The truth can be a bitter pill to swallow - Enda Kenny criticized for telling the truth

Enda Kenny

The Irish thrive on blaming others for their woes. We blame the British, the Catholic Church and just about anyone else that saves us from embracing collective responsibility for our own missteps. But it is high time for people to grow up. We claim we want the truth, but it would appear that we can’t handle the truth.

Enda Kenny is now facing a backlash for telling people something they desperately don’t want to hear yet alone believe — we are all to blame for the economic crisis.

The Taoiseach told a gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the problem with Ireland’s economy was that “people went mad borrowing” in a climate where greed saw the system spiral out of control and ultimately crash.
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This is of course an oversimplification of our economic downfall, yet it is in essence relatively accurate. The poor judgement of our political leaders and the corrupt nature of certain financiers and developers was all driven by a collective giddy greed that gripped our nation at the height of the boom. The vast majority of us were crying, “more, more, more” when in fact we should have been increasing taxes and cutting our spending levels.

Speak with any rational Irish person about this and they will agree that while the levels of blame rise significantly depending on your role in the crash, we all ultimately have to take a certain amount criticism.

But to utter such words in public is tantamount to treason. This warped view of reality is being fed into and fuelled by a media that constantly uses politicians, developers and bankers as scapegoats.

Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar condemned this cynicism and highlighted how the media offers a “sugar-coated” truth rather than exposing the real facts. He is right.

The media has become so cynical of politicians and their roles, that it is affecting the balance portrayed in the pages of our newspapers and the broadcasts of our national news.

It is so easy to blame whoever is public enemy number one at any given moment, whether it’s Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Fingleton or Sean Dunne. However, these people did not operate in a vacuum and were part of a culture that was allowed flourish during the boom years.

Admittedly Enda Kenny did make a major error of judgement, but it was not telling the truth in Switzerland. It was telling Irish people what they wanted to hear seven weeks ago when he said — “You are not responsible for the crisis.”

We all criticise politicians for feeding us lies before an election and then once in office breaking these promises. But maybe this says more about us than it does about them. .

So now as the media turns on Enda and Leo for telling the truth, at least Irish people will now have two others to blame for their woes. *

The media’s love affair with the fall guy - Italian captain of capsized cruise ship fits the bill

Francesco Schettino

The media’s obsession with simplicity and scapegoats often means the real story can go unreported, writes Paul Allen.

Every drama needs a villain and this week Francesco Schettino neatly fitted the bill. The captain of the Costa Concordia, which crashed into rocks off the Italian coast and capsized, was portrayed as a lazy stereotype in a veracious media environment that loves simplicity.

The Italian was quickly caricatured as a swashbuckling, wine-swilling lothario with such an eye for the ladies he was willing to put the lives of all his passengers at risk.

The Daily Mail, which led the charge, was only too willing to believe that most of its readers would readily understand the cliché that all Italian me are lazy, workshy womanisers.

When the captain, desperately tried to defend himself, claiming he had not abandoned ship but had accidentally fallen into a lifeboat while aiding passengers as the ship tilted on its side, the guffaws in the press were audible.

There is little doubt that if he had happened to be Spanish, images of Manuel, the Fawlty Towers waiter, would have been splashed all over the tabloid press.

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To add to the comic book portrayal of this horrible disaster a 25-year-old mystery blonde ballerina, Domnica Cemortan, who reportedly was on the bridge of the cruise liner when the vessel ran into rocks, leapt to the Captain’s defence.

“[Capt. Schettino] is one of the best captains in the company. He is very skilful and experienced when it comes to manoeuvring the ship in enclosed spaces, like harbours,” Cemortan told the Daily Telegraph.

Of course the more sober and straightforward reporting as put forward by the Telegraph was spun by the Daily Mail as it pondered: “Was Captain Coward trying to impress glamorous blonde ballerina when he hit the rocks?”

At the heart of this sordid tale are the 11 people who have been confirmed dead and the 30 who are still missing after the disaster. While the official investigation into the incident will no doubt reveal the full extent to which the captain was at fault, his position makes it clear that he rightly has to take responsibility for at least some of the blame. However, the ease at which the media immediately made him the scapegoat meant that many of the critical issues that have arisen out of this incident have for the most part been glided over.

