Daily Mail article On Ireland - Food For Thought!

Biggins

I know the Mail is not the best reporting in the world but I came across a writers views in it on Ireland.
Its certainly interesting reading - if not an eye opener!

One quote! :eek:

'Ireland Co Ltd is no longer a going concern. All that was built up has been squandered by an immoral and lazy Government, by a corrupt business class. This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe. Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption, to destroy everything that is precious and beautiful. The most enchanting landscapes in Ireland have been covered in bungalows. This is a land without any values.'

:eek:

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1126636/MARY-ELLEN-SYNON-There-IS-country-worse--Ireland-destroyed-obscene-greed--Euro.html

I DON'T agree with a lot of her opinions. Right now with the above quote in my mind, I want to slap her for SOME of her too broad generalisations! :mad:

K-9

Maybe she should wait a few years to see if the UK staying out of the Euro is as good an idea as she thinks?

Barring all that, I think she's complaining we are too like the UK?

starflake

Biggins wrote: »

I know the Mail is not the best reporting in the world but I came across a writers views in it on Ireland.
Its certainly interesting reading - if not an eye opener!

One quote! :eek:

:eek:

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1126636/MARY-ELLEN-SYNON-There-IS-country-worse--Ireland-destroyed-obscene-greed--Euro.html

I DON'T agree with a lot of her opinions. Right now with the above quote in my mind, I want to slap her for SOME of her too broad generalisations! :mad:

She seams like a stable well balanced individual with wonderful journalistic skills.... mmmm...

Quote Wiki

In 1995 Synon made headlines in the British and Irish press over her affair with Mr Rupert Pennant-Rea, the deputy governor of the Bank of England. Pennant-Rea subsequently resigned. Synon went to the press when he called time on the dalliance, with contradictory statements. According to the Sunday Tribune, she said: 'Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him.'[ She told The Guardian: 'I hate the bugger. 'If you're going to dump, don't dump a financial journalist when you're Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. That's dumb.' She was nicknamed 'the Bonk of England' by tabloid newspapers after she disclosed that she and Pennant-Rea had had sex on the governor's dressing room floor at the Bank. The then governor Sir Eddie George allegedly had the carpet cut up.


ALSO: Wiki again

In the article, she wrote: 'It is time to suggest that these so-called Paralympics . . . are - well, one hesitates to say "grotesque". One will only say "perverse"…Surely physical competition is about finding the best - the fastest, strongest, highest, all that. It is not about finding someone who can wobble his way around a track in a wheelchair, or who can swim from one end of a pool to the other by Braille.'[10] She advised the disabled and blind to 'play to your competitive advantage' and added: 'In other words, Stephen Hawking shows his wisdom by staying out of the three-legged race.'

Interesting woman... SHE'S A LOONEY!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellen_Synon

engrish?

The mail is a rag. It has less truth to it than the book of Scientology

Biggins

Aye... Frakin' Mail for you :rolleyes:

There is some truth but she is way overboard in areas.

togster

What she says os kinda true though even if she is a brit

biko

Good read. The nouveau riche/bankers/developers has to carry their share of the blame but also the reckless lending and borrowing for things we don't really need.

Cookie_Monster

'Ireland Co Ltd is no longer a going concern. All that was built up has been squandered by an immoral and lazy Government, by a corrupt business class. This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe. Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption, to destroy everything that is precious and beautiful.

Sounds about right

Mingey

Your all just pished because she's writing for a UK paper.

starflake wrote: »

In the article, she wrote: 'It is time to suggest that these so-called Paralympics . . . are - well, one hesitates to say "grotesque". One will only say "perverse"…Surely physical competition is about finding the best - the fastest, strongest, highest,

Then should there not be female competitors?

deadhead13

She is not worth a thread.

asdasd

I think she is of Irish descent. Obviously Mary Ellen is angry as she was hunted out of ireland.

