Frilly Keane writes:

For years I’d heard of a thing called the 4th Estate, usually on the telly and in fillums like, where its mention would be treated like it was a sacred place, and only occupied by greats and gods with things like Peabody and Pulitzer in their bios.

The special people that get books written about them and Hollywood greenlights over their biopics. People who we know immediately just by their surnames; Amanpour, Adie, Bernstein, Cronkite, Fisk, Guerin, Murrow, Pilger, Woodward, and whatever ye’re having yerselves – see that? in abc order. Here’s anudder one; The Post.

This 4th Estate sort’a intrigued me in a vague way but lately it got a bit under my skin because of this latest module in the Disclosures Tribunal

Anyway, during the hot spell there, while trying to look busy when I was dossing off, I started googling scantily on the phone.

And as it turns out this 4th Estate is quite interesting, historically I mean, in that it has a bitta’ve tale to tell for itself.

European, naturally, in origin, and grew as a spur off a set up titled “Estates of the Realm”; basically, a caste system for Western Europe. Church, Royalty and the likes of meself, the Commoners. Them and Us.

And to keep everyone in their rightful Realm, lawyers were needed, so along came the 3rd Estate to facilitate the independent liaison between us and them. Naturally Lawyers need money and we know how that goes, and it was the same in Medieval times as it is today.

So along comes Edmund Burke, who during a debate (1787) about opening the Commons to the newspapers and journals of the day, addressed the new arrivals to the viewing galleries as the 4th Estate.

A hundred years later, pretty much, that Burke 4th Estate was now firmly rooted as the Realm of Journalists. This is proofed when the great observer himself, Oscar Wilde, stamped their permanent occupation of the 4th Estate with;

“But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism.”

One of our own said that 127 years ago. And instead of Us, the Commoners, it was the other two realms, Church and by now Big Business, Money and Power lured the 4th and bought them, bribed them, pampered them and fattened them.

So here we all are now, along with Broadsheet, discovering, planting and growing, what has easily become the 5th Estate. But here everyone can walk talk, or not, with the same swagger and access as anyone else who holds membership of another realm.

Here in the 5th the realms are one and the same; the older realms and their acquisition, the 4th, can be identified by their behaviour since this is the open ground and there is nowhere to hide. We are all occupants, blue tick or not, of this feral yet democratic open free-for-all 5th Estate.

It is the survival of the fittest, yet the minority and weaker get to leave their prints and say we were here and this was our story.

Here We are not polarised by the other Realms, because the internet cannot isolate itself into any corner, singular side or argument. Here, although the other Realms and particularly the former Grand 4th Estate will still try and choose our facts for Us, it is here in this 5th Estate, that

We, the forgotten realm of commoners get to choose the facts we believe. Here We get to decide what news we believe. It is here that our decisions will now be take place and our opinions formed.

The most vulnerable thing in Ireland now is our democracy. That is not an overstatement or a wild call-to-arms.

Nothing is more important to us Citizens, yeah, Citizens. Citizens Vote, customers take surveys and give feedback, so that’s that one out of the way, but why the fúck anyone needed reminding I’ll put down to the heat.

I’ve said here again and again , yet ye still wait to hear it from a mainstream veering or need to see the limps from mainstream tagging in. Giving out the wrong information, or even none at all, does not allow the Irish Citizen to make good decisions about its future.

In that 127 years since Wilde declared We are dominated by Journalism, that Blind Eye, that Bias, that Special Interests and their Influence, have put Kerry Babies, Mother and Baby Homes, Institutional Abuse, Institutional Failures, Endemic Corruption, Bail-Outs and Gombeenism into our History and National Profile.

And the bodies left in the carnage are not just in septic tanks waiting for Us to demand the truth and remedy the failures. We still do not own the majority of our schools or our Hospitals ffs.

The former 4th Estate needs to allow itself be burned into ruins so that it can only be re-built from new foundations.

To protect its Independence into the future and keep it free from Influence it needs to establish walls and safeguards so deep that it can never be bought and compromised again, and like here in the 5th, only the fittest will be allowed survive there.  It needs to prove itself.