What about the company behind the cruise liner? What about the safety standards on big passenger ships? Indeed, if we are to believe what has been written this week about Captain Schettino it would seem that ship captains that roam the high seas are a law unto themselves. This I would wager is far from the truth.

So even if the Captain is as portrayed, what type of company and what type of regulatory system allows such a person to be in charge of the safety of thousands of passengers? Sadly, as far as the media is concerned, such a story line does not make for sexy headlines.

The media loves portraying black and white scenarios, but does not do grey very well. Indeed, even though new media has seen the number of news sources flourish over the past few years, it has not given the public a more diverse and thorough insight into the stories of the day.

Indeed, it would seem that in our media saturated lives the snappy headline, sound bite and catch-all cliché still rule supreme.

Thankfully, for the families of those who lost their lives, the inquiry rather than the media will bring to light who the real villains in this tragedy are.

The fame game is a double-edged sword - reality television, Twitter and Facebook bite back

Georgia Salpa - Irish model in "Celebrity Big Brother"

Channel Five’s Celebrity Big Brother has once again underlined the extent to which the term ‘celebrity’ has become meaningless. Full of the usual mix of fame hungry has-beens and wannabes, the show is simply a circus showing the inflated and often fragile egos of the contestants as they contrive to win the affections of the viewership.

The depths some people will go to gain notoriety or ‘fame’ is incredible, just ask Natasha Giggs. You would think after being caught having an affair with her husband’s brother, Ryan Giggs, she would want to lay low for a while. But now she is on Big Brother one would hope chasing fame rather than ignominy.

Dublin’s beautiful Georgia Salpa is also hoping her appearance on the show will help her take the UK by storm. However, she is now finding out the hard edge of reality TV after becoming one of the first people (along with some other z-lister) to face eviction.

But while Georgia is one of the lucky ones as she has little to lose and lots to gain career wise by her exposure on national television, most people have little idea of what a double-edged sword the pursuit of fame can be.
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Sinead O’Connor’s talent is unquestionable, but the same cannot be said of some of her life choices. And while we all make mistakes and errors of judgement, few would want to broadcast them. However, thanks to Twitter Sinead’s life has become something of a media circus.

But while on one hand she tweets freely about intimate elements of her personal life, which are willing snapped up by the media, she gets highly irritated when journalists begin to focus too much attention her. This led to the headline in this week’s Sunday Independent — “Don’t f**k with me or my husband.”

The problem is when it comes to courting media coverage it is not simply a tap that can be turned off and turned on when it suits.

But just like Celebrity Big Brother, mindlessly embracing Twitter or indeed Facebook is more likely going to turn you into a sucker rather than a star.

Labour leader Ed Milliband was the latest to put his foot in it when he tweeted a message regarding the death of Blockbusters’ former host Bob Holness with the line, “A Generation will remember him fondly from Blackbusters.”

But while there are plenty of public figures and celebrities seemingly only too happy to enter the Dumb Tweet of the Year Awards, it is the public’s lack of awareness of the power of Twitter that is shocking.

One idiot has thankfully been arresting this week for racially abusing former Liverpool footballer Stan Collymore via Twitter. While in the US a 16-year-old employee of the pizza chain Papa John’s was sacked after referring to a customer as “lady chinky eyes” on a receipt and then posting it on the social network site.

While we may mock the crass wannabes that are willing to suffer the humiliation and mental torture in a desperate bid to save or start their careers in the Big Brother House, many are willing to ruin their lives or suffer the double-edged sword of media intrusion all for the sake of a dumb Tweet or foolish Facebook post.

However, even for established stars reality television is now so mainstream that its pitfalls almost seem unavoidable.

Singer Brian Kennedy just last week got caught in the line of fire of reality television. He allowed the Daily Mirror’s entertainment reporter Paul Martin get under his skin and ended up throwing a glass of red wine over him during the celebrity version of Come Dine With Me on TV3. But why should such a talented performer be dragged down to the same level as a British tabloid hack? The show’s producers obviously knew what they were doing when inviting Martin and Brian sadly took the bait.

The fact is that while reality television, Twitter or Facebook can give you instant notoriety, it is important to beware — they often bite back.

