Can Irish politicians talk?

We Irish are said to have the gift of the gab, but is this, like the Celtic Tiger, more shadow than substance?  Let’s look at a few of our prominent people:  Joan Burton and Richard Bruton have more in common than being the Finance Spokespersons for their parties and having somewhat similar names; both of them actually talk to the camera and to other people.  In other words, they sound natural.  It’s a gift shared, alas, by only a few prominent politicians.

Brian Cowen, our Taoiseach, doesn’t talk, he growls. Being an hereditary politician, he never had to learn basic communication skills.

Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael doesn’t talk, he orates. Spontaneity seems to be beyond him.  There must be a real person in there, somewhere…

Eamon Gilmore, leader of Labour doesn’t talk, he fulminates, but that’s the house style for his party and he shouldn’t be blamed for it.

John Gormley and Eamon Ryan, both Green Party ministers, think that to wince  is to communicate.  They work so hard to convince us of their sincerity that we wish they had paid for better media training, so their effort would, at least, be less obvious.

This problem extends beyond politics: Miriam O’Callaghan, RTE’s most glamorous broadcaster, doesn’t interview, she interrupts.  Miriam needs to be convinced that other people are at least as interesting as herself. This would make her a good rather than just a glamorous broadcaster.  We all know that she’s got it in her!

Still worse is the case of Emer O’Kelly, columnist and atheist pundit: she doesn’t talk, she narks. In person, she’s charming, but she writes some of the most rebarbative pieces in Irish journalism.  Somebody should take her to a quiet corner,  sit her down, give her a very nice cup of tea and tell her to stop worrying, because the future is in God’s hands and He is good.

So, have modern stresses  reduced our verbal talents?  Or have our leaders and opinion formers taken their  media coaching far too seriously?

The quiet anti-Catholicism of RTE

RTE,  our national broadcaster, doesn’t try to reflect Irish life – it tries to mold it.   There’s a quiet anti-Catholicism in outlook and in programming: the Angelus is still broadcast daily at 6 p.m. and it used to be illustrated with an icon, but “what started as a pause for Christian prayer is now valued by people of many faiths and none as a welcome moment for reflection,” but we Catholics  shouldn’t worry too much because RTE assures us that  “yes, there will still be a bell.”

“Mass” is, of course, becoming “Service” in RTE speak.

Discussion groups on radio and television now have a token Catholic (usually David Quinn), who sometimes comes under attack  not only from fellow panelists, but also from the chair.  This bias is now so established that it passes almost unnoticed: today an anti-Catholic remark, allegedly made by James Joyce, was highlighted in the newspaper summary on Morning Ireland.

RTE’s bias is unchallenged by Irish Catholicism in its current demoralised mode of self-deprecation.   Let’s hope that the promised  land of post-Catholic Ireland will be the wonderful place envisioned by our national broadcaster.