Villager - Village Magazine

 —  March - April 2012

Browne-nosing

Dermot Desmond has been pursuing Vincent

Browne for years about libel.

A testosterone-fuelled action was settled in

the High Court in  over an article written

by Browne’s favourite journalist, Ursula Halligan,

now of TV, in Magill in January , when

Browne was editor.

As part of the settlement, an apology was read

out: “Insofar as the article concerned gives rise to

the inference or innuendo that Dermot Desmond

and/or NCB were the beneﬁciaries of contracts

awarded to NCB by the State as a direct result of,

or in consideration, alleged payments made by

Dermot Desmond to Charles J Haughey, this is

regretted by Vincent Browne”.

Browne accepted the contracts were awarded

on merit and that the oﬀending statements

should not be repeated.

Desmond also threatened to sue over an arti-

cle written in Village in  by Browne and

Justine McCarthy “essentially inferring that I

did not do my job properly as Chairman of Aer

Rianta; that I did a favour for Ciaran Haughey

and indirectly Charlie Haughey” and “insultingly”

claiming Haughey felt Desmond neglected him

socially in the years before his death.

All a far cry from  years ago when Browne’s

tenure as editor of the Sunday Tribune

was terminated by another

Alpha plus, Tony Ryan, of

GPA and then Ryanair:

Dermot Desmond appar-

ently expressly called the

Tribune to make it clear he

would not be placing any

advertising, in sympathy with

our dislodged hero.

Doubtless Desmond believes

Browne has oﬀended, though

there does seem to be an element of

keeping Browne on his toes since the

aﬀair has dragged out into a third

decade. And Vincent does have

a history of Alpha Men getting

on his wick. Villager believes

that all these Titans actually love each other,

though they have the usual diﬃculties express-

ing their manly feelings. Villager is on hand for

mediation as required.

Anyway, before Christmas, Browne, Justine

McCarthy and Desmond were ‘seen dining’

together in Shanahan’s of the Green, Dublin’s

most expensive restaurant. What could they have

been talking about?

Under-audited Red Cross

The Dáil Committee of Public Accounts is con-

templating inviting Village hero, Noel Wardick,

to contradict evidence it heard from the Irish

Red Cross (IRC), led by former AIB Ireland MD,

Dónal Forde. Wardick claims the IRC’s Central

Council members should rotate and that funds

for the Haiti appeal in  were misallocated.

He is scathing of the IRC’s failure to audit its

branches.

Gorgeous genius

Farewell then Aengus Fanning. According to eight

of your colleagues writing at length in your news-

paper you were a genius not just at editing but at

cricket, jazz and family, and you had, according to

Barry Egan, “ﬁlm-star good looks”. You were, said

Anthony Cronin, “untouched by the corrupting

forces of Irish journalism. Which are cynicism and

its obverse, sentimentality”. It was left to clumsy

Geraldine Kennedy to tell Marian Finucane that

she didn’t like what he’d done to journalism. The

Sindo under Fanning was a clever product, which

often showed up some of its more worthy compet-

itors in the quality of its investigation as well as

in the ambition of some of its analysis, including

cultural analysis. But it got Irish readers used to

women gratuitously taking bits of their kit oﬀ; and

it promoted some evil views and campaigns, such

as the one seeking reductions in stamp duty. One

Sindo journalist told Villager polymath Fanning

was a bollix and always called him Jim (which is

not even his name). Still, good luck to his griev-

ing widow, Anne Harris (who comes th in our

Inﬂuential List), one of the shrewdest in the busi-

ness, who succeeds him.

Labour Dialectic – Higgins v Howlin

Villager was always sceptical about the pas-

sion and ideologies of anyone who’d surrender

themselves to the high but inert oﬃce of Ceann

Comhairle or even, as in the case of Brendan

Howlin (-), Leas Ceann Comhairle.

Anyway, the incumbent Labour Minister for

Public Expenditure has just announced the assets

the Government has identiﬁed for disposal, as

demanded by the EU-IMF troika. Bord Gáis’s

energy business and some of the ESB’s “non-

strategic power generation capacity” will be

sold. Consideration will be given to the sale of

some assets of Coillte – excluding land – and of

the State’s remaining  per cent stake in Aer

Lingus.