It needs to reclaim the vocation of Journalism, while the other Realms, including the 5th btw, need to let it rebuild and repent. We need to let it make good. Let them prove they have replaced smear campaigns and self Interest by giving us all the facts.

Let the 4th Estate come back and prove they are capable of being that intermediary between the realms.

There is nothing more important to our Country than a well-informed Citizen. So let’s future proof the gaff.

Frilly Keane’s column usually appears here on the first Friday of every month. Follow Frilly on Twitter: @frillykeane

Celebrations in Dublin Castle during the Eighth Amendment referendum count last Saturday

Frilly Keane writes:

I’m not going to go back over last weekend, or the campaign so stay where ya’are. But what I do want to revisit is us, The Everyday People.

You know a Republic is not just a form of government; the word itself, Republic, originates from sum’ting ancient, and probably obsolete, but it makes more sense to me because I can so easily identify with it in a way I can’t with Government. Try this one on; Republic = a Group with a common equality among its members.

I was there on Saturday. I wasn’t crying or cheering or leaping about or climbing onta anyone’s shoulders; nor was I doing any grand “I told ya so” jigs. I didn’t even get pissed. I think I clapped alright.

While I was hashtagging Independence Day all through Saturday night, it is only now in the last few days, in the light of the pro-life reactions and responses, that I realised what we, The Everyday People actually did last Friday.

On Friday last, We the Everyday People formed our own Republic.

Leo called May 25  “a quiet Revolution” while an Anon from the other side said it was  “A Tragedy of Historic Proportions.” (source: RTÉs Joe Little btw.) There was nothing quiet or tragic about it.

The only tragedy I’m prepared to recognise is that all those girls and their babies, from Tuam to Bessborough, from laundries to illegal adoptions, were just born too soon. Ann Lovett was born too soon. Savita got pregnant too soon.

They all never got to live in or witness our Republic. And while I’m here, let’s stop being polite about illegal adoptions, Magdalene Laundries and institutional abuse and neglect. Call it all out for what it all is: white slavery, human trafficking, neglect, abuse, epidemic paedophilia, mass manslaughter, dumping of bodies, and decades of deception, fraud and evasion.

How can any already-named institution or religious order claim charitable status if fraud, evasion and practices that now qualify as money laundering was pervasive policy and widely practiced?

They exploited vulnerable women, who they bullied and terrorised with false threats of eternal damnation and the like, took their babies, those that survived were sold and those that didn’t were dumped like fish bones.

They spread fear and turned a profit on it while growing and strengthening their grip on this Country. I remember bits from primary school Catechism; and something about God-giving Adam free will, and he used it. No-one questions his right to choose.

The outcome of last Friday should not just be a busy Summer for our TDs and the legislation that we’ve waited 50 years for; and while Mary Lou might have hung on to the ‘North Next’ placards, let’s just call it as it is for starters; Mary Lou is the Leader of our new Republic, but ‘North Next’ will have ta’ wait a bit or at least share the top-table.

Let’s get another referendum tabled; The 36th Amendment; Remove Article 44.01 (the one that mentions homage and God almighty.) While not a Constitutional expert, or even a mere legal know-it-all, I’m prepared to say that the preamble, which opens the Irish Constitution can just be deleted before the OPW knock-off for the silly season.

It opens with the following:

In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,

We, the people of Éire, humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial ….

But first things first; lets revisit this again too Tell me, anyone, why can’t this be done next week under daily Standing Orders of the House, or sum’ting like that?

Here’s the thing, if we want to keep ownership of our new-born Republic, we need to firmly prove to those that called Yes voters sinners in need of a good absolution, that May 25, 2018, Independence Day, was no one-off, and that we, the Everyday People are going nowhere.

Tiocfidh has well and firmly Tháinig’ed

Frilly Keane’s column usually appears here on the first Friday of every month. Follow Frilly on Twitter: @frillykeane

Rollingnews

ier

Campaigners from the Life Institute erect posters urging a No vote outside Leinster House yesterday

Frilly Keane writes:

I really thought I was going to be doing a full length Frill the viii feature for the May issue; but d’ye know what – I just got fed up with it, and for a while there I thought I was just worn down by it all; like I’m a solid Tá anyway. I’ve long had my fill of the same ignorant prejudice and brimstone messaging.

