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Villager

Lehman gonads

Interesting that no-one picked up on

Lehman’s testicles. In a recent interview

with Kathy Sheridan of the Irish Times,

Bertie Ahern insisted it was the collapse of

Lehman Brothers that did the real damage

to the Irish economy. “That decision will in

history be written as the biggest mistake

that American administration ever made,

because Lehmans was a world investment

bank. They had testicles [sic] everywhere”.

Unlike with tentacles, Villager reckons,

that would not necessarily be an indicator

of influence.

Philanthropist in trouble

Villager was saddened to hear of the demise

of Hugh O’Regan who, with much s

fanfare, was responsible for such ﬁrst-rate

projects as the Thomas Read Pub and Life.

Although he sold most of his empire some

years back, primarily to Simon Kelly, son of

Paddy, he seems to have reinvested too much

of the proceeds in the famous sump that is

the Dubin Sport Hotel, once owned by glam

s entrepreneur and eventual bankrupt,

Pat Quinn. O’Regan envisaged a cluster of

“eco” developments over the countryside

around Kilternan but had diﬃculty selling

the ﬁrst phase. It appeared to Villager that

latterly O’Regan’s mind was more on the

environment than business and he spon-

sored a number of environmental initia-

tives and the Trinity Foundation as well as

the well-meaning “Rock the Vote” campaign.

His plan to develop a club for “social entre-

preneurs” on Stephen’s Green was imagina-

tive and Villager thinks it a little unkind that

Mr Justice Kelly in considering plans for liq-

uidation of the empire referred to “alleged”

philanthropic purposes.

Educational élitism

Villager was amused to read the article, Am I

giving my children an advantage? I’m tr ying

my hardest in the quaintly bourgeois Irish

Times. Written by former RTÉ journalist

Orlaith Carmody, it extolled the virtues of a

Clongowes Wood boarding-school education

for her sons - “men for others” and all that.

Fee-paying is not elitist, she argues. She fin-

ishes her interminable piece with a flourish:

“we don’t have élite schools in this country,

as they do across the water. We have pri-

vately-managed schools where education is

provided by the State, and where after that

parents choose to have a particular ethos,

Catholic, Protestant or other, taught to

their children at their own expense. They

are populated by the sons and daughters of

ordinary, hard-working people exercising

their democratic right to choose”. Orlaith

Carmody is married to Gavin Duffy who is a

Dragon on RTÉ’s Dragon’s Den. According

to the programme’s website, “in September

 his property portfolio, held privately

in his joint name with wife Orlaith was val-

ued at c. €m” - and luckily it goes on

to say it’s faring just fine in the downturn.

So Ms Carmody wins Villager’s school féte

home-made jam prize for most cloyingly

self-unaware élitist.

In fact it sounds like she should be a target

for SIPTU’s General Secretary, Jack O’Connor

who has said that wealthy people will have

to contribute “substantially more” than they

are contributing at the present time, identi-

fying those earning over €, and with

“considerable reserves of wealth”. If Villager

had his way Clongowes would be priced or

fined out of all recognition and the young

Carmody-Duffys would go to the school next

door where it’s men (and women) for men

(and women) and stuff the others.

Move Liberty Hall

Talking of SIPTU, the union plans to replace

Liberty Hall, Dublin’s tallest building (City

Hall in Cork is higher), with something loftier

and bulkier. As usual the City Council plan-

ners are enthusiastic but Ulster Bank had a

nearby tower proposal turned down in the

mid-s, CIE had a recent high-rise set-

back on Tara St and of course Sean Dunne had

little luck in Ballsbridge. SIPTU could ﬁnd

themselves going down the now well-trod-

den, disillusioning process of getting approval

from Dublin City Council for the inevitable

“iconic” high-rise (with sky dome, sky deck,

sky bar or whatever) only to be turned down

after a fractious appeal, by An Bord Pleanála.

Perhaps the Unions might show how they

distinguish the public interest from their own

interest (or that of their members) Let’s see

they’re not just CORI with beards instead of

collars. How about a site swap? Liberty Hall

is demolished as a failed non-functioning

experiment, SIPTU goes down to Docklands

on a NAMA site that suits high-rise and the hal-

lowed turf of James Larkin’s ITGWU headquar-

ters is made into a park or shrine dedicated to

the Great Man (Big Jim) and the Unions, but

open to the public. Given the amount govern-

ment shelled out recently for the refurbishment

of the existing building, including an attrac-

tive theatre, Villager has no doubt if Jack just

keeps his mouth shut and organises a lot fewer

marches, the whole project could be subsidised

by some “social partnership funds”.

Mail on Sunday

Scoop Pooped

Villager sympathises with the Mail on Sunday,

the next Village as it were, in its frustrated

attempts to get Mary Harney’s travel expenses.

They ﬁnally received them an illegal month

village_oct_09.indd 15 27/10/2009 15:37:44

 — village November - December 2009

 Villager

late, at pm on a Friday, just when any sensi-

ble journalist would be downing his second

Erdinger. It was worth it though, showing

€, in VIP world travel for Harney, ex-

IBEC-head and health-privatiser husband,

Brian Geoghegan, and their lucky, none-too-

frugal entourages.

Obama, Climate

and the abandonment

of radicalism

After nearly a year in oﬃce, Obama still

stands up to scrutiny – as a heavyweight at

least. Internationally, however, his substan-

tive record is not so good. often leading other

rich countries in a race to the bottom.

