Susan Hated Literature

When Katy French died I only knew her as “that so-called celeb in a coma”. I only knew her as that because I use TV3 to keep track of the time before I go to work in the morning. And she was a true example of a TV3 celebrity.

I never really intended to post about her death.

What’d be the point. I didn’t know her. Or anything about her. And if I’m honest I don’t care. That may sound uncaring; obviously for her family it is a tragedy. But I don’t post about every person who may or may not have died because of cocaine. Actually this isn’t about her at all, or her death, it is about the media reaction to her death.

Today Kevin (Disillusioned Lefty) posted a link to The Monkey’s Typewriter post about John Waters column in The Irish Times.
OMG what a load of old tripe. The John Waters column I mean, not the blog post. Did someone pretending to be a journalist actually write those things? If it wasn’t so horrendous it’d be funny. Actually, horrendous as it is, it is still hilarious as only self-indulgent tripe can be.

And of course it also further belittles the tragedy of French’s family as they have to put up with the media intrusion into their lives. Personal tragedy is the only real tragedy. This misbegotten piece of trash, from a person who didn’t know Katy is simply cashing in on her family’s pain with no real regard for what they might be going through.

French was not “personification of our fantasies” she was simply a person who was famous. And like all famous people, was therefore subject to other people’s projections and, in this case, a journalist making her less than a person in order to make some general sweeping comment about society. A general sweeping comment, btw, that says nothing at all.

She was a child. She was my daughter and Eoghan’s daughter and Eamon’s daughter and Pat’s daughter and Bertie’s daughter. She was your daughter, your little sister. She was a child of Ireland in the time of its rebirth.

Excuse me while I vomit.

I am totally fed up with a lot of the comments about Mary Harney. I realise that as a politician she is fair game. And as a politician who is in charge of the Health Service at a time when it is scandal after scandal after horrendous error she deserves a hell of a lot of criticism.

But I’m fed up about the cheap shots about her appearance and her weight.^[1]

What fucking difference does that make to anything?

To be honest I’ve no clue as to what is going on in the Health service, other than to know it is fucked up, but I do think that Harney should resign. She is the Minister for Health. She is ultimately responsible.

Course the same could be said of Bertie and his shenanigans. It just isn’t something that Irish politicians seem to do, is it? Shower of tossers.

Nevertheless cheap jibes about her physical appearance are just crap and annoying and pointless. What possible difference does it make to how she does her job? If she were stick-thin and anorexic would that make her handling of it any better?

Is it a form of sexism, cause you don’t really see the same amount of jokes being made about overweight male politicians?

Title from this excellent post

I know, I know, for some of you furrin types it isn’t yet winter. But here in Ireland November marks the start of winter. Proof. It is also the start of the Celtic year, and a Holy Day of Obligation. Cafflics, have you been to mass?

Today is also the publication date for November’s Estella’s Revenge and there are loads of great articles in it. One on Georgette Heyer, an interview with Audrey Niffenegger author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, a review of a book on Ophelia that sounds quite interesting, not to mention a brand new reading challenge for 2008.

This morning, as I walked to work, I happened to glance at the headline of my Metro Family anger at killings verdict. And I thought to myself, this couldn’t be the family of the armed raiders shot while robbing a post office, could it?

Of course it was.

This sort of shite annoys the fuck out of me. Is it sad that you lost a member of your family? Of course. But sometimes family members do stupid things and bad things happen to them. And it is their own fault. These were men attempting to rob a Post Office, armed, the gardaí told them to disarm. They didn’t do that so they got shot. It wasn’t for “no reason” it was because they were attempting to rob a post office and threatening the lives of people.

Garda A gave evidence that he heard a loud bang and saw the glass in the security hatch shatter. He believed that the loud noise was a gunshot and shouted “armed garda, drop your gun” as he opened the door leading into the public area of the post office.

At least half-a-dozen witnesses gave evidence indicating they clearly heard the officer warn the raiders to drop their weapons. Some witnesses said the garda gave the warning several times;
one man said he warned them on up to 10 occasions.

I’m not a huge fan of the gardaí. But in cases like this, where armed robbers are involved? Then I’m backing them. I’m not even a fan of the death penalty. I think it is a ridiculous punishment and serves no purpose apart from revenge, which is not what I think the justice system should be involved in.