The posters and other antics the no-siders say they know nothing about is just an eye-roller at this stage; which is what happened when I was administering a shandy curer that came with a beermat like this. On a beermat – with feckin’ eyelashes n’all. So it just made sense that I would be browned off.

Then, in the last week or so, an inkling began to fester; am I just existing and only here to serve them. The well-fed, the contented, the sorted, the sheltered sets of various Jobs-for-the-boys and their relations and the handshaking intertwined cabals they all share membership of.

The expression fake news props up our daily dialogue like it was always there but it’s not fake. There is nothing mock or pseudo about what they let us in on; it’s all deliberate, intentionally contrived and professionally controlled by these cabals.

What they can’t bury under confidentiality clauses and non-disclosure agreements, they inter in National Archives like sealed casks that can’t be opened until a century turns; the intention being that aging the truth will mellow out the aftertaste, while Integrity and ethical behaviour are treated like disposable tissues.

The establishment and its leading cabals are running this country as if there is a particular Statutory Instrument in existence dedicated to protecting their individual special interests, and that transparency and truth can be redacted to suit, only be shared on a need-to-know among the handpicked few; or when their injunction applications fail. But even then, it’s all been well spiked by the protection of this special Statutory Instrument.

Spiked News is what they give us when they want to have their own way, take the piss and ensure their own interests, the equivalent of a paint job, like at the Project Arts Centre. Throw a bitta paint over it there, lads.

And it’s their way of keeping the upper-hand over the likes of me. And d’ye know what lads, that’s ye too most likely. Us, the everyday people.

On May 25, once again I will be voting on the right to choose, and what has been happening besides time passing since the first time.

They told us three decades ago there would never be another Ann Lovett, yet here on this very site, a No-Sider pretty much referred to current day Ann Lovetts as “Savita’s with no money”. Also three decades ago, the Lynch Tribunal did such a savage paint job that Joanne Hayes only got her apology this year.

More health care scandals and more foster care Scandals. More homeless, Less houses. They said our banks would behave better, and our politicians would clear out corruption – who was the chair of what and where that held a fundraiser for and got the other lad his next gig.

If we thought we’d seen it all with RTÉ pay-packs, INM Data hacks or no-Side quacks; look at what we have learned in the last few weeks about the real goings on at decision making levels. It’s scary even if you are not one of those who needs regular cervical smears or will ever need a termination.

Repealing the 8th Amendment is the last chance we, the everyday people have, to deliver a significant message to the Cabal’esque set-Up of this Country before the next General Election, which, believe it or not, won’t be for a while. This Government and their confidence suppliers won’t venture near our doors until there’s a good 40 shades of paint weathering them from Us.

Them with their Jobs and Directorships for the boys and their connections. Them with their insider corrupted deals and pats-on-the-back, their no-comeback pensions and titles, and no-fault failures that they get to top-up and repeat again and again.

Jesus Christ, they wouldn’t nor couldn’t even decide about disclosing test results to terminally ill cancer patients; yet sorted out the OK to commence a paid Directorship. Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreements my Rebel Arse.

I don’t care how deeply rooted No-Siders are about their position or how sincere their faith really is, they too are parties to the cabal structure; and vice versa. They all suit each other. Like if they all really believed human life begins at conception child benefit would be paid 9 months earlier.

Repealing the 8th Amendment is not a Women’s issue. This is now about us standing-up and taking back control of the decision making in this country, get the vote out and turn a landslide victory into a mudslide that takes all the rotten wood and vermin with it.

Frilly Keane’s column usually appears here on the first Friday of every month. Follow Frilly on Twitter: @frillykeane

Rollingnews

In January, Conor Skehan (above) chairman of the Housing Agency suggested some people were “gaming the system” by declaring themselves homeless ahead of others on council house waiting lists.

Frilly Keane writes;

Usually, with this lark anyway, when something starts to itch, I sometimes live with it to let the more serious columnists have a go first; you know the ones you’re obliged to pay more attention ta ‘cause they get invited to things.

Well they’ve had since the New Year, so I’m taking it back; Gaming the System.

I quiet like the expression btw, and Gamer too. I should put it on my twitter profile if I remember, ‘might help me sound more Millennial maybe, and less WordStar.