"Big Brother's" promo:

Enda Kenny's 'State of the Nation' address - more than words? - VIDEO

Enda Kenny

The Taoiseach’s ‘state of the nation’ speech was more a poor exercise in public relations than a worthwhile political statement.

Enda Kenny was going to be damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. People wanted the truth, but the fact is people can’t handle the truth.

The Taoiseach’s ‘state of the nation’ address turned out to be the “this is going to hurt” pep talk a dentist might give before extracting teeth. We all knew regardless of how soft and palatable his words, the after affect was going to hurt like hell.

However, this carefully stage-managed affair suffered from one key blunder. While Enda’s tone was soft and his facial gestures gentle and compassionate, his two clenched fists placed on the desk in front of him told the truth of his internal turmoil.

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The Taoiseach knew his hands were tied. That is why his speech was far from a direct, comprehensive and truthful evaluation of where the country stands given Europe’s turmoil. Instead, it was a healthy serving of clichés all-round.

“We live in exceptional times,” we were told, “and face exceptional challenges.” Later on it was the tired “difficult choices are never easy.” Thankfully we were spared “there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

Charlie Haughey’s state of the nation address was remembered for all the wrong reasons, so Fine Gael’s handlers presumably wanted to ensure Enda’s speech did not leave such a lasting impression.

So, as is the problem with most political speeches, it was light on content and heavy on ‘stating the bleeding obvious’.

We were told that jobs are central to this budget because “work plays such an essential role in our lives.” Truly insightful stuff indeed.

But Enda went further — “Work gives us focus. Work gives us independence. Work gives our families hope and confidence.”

Now those sentences should have had black hoods thrown over them, been taken outside and then shot along with what ever clown wrote them.

There is certainly something about Enda, but it is not his charisma. By his own admission he is not a great orator, so by spurting out such drivel he tended to come across a little on the patronising side.

The production was also extremely poor from the camera angle to the lighting. Indeed, when one considers the magnificent room in which Enda was sitting and the Michael Collins painting which hangs over the fireplace, sadly the Taoiseach looked more like he was sitting in the courtroom of Judge Judy than a magnificent state office.

Even though Enda promised this was going to be a “job’s budget,” the truth of the matter is governments don’t create jobs. All governments can do is create the environment to create jobs and in fairness some of the steps briefly outlined could well go towards achieving this.

But the truth that may have been lurking between Enda’s clenched fists is that this budget is more to do with appeasing the Bundesbank rather than the people of Ireland.

The Taoiseach did make it clear that “as an island nation we cannot operate in isolation” and underlined the importance of our membership of the EU. However, he did not tackle the fact that until the catastrophe that hangs over the Euro is diverted and Europe gets its economy back on track, there is little we can do but tighten our belts and keep our fingers crossed.

Mary Lou McDonald accused Enda’s address of being merely “a softening up exercise.” This analysis is bang on. And it certainly was successful given the 1.1 million people who tuned in.

In fact, it is a pity RTE do not run repeats of Enda’s address to help prop up its Christmas schedule. This would not only help boost viewership figures, but would be very cost effective. In fact, they could intersperse it with apologies to Father Reynolds.

As I have recently discovered the people of Ireland are truly sick to the back teeth of RTE’s overpaid stars, so maybe a daily dose of Enda might make them realize you get what you pay for.

Here's a video of Enda's 'State of the Nation' address:

The case of Fr Kevin Reynolds: the RTE blame game

Fr Kevin Reynolds

In the absence of statutory regulation for the media the investigation into how RTE defamed Father Reynolds will be a typically ‘Irish’ affair and is unlikely to see any heads roll, writes Paul Allen.

When RTE’s flag-ship current affairs show Prime Time decided to investigate child abuse in the missions it must have felt like it was shooting fish in a barrel.

Indeed, with revelations of clerical abuse making headline news for well over a decade there was seemingly little need to assume Father Reynolds was innocent until proven guilty.

After all, as Malcom X said, “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent.”

But as we know, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So when the media believes it is untouchable the biggest casualty is always going to be the truth.

While the Leveson Inquiry is intent on bursting the bubble of a corrupt tabloid media in the UK, don’t expect heads to role this side of the Irish Sea for RTE’s unforgiveable abuse of its position.