During Bush’s Presidency it was easy to cas-

tigate the US’s climate change policy – which,

after all, started oﬀ as eﬀorts to deny its exist-

ence. During this time the US increased its

carbon emissions by % from  levels,

while European Union countries for exam-

ple reduced theirs by %. Ireland’s of course

soared over this period. But the point is that

everyone expected fundamental change under

Obama.

However, looking at recent talks in

Thailand which were expected to lead to a deal

in Copenhagen this December to strengthen

Kyoto, the approach was not so good. Led by

the US, rich countries came together to call

for Kyoto with its binding targets for emis-

sion reductions by replaced by US proposals

allowing each country decide how much to cut,

then submit its plans to international moni-

toring – a scheme underwritten by hot air and

wishfulness. Furthermore, surprisingly given

the President’s professed concerns for global

equity, where Kyoto loaded primary respon-

sibility on the developed countries that chieﬂy

beneﬁted from the carbon economy, the new

plan treats all countries the same.

The problem, as Naomi Klein has pointed

out, is that the side-of-the-mouth rhetoric

gives a licence to the weak of spirit to weaken

further. So the EU, which had indicated it

would spend between $bn and $bn a

year to help developing countries adapt to cli-

mate change, came to Bangkok with a much

lower oﬀer, one similar to the traditional US

commitment to … nothing. Oxfam’s Antonio

Hill summed up the talks: “When the starting

gun ﬁred, it became a race to the bottom, with

rich countries weakening existing commit-

ments under the international framework”.

More recently still European ﬁnance minis-

ters failed to agree on a funding package for

developing countries, with Poland and other

poorer eastern European countries unhappy

at being asked to subsidise action in countries

such as China and India whose economies are

growing strongly.

Klein notes that Obama-led equivocation

had a parallel eﬀect at the United Nations

conference on racism in April. After extract-

ing wide-ranging deletions from the nego-

tiating text – no references to Israel or the

Palestinians, nothing on slavery reparations

– the Obama administration decided to boy-

cott anyway, pointing to the fact that the new

text reaﬃrmed the allegedly tainted document

adopted in  in Durban.

And at G summits, especially the London

meeting in April, it seemed for a moment there

might be some kind of co-ordinated attempt

to rein in transnational ﬁnancial speculators

and tax dodgers. Glittering French President

Sarkozy even pledged to leave the London sum-

mit if it failed to produce sustantive commit-

ments. But the Obama administration had no

interest in genuine multilateralism, advocat-

ing instead that countries should come up with

their own plans (or not) and hope for the best

– much like its reckless climate-change plan.

Sarkozy, needless to say, stayed with the glam-

our of the Obama halo; and, this time, stormed

nowhere.

Of course, Obama has made some good

moves on the world stage – like not siding with

the Honduras coup government, reaching out

to Iran and Cuba, supporting a UN women’s

agency ane leaning on Israel to stop expanding

illegal settlements in the West Bank, set a lead

on bankers’ pay, as well as ventilated much

rhetoric on issues including global ﬁnance, the

Middle East and nuclear weapons. But it is cer-

tainly the case that a centrist Obama has pro-

vided cover for abandonment of progress by

reluctant radicals outside the US.

Women in the home

One of the more exciting proposals in the

Green-FF Programme for Government is the

um commitment, “to proceed, subject to appro-

priate Oireachtas approval, with proposals to

hold a constitutional referendum to consider

amending Article . of the Constitution,

broadening the reference to the role of women

in the home to one which recognises the role of

the parent in the home”. Villager would have

thought the idea would have been to remove

the reference to anyone having a role within

the home, just in case they don’t want one.

Still, top work from some lawyer should avoid

any nasty practicalities - even if the referen-

dum goes ahead it will only be to consider the

amendment. Now that’s not exactly a hostage

to fortune. Villager is as homey as the next

man but he squirms at article . wherein

“the State recognises that by her life within

the home, woman gives to the State a support

without which the common good cannot be

achieved”. Villager reads this as Bunreacht na

hÉireann not even contemplating the exist-

ence of the sort of woman who might not lead

“her life within the home”. Now he’s on the

subject of eliminating constitutional voodoo-

isms, Villager, the biggest atheist in the whole

region, is none too happy that the Constitution,

against a legal background of which all other

laws must be framed, is invoked in the name of

the Holy Spirit. This, amazingly (to non-law-

yers), is how it goes:

In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity,

from Whom is all authority and to

Whom, as our ﬁnal end, all actions

both of men and States must be

referred,

We, the people of Éire,

Humbly acknowledging all our obliga-

tions to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ,

Who sustained our fathers through

centuries of trial … and so on

With Bunreacht na hÉireann for our fun-

damental law, it’s not surprising things

sometimes get a bit strange around here.

Women writers wanted

Anyway Villager’s progressive and feminist

views aren’t enough for one Green Senator at

least. He has been taking it in the neck from

Senator Deirdre De Búrca that the Village

hasn’t got enough women it. The Senator

told Villager there were too many over-opin-

ionated, fact-heavy male articles in the maga-

zine. Thankfully she’s also had the argument

with John Bowman and Vincent Browne

many times over the years. Anyway Villager

couldn’t agree more with the need for a bit of

feminising of the mag. Village is looking par-

ticularly for women writers, to submit pieces

that are hard-minded, fact-driven, original

and perhaps humorous. Suggestions and

submissions to the editor@villagemagazine.

ie are welcome.

village_oct_09.indd 16 27/10/2009 15:37:47



 Samhain

village_oct_09.indd 17 27/10/2009 15:37:51