Biggins

Mingey wrote: »

Your all just pished because she's writing for a UK paper.

I'm personally annoyed if only she says "This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe."
- I mean, come on... and the rest of frakin' Europe is clean and snow white!!!

She does have some good points but to apply broad generalisations and say that we are all without values, I find that as a parent bringing up children with good manners and and decorum VERY insulting!

Dudess

Mary Ellen Synon is a professional controversialist - she is paid to outrage people, so don't get outraged. The language she uses is so laughably OTT it couldn't be more obvious that she's just stirring up sh1t.

Some of what she says may be applicable (if rewritten in a far more toned down manner), most of it is exaggerated generalisations.

I presume the following two idiotic responses will be quite prevalent in this thread:

"Typical west Brit propaganda"
"It's true. I've never been so ashamed to be Irish" (because of course if you're Irish you're responsible for bad stuff that comes out of this country).

manc

The article is typical of a eurosceptic the same people that pushed for the No to lisbon vote i.e. the euro/EU is to blame for all our woes :rolleyes: and not the greedy fcukers

If you read the article the quote was actually from an email she received from an IRISHMAN..............


Many mourn the destruction of that other Ireland. On my Euroseptic blog here on the Debate page, you can read an email I recently received from an Irishman in despair over what has happened to his country.

Here is just part of what he wrote: 'You live in Brussels, so you don't see the empty restaurants, the deserted shopping centres, the departing Poles. You don't catch the fear in people's voices.

'Ireland Co Ltd is no longer a going concern. All that was built up has been squandered by an immoral and lazy Government, by a corrupt business class. This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe. Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption, to destroy everything that is precious and beautiful. The most enchanting landscapes in Ireland have been covered in bungalows. This is a land without any values.'

Biggins

True but then by her posting it in the paper, she is espousing the sentiment and carrying it forwards...
She clearly has a chip on her shoulder about something.

I suspect we will never see her work for the Times!

destroyer

Anyone who has read MES over the years knows the "quality"
of her journalistic skills.
Basically she gets a thing in her head and tries to
ram it down your throat with (very often) flawed argument.
She is also the most patronising arrogant and self important
journo since the late CCOB was telling us poor ignoramuses
how we should be thinking 20 years ago.

Dudess

Well the Times did employ another professional sh1t-stirrer - Kevin Myers.

K-9

biko wrote: »

Good read. The nouveau riche/bankers/developers has to carry their share of the blame but also the reckless lending and borrowing for things we don't really need.

Indeed, if most of us didn't buy the clearly overpriced houses and want the brand new 4*4 etc. this all wouldn't have happened. Does show most of us are sheep though!

togster wrote: »

What she says os kinda true though even if she is a brit

Biggins wrote: »

I'm personally annoyed if only she says "This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe."
- I mean, come on... and the rest of frakin' Europe is clean and snow white!!!

She does have some good points but to apply broad generalisations and say that we are all without values, I find that as a parent bringing up children with good manners and and decorum VERY insulting!

Ach it's the Mail. I buy it for a laugh.

Tabnabs

She's probably Kevin Myers' cousin :rolleyes:

Biggins

Seanies32 wrote: »

Ach it's the Mail. I buy it for a laugh.

True - there's not even a decent page three!

asdasd

If you read the article the quote was actually from an email she received from an IRISHMAN..............

+1

Wanted to make that point. The rest of the article is mild enough, and she seems upset at the loss of old Ireland.

Wikipedia describes Synon as Irish-American but she went to university in Ireland, and has clearly lived here since. So she has a right to talk about this kind of stuff.

The comments are not anti-Irish, more or less anti-European.

Nodin

Europhobic paddy bashing? Tis a veritable melange of Mail stapels.....All we need in there is Romanian Wife Eaters trafficking puppy farms for a sex shop and the whole dish is complete....

DublinWriter

Dudess wrote: »

Mary Ellen Synon is a professional controversialist - she is paid to outrage people, so don't get outraged.

