Niamh Walsh’s Manifesto
Lisa lived, laughed and loved, come what may
THE death of Lisa Murphy this week, at the age of just 51, is desperately, desperately sad. I had gotten to know Lisa down through the years and I can honestly say she was the sweetest, kindest, most caring of people.
It was enormous fun to be in her company. A personality so chatty, warm, witty and intelligent. But Lisa’s greatest trait was her enormous capacity for empathy.
Perhaps it was innate, or perhaps her empathy was something she developed as a result of her own experiences.
Even in a large group, or a noisy setting, Lisa could identify if someone around her was out of sorts or struggling, or spot that they needed a friend. Lisa was that friend and lent her ear, or more likely she flashed that massive, megawatt smile to say to someone ‘Chin up. Everything will be alright’.
For her entire life Lisa was described as a ‘socialite’ or a ‘lady who lunched’, or merely mentioned as someone’s girlfriend.
But Lisa Murphy was so much more. Yes she socialised, don’t we all? It is true that Lisa liked to lunch, but everyone’s got to eat. And yes, she had her share of boyfriends, partners, and fiancés.
But none of these do justice to the lady she was. She had many knocks in life, knocks that could have totally beaten her down. However such was her sheer determination, she had a indefatigable propensity to live life, come what may.
That’s how Lisa Murphy should be remembered. As a lady who lived, laughed and took the good with the bad, until she faced the final fight of her life which nobody ultimately wins.
RIP Lisa. You may be gone, but you’ll never ever be forgotten.
It’s enough already with the language policing guff
THE European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), which is an official EU agency, this week have published their 65-page opus: a Toolkit on Gender-sensitive Communications.
The agency helpfully describes the toolkit as ‘a resource for policymakers, legislators, media and for anyone else with an interest in making their communication more inclusive’.
Basically, it’s a big auld booklet on what people in Brussels think everyone should say.
In its mission to make us all more like the EIGE, the document lists gender-neutral alternatives to use for common nouns – ground-breaking stuff like, ‘say “individual” rather than “man”’.
The document then proceeds to list a number of adjectives that ‘carry a gender connotation,’ and as such, supposedly shouldn’t be used any longer.
For example, according to the text, instead of describing someone as ‘bossy’ or ‘pushy,’ those terms should be scrapped in favour of ‘assertive.’
It also claims that people should not be called ‘emotional’ or ‘hormonal,’ but should instead be dubbed ‘passionate’, ‘enthusiastic’ or perhaps even ‘empathetic.’
The document further advises lawmakers not to use the term ‘virile,’ but proposes they swap in alternative terminology like ‘strong’ or ‘energetic.’
Rather than calling someone ‘loose,’ the EIGE suggest they might instead be described as ‘having sexual confidence,’ among other examples.
The document also lists a number of ‘gender discriminatory’ terms which ‘exclude women’, along with their gender-neutral alternatives, including: ‘creator’ rather than ‘mastermind’; ‘grand plan’ rather than ‘masterplan’; ‘host’ instead of ‘master of ceremonies’.
This all reminds me of the Serenity Prayer: ‘Lord give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the strength to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference’.
Meanwhile, gendered language such as ‘no man’s land’ is also to be consigned to the dustbin of acceptable vocabulary history by European lawmakers, to be replaced with handy gender-neutral alternatives such as ‘unclaimed territory’ instead.
Thus this 65-page ‘book of guff’ pays no deference to historical accuracy. There weren’t a lot of women on the Western Front.
I am all for including us women, but we can’t just airbrush the past for space cadets who barely orbit the present.
Everyone deserves the odd duvet day
I WOULD estimate there are few among us who, after one too many the night before, haven’t called in sick the morning after.
And we have likely conveniently omitted that the sickness was the self-inflicted effects of alcohol, not some other mystery malady.
So the hysteria surrounding multi-millionaire, newly single Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford missing training after a two-day bender in Belfast, is, well, hysterical.
I have read calls for interventions, sacking, rehab! The lad fakes a sickie after a night on the town. It’s a misdemeanor at the very best. A mere telling off. A firm wagging of fingers; a ‘don’t pull that again or else’ offence.
If Rashford should be sanctioned for anything it ought to be for his sheer stupidity.
Only an idiot thinks that hopping on a private jet, pitching up in Belfast wearing diamond bling with a ‘look-at-me’ Louis Vuitton jumper, posing for selfies, and chucking a screaming, crying date out of a five-star hotel on this particular bender would go unremarked.
And speaking of acting the eejit...
THIS week’s great debate focused on the issue of whether the Green Party leader is or is not an ‘idiot’.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary argued that Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan is, in fact, ‘useless’, ‘incompetent’ and ‘an idiot’.
And O’Leary had a plethora of evidence to support his quite strongly held opinion.
Coming to the defence of his Government colleague, Leo Varadkar countered by simply saying of Ryan that ‘no, he is not’ an idiot. Varadkar clearly thinks that simply saying so makes it true.
Given that O’Leary’s pronouncements come in the same week that the Green Party advised passengers arriving at Dublin Airport to walk into Dublin City centre in an effort to save the planet, I’d say that this is an open and shut case.