Jun 16 2006

In brute reality there is no Road that is right entirely.

Published by Fence under Irishify

Y’all know I tend to dislike taking a black or white view of things. I just don’t like it. And even more so when it is about a complex issue. Like Charles J Haughey.

I didn’t intend to blog about CJ. That sort of political blogging isn’t my cup of tea at all, but browsing the Irish blog’verse it strikes me that at the moment there are a whole load of love him or loathe him posts. To some he was the great man who helped Ireland emerge from poverty into the success of the Celtic Tiger. To others he was nothing but a crook.

D’you know the old perceptions of women as either whores or madonnas, it is a bit like at the moment. Black and white viewpoints left right and centre.

Why can’t we say that he was a great man who was also a crook. One doesn’t exclude the other you know.

Which is why I liked Omanis view on the fact that Heaney has written a poem for today’s state funeral.

Heaney addresses a wounded lion, an animal mercurial and vicious. Irish public opinion is not comfortable with Charlie Haughey. So it is the right time for a great poet to shine a light, not just backwards but forwards.

Tags: black and white, Charles J Haughey

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