Well said. She was ran out of town on a rail after her disgraceful comments regarding the Special Olympics and I doubt that she'd ever find freelance work in this country again.

K-9

manc wrote: »

The article is typical of a eurosceptic the same people that pushed for the No to lisbon vote i.e. the euro/EU is to blame for all our woes :rolleyes: and not the greedy fcukers

Yep, WE mismanaged our economy, nothing to do with the Euro.

Funny, she ignores that France seems to be the model of dealing with the current crisis, not the UK. Suppose it would rather undermine her argument!

Robbo

Nodin wrote: »

Europhobic paddy bashing? Tis a veritable melange of Mail stapels.....All we need in there is Romanian Wife Eaters trafficking puppy farms for a sex shop and the whole dish is complete....

You've neglected to mention whether this either cures or causes cancer.

Have to get the full set of Mail themes in...

K-9

Nodin wrote: »

Europhobic paddy bashing? Tis a veritable melange of Mail stapels.....All we need in there is Romanian Wife Eaters trafficking puppy farms for a sex shop and the whole dish is complete....

You forgot claiming our monies!

asdasd

Yep, WE mismanaged our economy, nothing to do with the Euro.

We mismanaged by joining the Euro.

destroyer

Ach it's the Mail. I buy it for a laugh.[/quote]


I use it to clean my ass since money got scarce

deleriumtremens

Did she say 20 percent unemployment? She can f'uck off, thats too depressing, even for me.

K-9

asdasd wrote: »

We mismanaged by joining the Euro.

Iceland mismanaged theirs by not joining it. How we and them fecked our economies has nothing to do with the Euro.

It could well be our saviour in a few years time.

monosharp

'Ireland Co Ltd is no longer a going concern. All that was built up has been squandered by an immoral and lazy Government, by a corrupt business class. This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe. Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption, to destroy everything that is precious and beautiful. The most enchanting landscapes in Ireland have been covered in bungalows. This is a land without any values.'

Well, I wouldn't call it a "sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe." but everything else she says is 100% spot on.

All that was built up has been squandered by an immoral and lazy Government -> Yes

by a corrupt business class. -> Definitely yes

Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption -> Absolutely yes.

Gained our independence only to devolve into this so called "culture", a poor carbon copy of British culture with more scumbags thrown in, with the so called "politicians", I won't even bother talking about, in the so called "country" we have today.

I know the majority of Irish people are decent, the problem is the 40%+ that are complete scum, completely immoral and completely corrupt only interested in furthering their own agenda's in life.

At least if you go to somewhere like the states they have a decent police force and at least when corruption sees the light of day it actually matters! Here the more corrupt a politician is, the more popular he is.

Nodin

We should really just find out where she lives, and run up and down past her front windows whens shes there, flailing limbs spasmodically and dragging legs etc.

K-9

Nodin wrote: »

We should really just find out where she lives, and run up and down past her front windows whens shes there, flailing limbs spasmodically and dragging legs etc.

Awwwhhhhh

Genghiz Cohen

Some nice fiction to start my day, thanks OP.

maxwell smart

The Mail is well know for both its anti-Irish stance and its anti-Europe stance. Mary Ellen is some sort of half Irish half Yank with the strange idea that she knows the Irish "condition".

I remember hearing her on the radio giving out about President Mary McAleese, saying that as she was from the North she British and should not be the President of the Republic

I often wonder about people like her who write for newspapers and appear on radio and TV......do they actually believe the crap they spout? Or is it "just a job"???

asdasd

Iceland mismanaged theirs by not joining it. How we and them fecked our economies has nothing to do with the Euro.

With real interest rates being negative for the last 7 years the Irish consumer had a huge incentive to borrow, and none to save. Result: misery.

Biggins

monosharp wrote: »

At least if you go to somewhere like the states they have a decent police force and at least when corruption sees the light of day it actually matters! Here the more corrupt a politician is, the more popular he is.

