The Healy Raes

Suckit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825783#Comment_118825783

Forget learning what it means, just lose the word from your vocabulary. You obviously have no interest in ever figuring out the correct way to use it.

It's ironic.

Wombatman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825094#Comment_118825094

Michael Healy-Rae did not use "airy-fairy" in its normal context. Instead, he told an openly gay man to "go on away with the airy-fairies and see where that gets you". A very clear reference to the use of fairy as derogatory to gay people. MHR probably thought he was being clever or funny. He wasn't.

Yup. MHR knew exact what he was doing and the impact it would have. Probably waiting months to come out with this zinger that will be music to the ears of his reactionary base.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825795#Comment_118825795

Not sure why you think you can tell people what they can write or discuss on boards?

jimwallace197

You'll find Varadkar, RTE & by extension Joe Duffy are the ones who've made a big deal out of this, no one else. If the Tanaiste grew up a little & actually focused on his work rather than claiming to be a victim of a homophobic slur, the country & his own constituents would be better for it.

This type of victim hood is exactly whats wrong with this country & he's promoting it as much as possible. Fake insurance claims through the roof, people popping out 6/7 kids with no dad and blaming settled people or the government, the list goes on. All the while, the ordinary decent person in this country has to deal with high taxes, high rents/mortgages, anti social behaviour & excessive insurance.

His father was a doctor & his mother a nurse, he grew up in Castleknock, has worked little to nothing in the real world despite what his BS wikipedia page says. He's a prime example of another woke politician completely out of touch with the ordinary people of this country & trying to appeal to the perpetually offended.

But he's alrite though, on over 200k a year & will have a handy pension for the rest of his life which we'll all be paying for.

BattleCorp1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825037#Comment_118825037

Healy Rae will reflect on jack sh1t. He didn't say anything offensive to Varadkar but even if Healy Rae called Varadkar every gay slur word under the Sun he wouldn't give a fcuk because his seat is the most safe politician's seat in the country. He could probably murder someone and still get re-elected. As much as people who live near the M50 or inside it hate and laugh at Healy Rae, he actually works for his constituents and is very popular down there.

I didn't think much of Leo before, but I think even less of him now after he tried to politicise a remark that only someone looking for things to be offended about would comment on.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825913#Comment_118825913

No he doesn't work for his constituents. He robs the houses from his constituents when they lost them to NAMA. That's the Healy Rae family.

BattleCorp1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826007#Comment_118826007

I don't know his personal circumstances but if he did as you said, he bought houses that were already taken from people who didn't pay their mortgages. Is this correct? Totally legal.

Edit, just did a bit of research. He bid on one house at a public auction in the RDS. Hardly anything underhanded there.

Now, if he isn't doing any work for his constituents, how in the name of the airy-fairies is he getting re-elected?

realdanbreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825913#Comment_118825913

But,but,but, Joe Duffy was offended too!

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826027#Comment_118826027

I have no idea why they vote. This guy is a millionaire and biggest landlord in Ireland yet you had people paying for his last election.

SOrry but I can't explain complete stupidity.

If you check back over this thread, you have loads of positive stories because they fixed the road.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826107#Comment_118826107

They vote for them because the whole political game is based on locality. Who is the most vocal and visual constituent in your own locality. All the Healy Rae's are doing is playing the Irish political game, and they excel at it. This whole countries political system is based on divisional 'Countyism', somebody is from your 'county', and they are the most vocal in the media - That is who you are more than likely going to vote for.

The establishment have no problem utilizing this 'countyism' shtick for their own ends, it keeps everybody on a small island divided. That is why it exists. That's why the Normans introduced this game back in the 12th Century. And our current establishment has continued the trend. The Healy Raes know this, and they play off it, brilliantly. Anybody who doesn't like it, and I would be one of them, should come up with a better mode of system, instead of just ridiculing the players in it.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826214#Comment_118826214

Who is ridiculing the player? well apart from the Shinners who are outraged about everything.

The Healy Rae have managed to convince the locals they are on their side while ripping them off. Fair play to them. It is not their fault people let them get away with it.

Just look at the sons beating up a man over chips, shouting that they own Kerry, lying on the stand, the judge telling them they lied on the stand and then let them free. What sort of lesson was that to them? more or less proving they own Kerry. Plus when they got out the locals all patting them on the back

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826254#Comment_118826254

Yeah but none of that stuff in their personal life matters as long as your own county is booming, and they are the most vocal political entities on the scene in their own county. And Kerry is booming, Tralee is half near a city now at this stage, streets all done up and pedestrianised, college booming, a decade ago that place was half a kip. Dingle - absolutely booming, full of cultural, artistic and culinary activities to go at, 20 years ago it was just a fishing harbour. Killarney - booming, well it always was in fairness, but the point still stands, you have your own county doing well, really well, you are going to vote for the most vocal political entity going at the exact same time. Like somebody said up there, it doesn't matter what they get up to in their personal life if things are going well. Plenty of other examples in other counties for the exact same political game execution.

