Readers will recall the withdrawal of the Bank of Ireland mortgage ad.
Yesterday economist Jim Power and Journal.ie journalist Aoife Barry spoke to Pat Kenny on Newstalk about the matter.
Further to this… Mark Paul, in today’s Irish Times, writes:
Barry, who is 34, was critical of the ad and generally represented those outraged on social media – she even sports a presumably ironic snowflake in her Twitter handle. Power, who is of a slightly older vintage, was broadly dismissive of the backlash. He recalled selling his Mini to help gather a deposit to buy his first home. Kenny read out a stream of messages from listeners, mostly critical of Barry for being oversensitive.
Kenny then read a message aimed at Power. “I’m outraged at Jim Power suggesting I sell my car to buy my house,” read Kenny, adopting a deliberate tone of mock indignation. The tweet was obviously a wind-up. “Not everyone has a car. So insensitive of Jim… signed, Snowflake from Cork.”
Barry is from Cork, and has the lilt to prove it. The message was obviously a dig at her, and seemed supportive of Power. But he didn’t see it that way. Power, normally as rational and genial as economists get, reared up in indignation. For real.
“I didn’t suggest anyone sell their car, I sold my own car,” he retorted, his voice faltering with anger. He hit out at people for “bitching” and said we were “all free to do what we want”. We couldn’t see the blood rising up the back of Power’s neck. But we could almost hear it. Kenny hadn’t the heart to tell him he had simply missed a joke.
There it was, peak Irish media discussion about millennials and social media. One of the country’s soundest economists, outraged over a misconstrued message that was poking fun at the outrage of “snowflakes” on Twitter, whose original outrage was sparked by a bank, which made a not-very-outrageous ad . . . about a mortgage product.
When ‘snowflakes’ attacks: Home truths for Bank of Ireland (Irish Times)
Further to this…
You may recall a piece written by Kathy Sheridan in The Irish Times last September, in which Ms Sheridan responded to online criticism of the coverage of the killing by Alan Hawe, 40, of his wife Clodagh Hawe and their three children Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, 6, in Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan.
Mr Hawe also took his life.
After Ms Sheridan’s piece was published, The Irish Times’ opinion editor John McManus tweeted it, saying:
On the same day, in response to Mr McManus’s decision to specifically refer to Ms Sheridan’s sex, Aoife Barry, assistant news editor at The Journal, tweeted…
In response to Ms Barry’s tweet, former Sunday Business Post journalist and writer Siobhán Brett tweeted…
Then. Several days later, Ms Barry was alerted to the fact that Mr McManus had added Ms Barry to a Twitter list, entitled Snowflakes:
As was Ms Brett…
There you go, now.
Previously: The Story Of Why