I agree with most of your points but just the last one I'd like to point out that their police is open too for abuse - i.e. the Scientology crowd alone hiring them to do goon work very often but there is loads of other instances...

As for politicians there, the more famous they get, the more there get away with too! Look at Kennedy for example having an affair with M. Monroe then passing her along to his brother, Clinton getting "Monica jobs" done in the cupboard, the list goes on and not just with the presidents alone...

It all matters in the states, for a day or two, week or two... then they just get out the PR machine!

deadhead13

Best thing to do to Mary Ellen Synon is just ignore her and she'll disappear up her own backside.

Squiggle

Dudess wrote: »

Well the Times did employ another professional sh1t-stirrer - Kevin Myers.

Dudess wrote: »

Mary Ellen Synon is a professional controversialist - she is paid to outrage people, so don't get outraged. The language she uses is so laughably OTT it couldn't be more obvious that she's just stirring up sh1t.

+10000000000000 Wouldn't read stuff from either of the two of them tbh.

K-9

asdasd wrote: »

With real interest rates being negative for the last 7 years the Irish consumer had a huge incentive to borrow, and none to save. Result: misery.

YEP, sure €10,000 credit limits are targets on Credit Cards and I must have that 08 4*4.

Then when things go tits up, blame the Govt. who forced me to sign the agreement.

Wreck

Mary Ellen Synon is just a nut job with a newspaper column tbh. Her views and opinions are basically worthless. Ireland and the condition we are in is a fcucking disgrace, but her explanations are so far removed from reality it's laughable.

ejmaztec

A newspaper that specialises in criticising 85 year-old celebrities for having sagging tits and fat arses is best left ignored.

Dudess

Or else it gloats at younger, beautiful celebrities (specifically women) if they've a bit of sagginess, cellulite etc... just to make the self-hating female readers feel that bit better about themselves.

DublinWriter wrote: »

her disgraceful comments regarding the Special Olympics

To be honest, what I was getting from that piece wasn't "oh disabled people are so hideous, they shouldn't be allowed take part in spectator sports"... it seemed more like she was saying they're put on display for our entertainment like circus freaks, they're patronised with this notion that they're as capable as able-bodied/non-disabled people, they're effectively further marginalised and it just reinforces the notion of them as being "abnormal".
Not saying I agree with that, and generally I think she's a serious sh1t-stirrer, but I do think that's an example of a case where she was misunderstood and people preferred to take things at face value and get outraged ("oh she's insulting and belittling disabled people!") rather than reading a little further into things.

Fozzie Bear

Whats the problem with this? It is 100% correct in my eyes. Granted it's in the Daily Oirish Mail (English version) and written by a bitter ould hag but can anyone actually disprove the points she has made?

"Ireland Co Ltd is no longer a going concern. All that was built up has been squandered by an immoral and lazy Government, by a corrupt business class."

Spot on. The Celtic Tiger was hunted down, slaughtered and skinned by the bloated fat developers, builders, estate agents and banks of this country. They were helped in this by their lobby groups like the CFI, corrupt councilors, the FF tent at the Galway races etc and peoples greed, stupidity and unwillingness to listen to those who voiced concern and advocated caution such as David McWilliams.

"This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe."

Charlie Haughey. Padraig Flynn. Beverly Cooper Flynn. Bertie Ahern. Liam Lawlor. Sean Fitzpatrick. Frank Dunlop. Ray Burke. George Redmond. Michael Lowry. Tom Gilmartin and no doubt the countless more names that have yet to float to the surface of our little scum cover stagnant pond in which lies a tigers carcass......

" Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption, to destroy everything that is precious and beautiful."

Refer to list of names above. In fact just substitute the entire FF party instead.

"The most enchanting landscapes in Ireland have been covered in bungalows."