Contrast this with our increasingly conﬁ-

dent and occasionally subversive new President

who, in a recent address to the London School

of Economics, quoted Richard Powell as follows:

“Privatisation is the road back to autocracy, in

which a hollowed-out state is bereft of anything

meaningful to attract the support of the citizen

– especially the marginalised, excluded from the

mainstream of society”. Former Labour stal-

wart Michael D, if we can still call him that, later

claimed that: “to walk away from the State would

be a tragic error on the part of those who seek an

emancipatory transformation in our societies”.

Higgins also has a recurring bee in his bonnet

about our underperforming “intellectuals”, who-

ever they are.

Níos Mó

Replying to Kevin Humphreys in the Dáil,

Minister Jimmy Deenihan revealed a wide

range of remuneration and expenses for agen-

cies funded by his Department of Arts, Heritage

and the Gaeltacht – with the Chester Beatty

Library and National Archives advisory board

claiming no remuneration; the NCH and IMMA

claiming €,  for their chair and nothing

for board members; other established agencies

like the National Gallery, National Museum, Arts

Council and Film Board claiming €,  for

their chair and €, for board members; and

villager

Villager



Irish language agencies like Foras na Gaeilge, the

Ulster-Scots Agency and Údarás na Gaeltachta

charging much more. Údarás which also has by

far the biggest board ( members) pays its chair

(Liam Ó Cuinneagáin) €, and board mem-

bers €,. They’ve all been asked to forego

their remuneration, though they’ll hang on to

their expenses. We’ll soon see who’s really doing

the state a service.

A board that follows plans

Villager was not surprised to see the Children’s

Hospital struck down by An Bord Pleanála

(ABP) and would love to see it shifted to Dublin’s

docklands. ABP applies the plans that local

authorities often ﬂout. Dublin City is littered

with the bodies of fat cats who listened to

planners, often led by Dick Gleeson and Kieran

Rose, who had unrealistic views of the ﬂexibility

of their development plan. Ask Seán Dunne.

Salaﬁst egotism

Now the board has also struck down the

Slane Bypass for breaching the Meath County

Development Plan’s provisions protecting the Brú

na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site. Typically,

Vincent Salaﬁa, who ﬁssiparously fronted the bad-

ly-handled litigation against the M near Tara,

managed to get his comments about the refusal

into the public domain ahead of more assiduous

appellants, despite attending the Bord Pleanála

proceedings for no more than a few hours. More

diligent appellants, whose verdict escaped The Irish

Times for example, had sat out the whole  days.

Mock a Sumo

The Irish Times’ favourite appellant is the

seemingly tenuously-mandated, ridiculously

named DOCOMOMO or more precisely “Irish

DOCOMOMO working party” whose secretary is

former Sunday Times architectural writer, Shane

O’Toole, and which champions Documentation

and Conservation of Modernist Movement archi-

tecture. It has withdrawn its furious appeal

against the new ‘Sumo-wrestler’ proportion

plans for a replacement for SIPTU’s Liberty Hall.

It seems the invective was too much for the nin-

nyish ‘party’. Indeed, maybe the party was out the

day the submission was drafted since presumably

it would have had a view on strong language.

David Slattery, ubiquitous deprecator of the

architectural value of historic buildings when a

proposal for their demolition pops up – and one-

time sensitive refurbisher of the Custom House

when he worked for the Oﬃce of Public Works

– thought it was libellous of his role in denigrat-

ing the eyesore. O’Toole had noted the Desmond

Rea-O’Kelly-designed building () won the

Royal Institute of Architects Triennial Gold for

that period and felt that Mr Slattery’s failure to

mention that – and his claim that the building

is notable only for its height – indicate that he

is all sorts of things Villager wouldn’t like to say,

let alone repeat.

“Withdrawing” its letter to Dublin City Council

means Mock A Duomo cannot appeal the recently-

granted permission to An Bord Pleanála. Villager

really loves ICTU but – for once and he means

once – they seem to be making a mistake here.

Why not demolish ugly Liberty Hall, and use the

site for a monument or park commemorating

Connolly and the site’s history, and use some of

the gaping oﬃces in Docklands as a sustainable

headquarters?

Meanwhile, SIPTU’s most dangerous appel-

lant will be Valerin O’Shea, who wrote the most

important appeal on the Mater, on behalf of res-

idents. Her Liberty Hall appeal notes that the

impact of the new development “must be posi-

tive. It is telling that the applicant hasn’t claimed

this to be the case in  out of the  Proposed

Views of the city studied”.