Bereaved mother-in-law Ann Grimes, who reared Griffin’s four children, hit out angrily yesterday.
She said the gardaí “knew beforehand they were going to do the job. They should have stopped them”. She added: “they put people in the post office at risk.”

Part of me can understand that coming from the family. After all they have suffered a death. But another part of me is more than a tad annoyed at that sort of attitude. The gardaí knew what was going to happen, so they should have stopped them! How exactly? Should they have arrested them despite having no evidence apart from a tip-off? A rumour?

It isn’t as though the gardaí didn’t try to intercept the raiders;

However, efforts by gardai to stop the raiders’ car prior to the raid, including cordons on approach roads and vehicle tracking, failed, and the three raiders entered the rear of the building at approximately 8am led by Gavin Farrelly, who was wielding a sledgehammer

Maybe Colm Griffin, who knew he was going to rob a post office with a gun, should have stopped himself. He was the only one responsible for his own actions. He went to Lusk intending to pull a gun on people. He took up a firing position, he put people’s lives in danger.

I’d have more sympathy for the family of the second robber killed. After all he was unarmed when shot. But at the same time if the garda involved believed he was armed that what other option did he have? I don’t say that to let the garda off the hook. More to say that you get involved in an armed robbery then don’t try to play the victim when shots are fired. After all if it had been a shoot everyone then the third individual involved still be alive, would he?

And lets not forget that a garda involved in that operation now has a contract out on him.

Oh, and for the record, I’m not saying that the gardaí should be allowed to shoot anyone and then say “he had a gun” obviously there should be an inquest, as happened here, and the fact should come out. But the very idea of turning an armed gunman into an innocent victim is just wrong.

It is a bit chilly out this morning. But sunny so far, so its all good, plus, I suppose it is really and truly Autumn now, so I can’t complain.

I know, I know, talking about the weather, not exactly a gripping start to a post, and after I’ve been a tad lackadaisical about updating, but what do you expect? Do you really want me to moan about the RWC again? I can. It’d be easy. After all we did almost lose against Georgia. And as Roy Keane might say, all credit to Georgia, but, at the end of the day, we did win. And that is what is important. Never mind the shocking display. Never mind the lack of skills on display. Never mind that if it hadn’t been for Leamy getting under that ball they would have scored another try.

And now, now we have Eddie O’Sullivan dropping Stringer in favour of Reddan. Georgian Murphy out of the 22, Duffy on the bench. Trimble in for Hickie. I’m not sure I want to watch the game on Friday.

But you know what, I’m staying optimistic. Or deluded. Either way that good feeling I had before the RWC began, it is still here, and I’m sticking with it. Clinging desperately may be slightly more accurate, but whatever.

And of course the rumours are floating around about trouble in the camp. So dilemma. Do I repeat them and feed what may just be lies? Of course not. Because if the rumours of bust-ups at training are true then at least it shows some bit of passion. And while I don’t believe that it has gone totally Saipan on us, rumours of Geordan Murphy walking out may just breathe a bit of life back into the team.

Or maybe I really am totally deluded.

In other news have you heard the story about the body found on a Kerry beach, and taken away in a hearse? You know, the one that turned out to be a fish.

The world is a funny funny place sometimes.

I was quite surprised to learn that Joe O’Reilly was found guilty last night. We’d been having a conversation about it at work, and most people seemed to be of the opinion that yup, he did it, but that the evidence wasn’t sufficient to not leave reasonable doubt. I haven’t been following the case in all its detail from the very start, I never saw the Late Late when he was on it which seemed to persuade more than a few of his guilt.

Still, the details I picked up from skimming the papers and catching the news made me think that he’d done it. I was among those who thought that maybe he’d be found not guilty, circumstantial evidence and all that. But I guess that mobile phone was enough to convince the jury of his guilt. And I’m glad.

Although you do have to wonder what’ll happen to his two children now. And how they can begin to cope with the knowledge that their father beat their mother to death.

It is still raining.

Someone said 36 days. I’m not so sure but it has been a long time since we had a day without rain.

Now, I know that Ireland is known for being a rainy part of the world. But this has gone far enough, umbrellas are becoming part of hands, they’ve been in use for so long that the handles are melting into skin. Totally not an exaggeration.