Niamh Walsh’s Manifesto
I’m forced to make a rare protest over RTÉ clash
I HAVE never subscribed to the ‘biased RTÉ’ bandwagon. In fact I think they have done a stellar job of late, with particular praise to their RTÉ Investigates team. Nor have I ever tootled the trumpet of conservative commentator John McGuirk. In fact my ideologies would be diametrically opposed to his. But this week I found myself in some sort of parallel universe and I was downright disconcerted when I found myself nodding in agreement with the editor of right-wing website Gript.
McGuirk was a guest on Prime Time where he faced off against Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond in an already well trotted out argybargy about recent protests and the rise of the Right.
Now I think the right-minded among us can agree that last week’s protest was nothing but thuggery disguised as conscientious objection to Covid restrictions. However, Richmond was at pains to point out that even those who didn’t engage in violence were law-breakers given they had breached the 5km travel limit.
A valid point and personally I think anyone at that so-called march who broke restrictions should be hunted down, prosecuted and stripped of all benefits if they find State intervention so egregious. However, when McGuirk pointed out that during the first lockdown the streets were thronged with Black Lives Matter protesters, things went slightly off-piste.
McGuirk recalled that some of Richmond’s fellow politicians, such as the Greens’ Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu, were on the BLM protest despite the Level 5 lockdown.
Not once but thrice did McGuirk ask presenter Louise Byrne why RTÉ never hauled Hazel and the likes over the coals and pointedly asked Richmond why those marchers ers were not labelled law-breakers given they too had breached the restrictions.
That the BLM protest is a more noble cause is no excuse for breaching the rules. The law should be applied to everyone equally.
But instead of taking McGuirk’s points on board and directing Richmond to answer, Byrne simply ignored him. Byrne is new to the role but a crash course in impartial interviewing may be a good idea.
Solomon’s book on housework a chore
REALITY star Stacey Solomon was on the Ryan Tubridy Show this week promoting her book How to Hang Clothes. That’s not the actual title of her ‘book’ but I refuse to give her ‘book’ a free plug. It is objectionable that publishers even think that this sort of tripe is needed. It is nothing but a waste of good paper.
How women [not being sexist as the ‘book’ is marketed at women] survived centuries of housework without having some self-help guide is one of life’s great mysteries.
Solomon and fellow cleaning gurus, such as Mrs Hinch, really think they have hit on the holy grail of chores.
And what’s worse is they have somehow managed to convince oth
that an idiot’s guide to washing up is necessary. It’s really not that hard. Water, wash, rinse, repeat.
Snap judgment on Elliott was right
‘WHAT about the poor staff,’ whined a handful of supporters of embattled horse trainer Gordon Elliott after he was snapped sitting on a dead horse and the image went viral.
The same supporters queued up to dismiss Elliott’s cretinous act as a ‘moment of madness’.
‘You’re not talking only about one man here, there’s also 60 or 70 families who have their breadwinner working in that yard and who love their horses.
‘To take the belly out of their lives is horrendous,’ said fellow trainer Tony Mullins.
Following that logic if, as Mullins claims, Elliott is an upstanding man who genuinely has the welfare of his animals at heart, then he should pony up and put his money where his heart is.
Elliott could offer his stables to the likes of animal rescue My Lovely Horse for a year or so to ease the burden on this charity. My Lovely Horse volunteers are out day and night collecting broken and abused horses from mountains and fields all over the country.
So, giddy up Gordon, and back a charity for a change. You never know, you might even come back a winner.
GDPR a rubbish law that aids f ly-tippers
THE GDPR law has to be the most ill-thought out piece of legislation ever inflicted upon us. Ever since it became law GDPR has been used as nothing but a sinister shield for people to hide their dirty deeds.
Senator Mark Wall has claimed that tackling illegal dumping costs local authorities €90m per year.
But they are powerless to combat this scourge as CCTV has now been discarded as it is deemed a breach of data protection. Nobody is advocating a surveillance society but some of our citizens are far from upstanding and they should be outed as such – not protected by this pile of legislative garbage.
Lovers’ tiff goes up a gear – and we love it
HELL hath no fury like a woman scorned. And one woman’s scorn turned fast and furious as she ‘borrowed’ her former boyfriend’s Audi after a lovers’ tiff. But the tiff turned into a high-speed chase down the M50 and back with 10 Garda squad cars in hot pursuit as the clearly upset driver simply wanted to put some distance between herself and her man.
And while there is no condoning speeding, one can have some sympathy for a fellow female when men grind our gears.
So while no one was hurt in the car chase, the event – which the driver live-streamed and took her followers along for the ride – did have the effect of giving the nation a little lift and laugh after months of living life in the lay-by.
The one person who didn’t see the funny side was her fella. While still claiming to be her love he also berated her car antics saying she had reduced him to a national laughing stock and posted on her page that ‘I love you …..but everyone’s laffin [sic] at me’.
And while her reaction to their couple’s quarrel may be a tad over-dramatic she is now hailed as a legend among women.
And also a benchmark when men claim that their ladies are over-reacting.