Colvin and Ochlik RIP

Many Irish Journalists could beneﬁt from a

little war-service. Unfortunately this most dan-

gerous of callings has claimed the lives of two

of its most fearless exponents. Marie Colvin, a

New Yorker working for Britain’s Sunday Times

newspaper, and young French photo-journalist,

Remi Ochlik, were killed in Homs, Syria, when

shells hit the house they were staying in and a

rocket hit them as they were escaping. Colvin had

covered conﬂicts from Chechnya to Zimbabwe.

Thrice-married, she won the International

Women’s Media Foundation award for ‘Courage

in Journalism’ for her coverage of Kosovo and

Chechnya. Colvin was a fearless reporter who lost

an eye from shrapnel while working in Sri Lanka

in , following which she wore an impres-

sive black eye patch.

We the People?

No-one spotted the ambiguity, for such it is, in

the term ‘people’ as in Enda Kenny said people

went mad with the borrowing and the greed. It

can mean all the people or just some of them. So

whether people subscribe to the furore depends

on whether people a) (feel they themselves) went

mad and b) which version of the ambiguity they

Up with Taxes

Villager supports equality so he supports taxes

on wealth as well as on income: and property

taxes are wealth taxes. Disappointing to see SF

and the independent left making common pur-

pose with right-wing property nuts and polluters.

No doubt they feel it’s an opportunity to give the

government a kick for policies that still inoculate

the richest. But on something as fundamental

as a wealth tax principle should prevail even in

the face of an ineradicable national fetish for

property.

The Higher Fares Airline

Ryanair announced proﬁts for the third quarter

of  rose % but what’s this, Villager asks

himself. The reason for the increase is higher

fares – a % increase in average fares. And

while Ryanair normally charge € each way

for a kg bag, that soars to a whopping €

from June to September, bringing the check-in

charge to € for a return ﬂight.

If you travel to the Canaries or Greece the

charge is even higher, at € each way. Aer

Lingus generally charges € each way per bag,

The more Spanairs they kill the more Ryanair

can and will increase their prices. There has

never been more reason not to travel with these

airoboors.

Changing Times

Interesting new slogans for the Irish Times under

exciting new editor Kevin O’Sullivan. Firstly,

comes “All Business All Week”. Villager was wor-

ried that this might involve leaving other things

out until he noticed the other clever new man-

tra: “Something for the Weekend”, suggesting

something much more racy. The Marketing and

Promotions Manager for The Irish Times told

Advertising Age of the new advertising: “this

Michael O’Leary: burrowing. Opposite page:

Vincent Browne upset Dermot Desmond

phOtOcall

Marie

Colvin

 —  March - April 2012

campaign platforms our strategy as a multi-media

player”. Beats “Keep up with the Changing Times”,

Villager supposes. Though where Villager grew up

‘something for the weekend’ only ever referred to

condoms. That’s one from the fogeys that’ll put it

up to Broadsheet.ie and the crazy young guns.

Nouning

Compelling that: the lazy use of nouns as transi-

tive verbs: “to impact”, “to progress”, “to trial”

“to skill’, “to transition”, “to de-plane” certainly

grate as verbs (on the other hand, “invite” doesn’t

make a great noun) but on balance “to platform”

gets Villager’s teeth furthest out of their advised

trajectory. Well done, Irish Times woman.

More boring than a Village editorial

Also good to see Kevin O’Sullivan introducing

occasional touches of wit and humour even into

his newspaper’s usually deathly editorials. He

has a popular touch that Village’s editor really

needs to have a hard look at. And Villager means

that in a kind way.

Village goldmine

Accounts just published (late for ) show

Village only lost €,. Really looking forward

to the re-launch by the way.

Duty, Free

Chuck Feeney has done service to Ireland beyond

the call of duty. The co-founder of Duty Free

Shoppers, the biggest retailer of luxury goods in

the world, has donated over a billion dollars to

third-level education on this island and sponsored

the ill-fated Centre for Public Inquiry. It provides

signiﬁcant funding to GLEN and Barnardos and

generally focuses on ‘social justice causes’, though

it blobbed by funding the Centre for Eﬀective

Services which sought to merge vociferous com-

munity groups into technocratic Local Area

Partnerships. In this respect it will be interesting

to see how progressive are the Atlantic-funded and

now-fast-disappearing ‘We the Citizen’ initiative,

whose agenda seemed to be primarily the sterile

procedural matters of transparency and setting

up a citizens’ assembly; and the new Irish Fiscal

Policy Research Centre.

