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4 October-November
A
s we were sayin, there are moments
when the abstract lanuae of ’free
speech’ becomes a screen, an
attractive veil that obscures what is
happenin in plain siht, in dicult
times.
Two columns by the Irish Times’ powerful and
aenda-settin opinion editor, Jennifer
O’Connell: the rst, rebukin socialist TD Ruth
Coppiner for refusin to take questions from
Gript; and a more recent one lamentin that she
felt oblied to “stand up for” Graham Linehan
after his arrest — come to us in that reister and
enerate a need for reiteration.
Both proceed as if the public square were an
antiseptic debatin chamber where all voices are
functionally equivalent and the ravest daner
is selective enaement by politicians or police.
What they do not do — and what the Village
editorial blew up the need for — is to confront
the antecedent question: what should a
democratic culture do with an outlet or individual
whose output has the character of racist or
ender-hostile aitation or serial misinformation?
If that description ts, then neutrality toward
platformin is not a virtue; it is a capitulation
dressed as fair play.
Village states its position in its April edition
without euphemism: Gript is a racist oran; its
editor lies and stirs hatred aainst immirants.
One may quarrel with the usual Village tonal
excess, but not the clarity. The editorial is not
makin a delicate aesthetic judment about
manners; it is allein a settled pattern of
conduct, and on that basis drawin a policy
conclusion — treat such an outlet dierently,
includin refusin it leitimacy and access.
O’Connell never seriously joins that issue.
Instead, her unlettered article treats the matter
as if it were a question about the etiquette of
press conferences and civilised disareement.
That self-indulent misframin then does most
of the arumentative work for her.
Consider the May column on Ruth Coppiner.
O’Connell’s chare is simple: politicians
shouldn’t “blacklist” a media oranisation they
dislike, especially one within the industry’s self-
reulator y architecture. The bias is towards
procedural even-handedness — the sort of
precept that suits a rule-of-law culture and
sounds unimpeachable at rst touch. But Press
Council membership is not a sacrament that
confers virtue on its recipients. Codes of practice
are not talismans; they are aspirations backed
by weak sanctions, whose eectiveness depends
on the collective will of a confused profession
and the viilance of readers. Where an outlet
persistently propaates racialised hostility and
bad-faith misinformation, the most proportionate
and principled response from public ures can
be to disenae. A refusal to amplify is not
censorship; it is a prophylactic.
O’Connell’s arument collapses that
distinction. She treats Coppiner’s decision not
to take questions as a betrayal of pluralism. Yet
pluralism properly understood does not require
that every forum be open to every actor
reardless of record. It requires a capacious
sphere of lawful expression alonside a
discernin ecoloy of platforms, atekeepers,
and counter-speech. The latter is crucial. A
politics that cannot distinuish between bein
free to speak and havina riht to be dinied
with a microphone is a politics that will always
yield terrain to the loudest provocateurs.
Village’s editorial asks us to exercise that
discrimination candidly: if a publication’s output
is racist aitation — as opposed to merely
“conservative” or “contrarian” — it should be
treated as qualitatively dierent. O’Connell
never says why that premise, if true, would not
justify exactly the stance she condemns.
The September column, on Graham Linehan,
repeats the pattern with hiher stakes. O’Connell
Reprising the meaning
of anti-racism and
transphobia
Back then to the lonely editorial in
Village’s last edition which generated
some hostility
Issue 86
October-November 2025
Chllenging he endemiclly
complcen nd ohers by
he cue promoion of
equliy, susinbiliy nd
ccounbiliy
ONLINE
www.villgemgzine.ie
@VillgeMgIRE
EDITOR
Michel Smih
edior@villgemgzine.ie
DEPUTY EDITOR
J Vivin Cooke
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
Lenny Rooney
ADVERTISING
sles@villge.ie
PRINTERS
Boylns, Droghed,
Co Louh
VILLAGE IS PUBLISHED BY
Ormond Quy Publishing
Ormond Quy Upper,
Dublin
