Is it possible to live side by side with bed bugs? I’m serious. Does anyone have any tips?

Anyone?

Pic: Consumer Report

Clodagh Hawe’s sister Jacqueline Connolly, mother Mary Coll and their solicitor Liam Keane outside the inquest into the deaths of Clodagh, her three sons, and Alan Hawe 

This afternoon.

Further to deputy school principal Alan Hawe, 40, killing his 39-year-old teacher wife Clodagh and their three children Liam, 14, 11-year-old Niall and Ryan, six, before he took his own life at their Co Cavan home in August 2016.

A jury at the inquests into their deaths this afternoon returned a verdict of unlawful killing in the case of Clodagh and her sons; and a verdict of suicide in the case of Alan Hawe.

Further to this…

Liam Keane, a solicitor speaking on behalf of Clodagh’s family, said the following:

“On 29th August, 2016, we lost our daughter and sister Clodagh and her lovely sons Liam, Niall and Ryan in the most horrific circumstances.

“They were savagely and brutally killed by Alan Hawe in a premeditated and a calculated manner.

“We are aware that the inquest has a limited role in law, in that its function is restricted to establishing how, where and when are loved ones died.

“However, it is clear from the evidence presented at the inquest that Clodagh and her boys were killed in a sequence that ensured that the eldest and most likely to provide effective resistance were killed first and that they were executed in a manner which rendered them unable to cry out for help.

“The inquest does not address why Alan Hawe committed this savagery but his counsellor has said that he was concerned about his position as a pillar of the community and we are aware that he was concerned at his imminent fall from that position and the breakdown of his marriage.

“Whilst the psychiatrist has attempted, as best he could, to create a retrospective diagnosis based on notes and records, his GP, who knew him for five years,  said that he never displayed any signs of depression.”

Video via Stephanie Grogan

Alan Hawe had depressive symptoms for almost a decade, inquest told (Conor Lally, The Irish Times)

Previously: “Her Name Was Clodagh. She Mattered.”

The War At Home

Broadsheet.ie