Gormley and SIPO

Illuminating that Big Phil Hogan cravenly “with-

drew” his case against John Gormley over the

Poolbeg Incinerator – before the Standards in

Public Oﬃce Commission (SIPO) found against

the complaint on substantive grounds. He’d com-

plained to SIPO primarily that Gormley sat on

the Foreshore Licence application far too long

so favouring his political agenda in defending his

constituency over his obligation to behave scrupu-

lously quasi-judicially. It always seemed to Villager

that Gormley just took a diﬀerent view of the public

interest from Phil Hogan, one that factored in the

conventional environmentalists’ view that burn-

ing waste is a primitive abuse of scarce resources

and militates against recycling. Hogan’s case didn’t

even merit the appointment of the Investigation

Oﬃcer that precedes the possible holding of an

oral investigation.

Sisyphean SIPO

Including the Quinn case, SIPO has held oral inves-

tigations over alleged ethical breaches on only three

occasions since . With the Quinn decision, it

retains its % success rate following oral inves-

tigations. Overall,  – the last year reported

– saw an increase overall from  complaints in

 (six of which were valid within the terms of

the Ethics Acts) to  ( of which were valid).

Federalist and Liar

Funny that Che-hating Declan Ganley is back as

a federalist. He always claimed to be one, but

opposing Lisbon, which Village’s Editor says was

just good-housekeeping, seemed to make no sense

for a federalist, though it certainly stacks up for a

notice-box. Villager recalls Mr Ganley’s outing in

the High Court against Village when he agreed to

let an article that described him as a “liar” stay on

the shelves. Villager had thought public life was

unsustainable for those who can’t refute allega-

tions that they are liars. As Village went to press,

Ganley was uncertain where he stood: Yes or No.

When you decide, just let us know.

Economic Incest

The smug insiderism of Irisheconomy.ie is exposed

by the posting on Richard Tol’s departure from the

ESRI which spawned a deluge of support for this

man who allegedly dissented from the cosy main-

stream of Irish economics, yet appealed so much

to the cosy mainstream of IrishEconomy.ie. Sarah

Carey joined the anoraks to note typically: “I’m a

fan of Richard’s analysis on the environment and

waste, instinctively identify with those who strain

to voice their unpopular opinions, and am very

sorry to see him go”.

Last year, Village published an aggressive arti-

cle describing the ESRI and Tol in particular as

“patchy and boosterist, unquestioningly neo-liberal,

unempirical on climate science and systemically

ambivalent to environmentalism”. Tol’s distortion-

ism on climate change in particular caused quite a

ﬂubber in cyberspace. Afterwards Village’s oleag-

inous editor wrote to him “You are welcome to

reply robustly to the recent Village article about

the ESRI”. In reply, Tol wrote only: “Thanks. We

are considering steps. Best Richard”.

Anyway, Ernie Ball – a rare dissenter to the

Tolfest on IrishEconomy.ie – noted that Tol

authored both the following apparently incom-

patible gems: It is likely that Ireland’s standard of

living, which is already one of the highest in the EU

and indeed the world, will show some further rela-

tive improvement in the coming decade. As the very

substantial investment in infrastructure currently

under way begins to come on stream, this too will

enhance the quality of life for many residents. With

the prospect of a return to full employment after

the current diﬃculties, a gradual improvement

in the quality of public services, and a substan-

tial rise in the resources available for household

consumption, the next decade should see rela-

tively steady economic progress in terms of living

standards [ESRI Medium –Term Review -,

, co-authored by Tol]; and:

Ireland is facing 10 years of austerity. Leaving

Ireland is the best thing you can do at the moment

if you are responsible for a young family [Irish

Times, January nd, , quoting Tol].

Patchy and boosterist, unquestioningly neo-lib-

eral, unempirical, contradictory and aggressive?

Tol: Part of the Problem, Villager reckons.

Bring back Daniel

In the spirit of “Celebrity News”, Villager won-

ders where Michael Fassbender got the American

accent. Villager hopes he isn’t turning into some

half-German version of Bono. The always-spell-

binding RTÉ website (Entertainment Section),

reveals that “Fassbender has said that at the

moment his career takes priority over a relation-

ship”. The Shame star admitted that he ﬁnds it

diﬃcult to be tied to someone due to his dedica-

tion to ﬁlm. “To be honest, relationships as a whole

for me in this industry have been a diﬃcult thing

to maintain”, RTÉ quotes Bang Showbiz quoting

Fassbender who adds interestingly, “It goes with

the territory”. Great to see the licence fee going to

useful purposes.

villager

Fassbender: boring but big willieSisyphus