Not such normal people: who will be getting into bed with who in coalition?
NO BETTER man to stir the pot than Joe Duffy. The genius of his hugely successful ‘Liveline’ programme is his ever-subtle prodding to provoke a good radio row. But the ‘Normal People’ sex furore left him stumped.
To be sure, there were a few callers who assured us their shock index was in overdrive. They were upset, put out and all the rest of it. The television series – based on Sally Rooney’s stunningly successful novel – portrays too much human intimacy for their liking.
Momentarily, it seemed we were back in time, when righteous members of ‘The Late Late Show’ audiences were always in high dudgeon over matters of the flesh.
Joe sniffed the possibility of a similar modern-day ding-dong. The ingredients of old were all present. Listener outrage over ‘gratuitous filth’ on the telly was always a sure-fire primer for a rollicking row.
Yet, this time round, the aggro barometer stayed stuck at mild to near zero. So-called sins of the flesh in books, TV or the movies hardly register these days. The really dangerous world is but a few clicks away on the internet – uncontrolled and often evil in its intent.
Joe eventually gave up the ghost. Sally Rooney’s chronicle of millennial angst would find its own level. Meanwhile, a good novel – not a great one – excites and enthrals a galaxy of readers in Ireland, the UK, America and further afar.
The author of ‘Normal People’ certainly has an X factor; her book is a phenomenon on the international literary scene. Yet while Rooney’s widely dissected writing skills have garnered much attention, her politics are also intriguing. She was raised ‘in a socialist tradition’, fuelling it would seem a discernible leftist view of the world. She is especially worried the planet – environmentally speaking – is heading for meltdown.
As the Green Party dances on a pinhead, the views of Ireland’s writer of the moment is a reminder of its millennial base. There is a revolutionary edge underpinning the angst many younger people harbour about the future of the natural order. Meanwhile, rural-based Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs find talk of such things as culling the national herd is the stuff of nightmares.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan knows that in all forced marriages there is a temptation for one side to abandon the other when buffeting comes. But there is no way his party can get cast-iron guarantees on its key demands. If it goes into government, its members will have to be satisfied with platitudes, good intentions and wishful thinking.
Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin are in no position to offer anything of real substance. If the truth be known, they are taking a hell of a risk hooking up with one another. The Greens must embrace a less than ideal threeway union of convenience if they want to take their chance with the levers of power.
The problem for Ryan is that he is the symbolic head of a populist movement – always in flux – as well as spearheading what should be a hardnosed political party. His ‘activists’ on the ground are both a strength and weakness.
Should the Greens sip from the poisoned chalice, nerves of steel will be required to turn around an economy shattered by Covid-19. The party will rightly fight its corner every step of the way, but the fear is that it will bring the whole house down when things get really tough.
There is a real risk it will cut and
run, leaving Varadkar and Martin floundering on a ship adrift. Some of the new Green TDs are considered ‘flaky’. It is suggested they are temperamentally unsuited to the grind of what, initially at least, will be an unpopular coalition arrangement.
However, a Green pull-out down the line may not necessarily mean a general election. Plan B for the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil axis is to woo support from the Labour Party, plus that of some independents. That’s not without risk, but it just might keep the show on the road.
If the Greens, having mightily wrestled with their consciences, agree a deal, they can expect the worst and hope for the best. Come summer’s end a hard, hard wind will blow. ‘Be prepared’ might be the motto of the moment. And Sally Rooney is linked to some timely advice: “There’s no such thing as bad weather – only bad clothes.”
There is a real risk Greens will cut and run