But I am a Gamer.

You’ll probably remember that Gaming the System was utilised by Housing Agency Chair Conor Skehan to describe Housing List’ers.

There’s no denying it was a cruelly one-sided, callous and intentionally demeaning remark, but he wasn’t incorrect.

Social Housing is not just the Housing agency and those on the Lists, you can include Local Authorities themselves, Lenders, Voluntary Housing Associations, Tusla/HSE, various Religious Institutions, Charities and Trusts, and a city Green of Government Departments; ara’ ye get it.
And they all Game the System too.

From Budgeting to Funding to Spending, all requiring policies, procedures, measuring, monitoring and reporting; so too do Grant Applications, of every colour and source.

Like it’s not all about getting announcements into the Spin Unit. Any pretext to get more in via allocation of funding and manpower is engaged; consultants to review the consultants reports.

Any angle that gets in more money for less work, anything that promises them more control with less responsibility, any opportunity to get bigger with less accountability, and any chance where they can pay themselves above the extraordinary with no recourse; that’s hardcore level Gaming; like lads with the special seats n’ expensive head gear.

Minister Zappone when she opted to travel a different route to work to ensure the max expense allowance, and the many more on their way to Leinster House and its Departments, just as it’s no different with their Quango colleagues either.

Shur’ even when they run out of top gigs when it starts to get crowed at the top of all these Departments, Semis and Quangos, they just go off and create a new one. Tis like the lift to the top floor, only so many of them can squeeze in a once, so they make more room.

I myself know plenty within the Establishment, since that’s we’re calling them now, who are more efficient and knowledgeable about the full range of entitlements, allowances and benefits available; like uncertified sick days, lunch allowances and un-vouched expenses, than they are about their roles and responsibilities; Gaming the System features at all levels and they’re shameless about it.

Even Nóirin, like applying for her pension the same week she qualified for the full Commissioner was a coincidence? She even did it when on a month’s holiday…. All-star gamer stuff there, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up getting a medal.

Anyone remember seeing a local very backbench TD’s poster up here promising help with Hospital Waiting Lists? I think it was for cataract operations? There you go – Gaming the System.

A local councillor having a word and sorting a bitta Planning Permission? Or getting a word put in to have a Medical Card issued? Or the bould Lowry getting his legal expenses paid for work that now is legally classified as corrupt.

And it’s not just the public sector themselves, their retirees and their pals. Nor is it Politicians of every shade and rank either.

What about getting the child christened to get them into the local school? Yep, that too, welcome to the Game.

Anyone ever hold off on December invoicing, sales orders or depositing a cheque until the following January/ year? I have. We’re gamers.

Anyone ever have a mouthful of Pick n’ Mix before the weigh-in? I have.

What about chancing your arm by going into the schoolboys’ gate or getting a juvenile ticket? Ha. Don’t ya know it.

Here’s one. Anyone put up a wall or knock one down, throw in an attic extension, convert something, add another space onto the gaff; wait the 5 years and apply for retention? Well, someone reading this has.

Anyone apply for the exemption from Irish in the Leaving Cert? Gaming the system.

College Grants, Fees? Anyone omit the other part-time job? Or enhanced their medical condition, or have a field set aside for forestry?

Al’right I’ll stop there.

But here’s the thing about Conor Skehan and the attitude of the Housing Agency Exec, who ultimately reports to a Senior Government Minister/Ministers. They are the very last group of people that should use the expression Gaming the System as if it was a disease spread by rats.

Our current Taoiseach is a man with only a third of the Fine Gael Membership supporting vote. The very same man who accused Social Welfare (apparent) Cheaters of Cheating us all. The Gamer Himself sits right there @campaignforLeo Top Scorer.

Every Fine Gael Minister is Gaming, and indeed every Fine Gael Deputy is Gaming the System, with lives provided by Fianna Fáil.

I won’t deny that every word here is fit for the same blender. But do not allow anyone accuse those in need of Social Housing or any other assistance, of Gaming the System without reminding yourselves that we’re all no different from each other.

We may all have different walks in life and play at different Levels and from different settings.