Take a drive out into any once rural country side and look at all the empty holiday homes. Or the countless sprawling housing estates in many cases left unfinished with management companies in charge of them charging huge maintenance fees to already financially stretched families with negative equitity and years of struggle ahead.

"This is a land without any values."

We have values it's just that the government and those in charge don't give a toss for them and we the public up until now did not give a toss either as long as we had the fancy house, 4x4 and 2 or 3 holidays a year.

Dudess

Fozzie Bear wrote: »

Whats the problem with this? It is 100% correct in my eyes. Granted it's in the Daily Oirish Mail (English version) and written by a bitter ould hag but can anyone actually disprove the points she has made?

The problem is, Ireland is virtually spotless compared to some countries.

"This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe."

Charlie Haughey. Padraig Flynn. Beverly Cooper Flynn. Bertie Ahern. Liam Lawlor. Sean Fitzpatrick. Frank Dunlop. Ray Burke. George Redmond. Michael Lowry. Tom Gilmartin and no doubt the countless more names that have yet to float to the surface of our little scum cover stagnant pond in which lies a tigers carcass......

Italy - makes Ireland look as pure as snow.

"The most enchanting landscapes in Ireland have been covered in bungalows."

Take a drive out into any once rural country side and look at all the empty holiday homes. Or the countless sprawling housing estates in many cases left unfinished with management companies in charge of them charging huge maintenance fees.

To a limited extent. Hardly the case in the rural midlands. A better example of nearly every bit of green being concreted over - England.

"This is a land without any values."
We have values it's just that the government and those in charge don't give a toss for them and we the public up until now did not give a toss either as long as we had the fancy house, 4x4 and 2 or 3 holidays a year.

I refuse to be held accountable for my fellow Irishmen/women simply because I share the same nationality as them. I wish people would stop thinking along those lines.

asdasd

Refer to list of names above. In fact just substitute the entire FF party instead.

I agree with the sentiment to a certain extent but in terms of damage Sean Fitzpatick leaves everybody else in the dust - and I think there is more of that to come from non-political actors in Ireland : bankers, solicitors ( wasnt there a solicitor involved in some property scam?), developers etc. Not all are politicans, not all in FF.

asdasd

A better example of nearly every bit of green being concreted over - England.

Not true. Remember the UK has 60 million people which is more people than Canada, Australia, and New Zealand combined but it does look rural in it's rural areas - the cotswolds are totally protected, and Cornwall has very few bungalows.

In part this is because the countryside in England, historically richer, is snobby anyway. Not building more housing preserves the exclusivity.

vandermeyde

" Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption, to destroy everything that is precious and beautiful."

Maybe we should let the Brits have a go, they'd probably do a much better job :rolleyes:

Dudess

Actually when someone ****s up in Britain and gets caught, they resign immediately.

Dempsey

I know the Mail is not the best reporting in the world but I came across a writers views in it on Ireland.
Its certainly interesting reading - if not an eye opener!

One quote!

'Ireland Co Ltd is no longer a going concern. All that was built up has been squandered by an immoral and lazy Government, by a corrupt business class. This is a sick, diseased, wretched and immoral corner of Europe. Self-government for the Irish is merely an excuse to thieve, to lie, to indulge in corruption, to destroy everything that is precious and beautiful. The most enchanting landscapes in Ireland have been covered in bungalows. This is a land without any values.'

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...eed--Euro.html

I DON'T agree with a lot of her opinions. Right now with the above quote in my mind, I want to slap her for SOME of her too broad generalisations!

The bolded is OTT but she has a valid point about the government and the business class of Ireland. National treasures have been turned into roads and houses instead of being protected.

Alot of greed and indifference happened in the celtic tiger era when we should have been protecting things in the national interest

Dudess

But she's so inconsistent that she'd also be whingeing about the Hill of Tara protestors for standing in the way of progress - and I'm very sure she has done. So really, she is not to be paid any heed to.