The inquiry into the Father Reynolds scandal is most likely going to be a typically ‘Irish’ exercise and simply brush the dirt under the carpet.

In fact, RTE had originally saw fit to investigate this mistake internally until, due to political pressure, the government rightly decided to ask the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to investigate.

Four years ago RTE was feeling the heat after the High Society documentary based on a book of the same name by Justine Delaney Wilson claimed the existence of a cocaine-using government minister.

This so-called ‘documentary’ focusing on cocaine use among Ireland’s middle class turned out to be more fiction than fact.

Following an internal report, RTÉ Authority Chairperson Mary Finan admitted the station did not sufficiently exercise its editorial controls when it came to the programme. However, she claimed the shortcomings were not endemic in RTÉ.

Unbelievably, Finan proudly said that 82pc of the programme’s content was verified by RTÉ. The question is what type of editorial policy regarding highly sensitive documentaries is happy to fact check only 82pc of the content? One that grossly defames the likes of Father Reynolds is presumably the answer.

While the likes of the Daily Mail and other British tabloids have journeyed from Fleet Street to embark on a mission to lower the standards of media in Ireland, it seems the state broadcaster has also lost the run of itself.

So while €2m has already been paid out as a result of this shameful incident, expect more money to be wasted in the pointless ‘investigation’ that will ultimately lead nowhere.

We all crib and groan about toothless tribunals and endless reports that rarely result in prosecutions, but we are all to blame.

The Iona Institute recently released research on what the public believes is the rate of abuse among priests. Remarkably, 70pc overestimate it, while 42pc believe that one-in-five priests is actually an abuser. There is even 5pc that think over 90pc of priests are abusers.

That type of culture resulted in RTE making such a gross misjudgment.

Indeed, why do you think interviewing politicians has become such a prized blood sport? Because the amount of people who think all politicians are corrupt is scary.

You see Irish people love nothing more than scapegoats. We blame the British, we blame the church, we blame Bertie Ahern — we blame anyone but ourselves.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s is right in his belief that there is an urgent need for a regulatory body to balance press freedom and the protection of the rights of individuals. However, he is grossly wrong to compare bishops being asked to immediately stand aside in the wake of clerical abuse reports and the slow reaction of RTE management to stand aside. The Archbishop should have kept a dignified silence and not try to draw comparisons between cases of clerical child abuse on one hand and the national broadcaster defaming someone due to poor editorial judgement on the other.

However, he is right that the only thing that can save Ireland’s media from itself and the invasion of the British tabloid is statutory regulation. Because with media hungrier than ever for readership and viewership figures they seem to have forgotten that what is of interest to the public is not always in the public’s interest.

It is that type of environment that has created low standards in RTE. But sadly, just like governments, people get the media they deserve.

Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com.

It’s Time for Occupy Dame Street to quit too - Reality check for Irish protesters and politicians needed

Aerial view of Occupy Dame Street protest

Irish people need to stop sitting and whinging on the sidelines if they truly want to affect change.


The days of Occupy Dame Street appear to be numbered. The Central Bank has finally had enough of the squatters camping on its doorstep and is rumoured to be seeking a Court Order to put an end to the protest.

The camp has been in situ for six weeks now and the only thing it has achieved is to show how lacking in ideas the movement has been.

It has no alternative plan, no suggestions nor indeed any tangible ideas of note.

This “leaderless resistance movement” if anything has only highlighted how the angst of a nation cannot be harnessed by sitting in a tent.

If people want change then they need to join together, formulate ideas and use the system to affect that change. The problem, however, is it is a lot easier to set up camp and moan from the sidelines.

Senator David Norris was the only Presidential candidate to visit the protestors. He was met with naive idealists who shouted garbage rather than put across coherent ideas, such as possible alternatives to the IMF and EU.
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As proceedings drifted into complete farce the Senator asked if there was anyone in charge to help direct dialogue. “There is no one in charge, we are all individuals!” came the seemingly well-rehearsed response. Individuals indeed.

Another asked the Senator, “Are you a sovereign man?” What the hell did this mean? We asked and nobody replied.

Like it or not we live in a democracy. So when we complain that the Government is raising VAT, slashing social welfare or reducing child benefit, it is not good enough to mutter into your pint or set up a tent outside the Central Bank.

