Remembering my spat with Kevin Myers

JOURNALIST Kevin Myers has had wall-to-wall media coverage in recent weeks. The commentariat have been talking about him and he has been talking too about himself. His column in the Irish edition of ‘The Sunday Times’ crossed a line, well, two lines. The piece was deemed anti-Semitic and also misogynistic.

It’s baffling how the article managed to appear in the paper. I worked as a subeditor at ‘The Kerryman’ newspaper and from what I know about subediting if such an article arrived on my desk my immediate reaction would be to pass it on to the editor. And if the editor wasn’t happy with it she/he would either edit it or seek advice. And usually newspapers err on the side of caution.

Myers has a penchant for causing controversy but it’s doubtful he realised that there would be such a furore. The vast majority of comment has strongly condemned Myers on his reference to the highly-paid women employees at the BBC, who are of the Jewish faith. I have been to Auschwitz, was there in 1987, saw the remains of the horror. I have also been to Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. And I have read Hans Fallada’s ‘Alone in Berlin’.

People of the Jewish faith have suffered far too much. And it’s only right and proper that a single word, phrase or gesture, which hints at anti-Semitism is treated as it should be – banished from the face of the earth.

Nor can there be a hint of misogyny. Women have suffered far too much at the hands of men. Indeed, they still suffer. Over 60 million girls worldwide are married before the age of 18. Women account for 70 per cent of the world’s population living in absolute poverty, which means less than 85 cent a day. We are fortunate that there are agencies/organisations out there to police all traces of anti-Semitism and misogyny.

It will be 20 years in November since Kevin Myers turned his guns on me. I had completed a post-grad course in journalism, spent three months working with ‘The Irish News’ newspaper in Belfast. And as a result of those three months I wrote ‘An Irishman’s Diary’ about my experience in Belfast. Within two days Kevin replied in his column. I was a novice at writing, Kevin was an established journalist. Ouch, did he attack me and indeed, the Dominican Order of which I am a member. He accused me of ‘tribal sneering’.

Of course, it was all part of the ‘banter’ of journalism. But I felt it was a little like using a sub-machine gun to take out a fly. Then some months later while we were both speaking at a Goldsmith Summer School I mentioned in good humour the spat that we had. Gosh did he dismiss me with a wave of his imperious hand. And that’s alright too. I can fight my own corner.

But what must it be like for the really little people who have no one to speak up for them? And that happens all the time. Isn’t that why so many people feel alienated and get angry? We can never go far enough to protect victims and support the weak and fragile.

Isn’t that one of the basic mission statements of Christianity - take care of the little person. Be kind to the weak and stranger. The day we are glib about that we have lost our moral compass.