But never again allow anyone be accused of Gaming the System, and not feel offended yourself.

Frilly Keane’s column usually appears here on the first Friday of every month. Follow Frilly on Twitter: @frillykeane

Rollingnews

Griff Rhys Jones with host Sandi Toksvig in The Great British Bake Off Celebrity Special

The Great British Bake-Off Celebrity Special in aid of stand up for Cancer continued this week.

Frilly Keane was watching.

She writes:

Last week ( I signed off with a mention that this week’s line up would be worth making an effort for. And in one of those very rare FrillBit Broadsheet occasions, I was actually right; better than that, I was even more righter than right.

It was like Taxi mashed in with Dads Army, that lovely blend of burst out laughing dotting occasionally along an evenly toned cosy smile.

At one point, just before the technical tea towel got lifted, I actually had my head on the ironing board (yeah I was doing a bit – JR is now crying with pride) laughing; remember when Lee Mack thought he’d be handy at the technical ‘cause it’s probably building something with cutlery?

The challenges were good, The Hollywood was on form in a nice cheesie self-deprecating but still the boss way. Pruella; I know!!! Like how I didn’t think of it before since Ms De’Ville is my favourite Disney Character, wasn’t overshadowed by the comedy pros, not even for a second …

….actually that was it, everyone on this week’s one, including all the bakes had equal billing.
I even learnt things; like what a Blondie is, I just thought brownie with white chocolate, and since I don’t touch the stuff I never bothered. Or that Lee Mack and Noel Fielding were flat mates one time, is anyone surprised by that? Me neither.

I suppose it’s fair to say that like the others in this celebrity run, the worst in the tent have actually been the best. Lord Hewer, Roisin Gaw’help us, and yer man McVitie from Chelsea, and Roisin even got flowers, but lads, they’re all only walking behind Lee Mack.

I know he got it together in the Showstopper, but Jesus t’night, in that signature when he wasn’t dillydallying, he was juggling, meeting a cooking apple for the first time, or injuring himself, so there was only going to be one outcome; raw cakes.

And he wasn’t performing either, it was all genuine. He is the Dad tasked with the dinner of fishfingers and potato waffles when yer off on a hen night; they’re not fed till half-nine and you come home to a zoo… ( you know who you are, ye all know one. The same lad that has ta’ move all the furniture out of the house before he can hoover.

I even enjoyed Joe Lysett, who tbf, kept is act and his camp innuendo’ing in the support slot to his baking, and his Mum’s truffles.

But I did find myself wondering will he be Norton’s successor. I think so, and he can bake, a bit, like enough to be able to attempt anything presented in a recipe. But that’s all you need. And you could tell Mel was handy enough too.

I’d go so far as to say Mel and I are probably similar bakers, the kind that don’t fret about it but could be accomplished if we tried harder, yet handy enough to get away with it. And she was so me last night, like if the camera and the Hollywood were in my kitchen here, I’d be the same; rattled about a feckin’ tray bake.

Griff was no stranger to the mixer either was he? Speaking of mixers, ffs, Lee Mack getting the cord wrapped up in the whizzers and leaving it like a flowing garden hose across the floor; Bake-Down stuff. Like total mad Mack Dad and not a bit’ve it contrived for the telly.

Anyway Griff put together some serious concoctions in his Showstopper . A bit like his beard, and himself and Pruella got their own little fanzone going on.

On the baking; Rough Puff is one of my favourite things to do from scratch, and remember what I said about The Hollywood’s recipes, follow them like you would a prescription for a new born, and you’ll do right, so here’s his Roughed Puff and fill it as you like.

Finally, onto the Showstopper; Secret Passion Cake – shur’ it could be anything at all. But it did get me wondering, what would you bake? If I ever get me act together around BakeSheet I might take that a bit further. So start tinking lads, you might get a call-up.

Next week Aishling Bea will be wearing the green jersey. Also in the tent with be Alan Carr, who I suspect might be a bit’ve a Mammy’s bhoy like Lysett and be handy enough. Also Teri Hatcher and Kadeena Cox, who I don’t know, and I know Google would tell me if I ask, but ya know, I’d rather meet them in the Tent first.

Frilly Keane can be followed on Twitter: @frillykeane