If people don’t like what they see, they need to come up with viable alternatives. They need to put their principles on the line. Just like Luke “Ming” Flanagan has done. He is hardly a political insider, but has shown if you have determination and the support of your community you can get elected and try to make change.

While the Dublin 4 brigade scoff and chuckle at Ming as he cries, “blessed are the turf cutters”, at least he is pushing for change for his community.

Sadly, Irish people seem to prefer wallowing in despair and pointing the finger.

Indeed, while they are the very ones who voted in this new Government, they are seemingly amazed at the proposed toughness of the forthcoming budget.

There was a great quote from Monday morning’s breakfast programme on Newstalk, when presenter Ivan Yates bellowed, “This shower are as bad as the last Government!”

But when voters replaced one establishment centre-right political party for another establishment centre-right political party, what did they expect?

To hear Ivan Yates say on Newstalk that he was shocked that the new Government appears to be no different than the last one is somewhat disingenuous. As a former Fine Gael cabinet minister, Mr Yates would be only too aware that once Civil War politics is taken out of the argument few could credibly argue substantial policy differences between FF and FG when it comes to economics.
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Labour too, in its collation with FG, has woken up to the necessity of tough measures to ensure we have an economy worth fighting for in the coming years.

At present people seem anti everything, but most of all they are anti-reality. Ireland is experiencing one of its toughest challenges and the fact is those that can do and those that can’t sit in a tent.

It is time for Irish people to grow up. As Mary Robinson said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new beginning.”

But those on Dame Street might be starting to realise this cannot be achieved from inside a tent.


Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com

Cutting Irish celebrity’s pay could be damaging to Ireland’s fragile psyche

Pat Kenny - RTE host

Slashing the salaries of RTE’s top earners may be what the public wants, but sometimes we need to be careful what we wish for, writes Paul Allen.

A very dangerous mentality has seeped into the Irish psyche. Pay levels, expenditure and cut backs have, through necessity, rightly become a national obsession. However, we are in danger of becoming a nation that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.

We are all eager to trim the fat but we must pay heed to the words of Warren Buffett — “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

Bizarrely, there are those who would prefer the Taoiseach to travel to Brussels on Ryanair. There were even some fools during the Presidential election that believed our head of state should be paid the minimum wage and forced to drive around in their own car. It is this sort of misguided mentality that has focused the nation’s wrath on RTE’s stars and their pay levels.

Yes, some of RTE’s well-known presenters are paid an extraordinary salary, but it must be remembered they do an extraordinary job.

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The pressure, stress and intensity of the job was tragically underlined by the demise of the sorely missed Gerry Ryan. Even though he was one of the best paid golden boys of Irish broadcasting he died owing hundreds of thousands of euro.

People fail to understand that there is no job security and no pension in broadcasting. Worse still, all presenters live in constant fear of ratings. Those that face the chop can go from hero to zero in a matter of months, as Bull Island’s Alan Shortt underlined last week when he revealed he suffered depression when the phone suddenly stopped ringing after he lost his radio job.

But for those lucky enough to be on the receiving end, the principle of seemingly sensational salaries is simple — RTE pays its top talent to keep its top talent.

Ian Dempsey and Ray D’arcy are just two of RTE’s elite stars that, in the past, were tempted by the lure of lucre from commercial broadcasters. The fact Eamon Dunphy was being paid €100,000 by Newstalk for doing one radio show a week shows that there is money out there to do the same again.
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So who do you want as your national broadcaster — RTE or TV3? Who would you rather front the Late Late Show — Ryan Tubridy or Aidan Cooney? Who would you rather host Frontline — Pat Kenny or Alan Hughes?

What would Liveline be without Joe Duffy? What would the weekend be without Marian Finucane? Indeed, what would the Primetime Presidential Debate have been without Miriam O’Callaghan?

People seem to have forgotten that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

There are very few broadcasters with the natural talent to capture the eyeballs, the ears and the hearts of a nation. We lost Terry Wogan and Eamonn Andrews to the BBC. Now we could well lose one of Ireland’s most gifted broadcasters, Ryan Tubridy.

To lose two broadcasting icons may be regarded as a misfortune; but to lose another would be just downright carelessness.

Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com.