Right, let's talk about Lucinda. She's only after going and throwing a massive spanner in the works and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what to make of it all.
There I was, sitting back on the couch in the kitchen, feet up, rocking a dressing gown and pajamas combo, waiting on a coffee to make its way to my hand. It was that nice spell after the Christmas madness but before work takes over again, and only about 10:30 in the morning. Having just surfaced from my lair and with free reign of the remote for the afternoon, I was living the dream. As the general Christmas experience tends to numb the senses somewhat, I was not entirely tuned into the happenings on the radio. Who cares what's going on in the world when one has to decide if chocolate biscuit cake for breakfast is morally wrong or just obnoxiously 2015? Anyway, I was away in my perfect little world when Dad tears through the kitchen door, turns the volume on the radio up to at least twenty (Jesus, Mary and Joseph - the neighbours!) and roars at me to hush. The last time such events occurred was 2009 when Liam Clancy regretfully passed away. I feared the worst.
The two of us sat in silence for an hour or so, soaking in the news and making a heroic attempt to decipher the Mayo accent. For those interested, both the coffee and the chocolate biscuit cake found their way to me. I tried to Shazzam some of Eddie Hobbs's speech, but even that magnificent technology crumbled weakly in the face of the Cork dialect - for some reason it kept telling me the song was Independent woman by Destiny's Child. 'All the honeys who makin’ money, Throw your hands up at me, baby' ...well now actually as I'm typing this I realise that that may not have been a mistake at all. And who am I to doubt technology?!
For those of you not entirely up to speed with Irish politics - on the morning of January 2nd 2015, Lucinda Creighton, an Independent TD for the Dublin South-East constituency from Mayo, held a press conference announcing the impending formation of a brand new political party. Talk about upheaval lads! Did you know you could do that?
For the record I think the whole show is only half baked, if even. Without a name, sound policies or even members to back it up, the 'party' is more of a hashtag at the minute than anything else. I think they should have gone and sorted out their ideas before putting themselves up on the national platform for scrutiny. They've a few long nights with bottles of Jameson and a whiteboard to put in before the main launch date. Having said that, the notion intrigues me.
Starting from scratch is a daunting task. Where are they supposed to even begin? I've been thinking about this a fair amount and still can't come up with a plan of attack. But I find myself wondering, how great is the need to start from the beginning? #RebootIreland is all well and good but why is there such a desire for this fresh start? Irish politics may be a complete car crash, but a new party isn't going to change that....is it?
The answer is no. The nature of Ireland is being overlooked - we claim to want a straight talking government....but do we really? Ahhhhh go on, go on go on go on go on go on. We all want to eradicate alcoholism, but when the gardai close the lock-in in Murphy's bar of a Sunday night we are outraged. We want to have safe roads to drive on, but when we're done for doing 55 in a 50 zone the first thing we do is get on to the second cousin who might be able to sort it out. We are all for saving the planet, but when the recycling bin is only collected every other week we snake a few milk cartons into the open fire. What's the harm sure? Ireland has always and will always be about the trickery, the skullduggary, the desire to have the craic. And we can try and have politics separate from that, but I don't think that's how it works. Some things are ingrained.
For the record I think the whole show is only half baked, if even. Without a name, sound policies or even members to back it up, the 'party' is more of a hashtag at the minute than anything else. I think they should have gone and sorted out their ideas before putting themselves up on the national platform for scrutiny. They've a few long nights with bottles of Jameson and a whiteboard to put in before the main launch date. Having said that, the notion intrigues me.
Starting from scratch is a daunting task. Where are they supposed to even begin? I've been thinking about this a fair amount and still can't come up with a plan of attack. But I find myself wondering, how great is the need to start from the beginning? #RebootIreland is all well and good but why is there such a desire for this fresh start? Irish politics may be a complete car crash, but a new party isn't going to change that....is it?
The answer is no. The nature of Ireland is being overlooked - we claim to want a straight talking government....but do we really? Ahhhhh go on, go on go on go on go on go on. We all want to eradicate alcoholism, but when the gardai close the lock-in in Murphy's bar of a Sunday night we are outraged. We want to have safe roads to drive on, but when we're done for doing 55 in a 50 zone the first thing we do is get on to the second cousin who might be able to sort it out. We are all for saving the planet, but when the recycling bin is only collected every other week we snake a few milk cartons into the open fire. What's the harm sure? Ireland has always and will always be about the trickery, the skullduggary, the desire to have the craic. And we can try and have politics separate from that, but I don't think that's how it works. Some things are ingrained.