Jinglejangle69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826214#Comment_118826214

Mick Wallace also does it brilliantly.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826328#Comment_118826328

Kerry is booming? can you tell me what options a young person has for work in Kerry once they leave school/college?

These are the top companies in Kerry from Glassdoor.

McDonalds, Primark, Aldi, Kerry Group, Tesco, Amazon, BorgWarner, Fexco

I go down to Kerry all the time, the whole place lives on tourists and no idea how you could say it is booming when we had a 2 year lockdown.

Kerry was always full of culture, music etc. Go back 50 years and it was the same.

Jizique

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826378#Comment_118826378

Borg Warner is either gone or soon will

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826378#Comment_118826378

Well I'm the main towns every single week of the year and I can tell you for a fact that the place is booming, its a lot more booming than the current state of the county where I come from on the West coast, for example.

Why do you denote that working for a 'top company' is the sole barometer for sustainable work for anybody? I don't work for a 'top company', I work for myself, and I am quite successful so I don't see why working for any sort of foreign multinational that could p!ss on off out of here when it suits them is any sort of example.

Go back 50 years to the likes of Dingle and Tralee and try to claim the two places are in anyway comparable to what exists today. You can't. Because it isn't. Go back 50 years to the likes of Athlone in Co. Westmeath, the place was an out and out utter slum, now its one of the biggest towns/minicities in the island, thanks to politicians from the place who also knew how to play the political locality game.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825853#Comment_118825853

On the pension issue - like all politicians nowadays LV will have to wait until he is 65 before drawing his pension.

On the "slur" issue - MHR and LV should sit down over a coffee and sort out their differences.

realdanbreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826343#Comment_118826343

What! Mick Wallace is also a fairy!

Jinglejangle69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826476#Comment_118826476

But he’s our fairy.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826460#Comment_118826460

That’s what normally would happen but a certain party online mob have made a huge deal out of it

Yurt2

I don't believe for a second that MHR deployed any sort of homophobic language, and Leo deep down knows it.

He let himself down on two fronts, in the first instance sneering and patronizing a member of the house doing the clever boy act, and then like a flash insinuating MHR is homophobic when the heat was dialed up on him for doing so.

This isn't news, Leo has a mean streak in him when things aren't going his way. Leo isn't thin-skinned about being a Gay man, he's thin-skinned about being bested in the house and MHR was delivering a lesson in humility for him and he reached for whatever was in his toolbox at the time.

The cribbing about being a middle-class man was lead balloon stuff as well.

Varadkar is not a leader and he does not enjoy popular support in the country - that fact has much more to do with his personality defects than anything to do with his identity (gay, middle class, Dubliner, part-Indian background). To admit the former would be too difficult for Leo so he regularly reaches for the latter to defend himself when under the kosh from his own words and deeds.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826254#Comment_118826254

Isn't that the county where the locals lined up in court to shake the hand of a convicted rapist?

Just my two cents worth.

I actually thought what MHR said about the people of ireland looking at Leo and looking at him and deciding who is more in touch with the people of Ireland was the slur everyone was talking about..... I thought MHR was referring to LV's ethnicity.

The airy-fairy thing was a bad choice of words but I don't believe he meant it in a homophobic sense.

Suckit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118827102#Comment_118827102

That's what I thought Leo was referring to at first too. I was pretty convinced it couldn't have been the airy-fairy comment. It seemed like Leo had thought that was where MHR was going/implying, but then he didn't, and all Leo could say was 'think about what you said' and 'reflect on your comments' 😅

animalinside

Joshua Allen spent 15 months in prison for possessing £19,000 worth of cocaine.

RabbleRouser2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118827137#Comment_118827137

I wish. Had a rough couple of weeks (a few bereavements), so some of my posts are going to be harsh, and reactionary. My apologies. Grief is complicated, and I'm not quite me. I've been mostly offline while dealing with the last few weeks. (Yes, I'm getting help for it).

Again, apologies. My language was harsh. Offence wasn't meant, and for anyone I offended, I sincerely apologise.

Quantum Erasure

no need to apologise...

StarryPlough01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825853#Comment_118825853

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22076676/

Michael Healy Rae's comments to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar

CLIP • 1 HR 9 MINS • 23 MAR • LIVELINE

Reaction to the phrase 'airy fairies' used by Deputy Michael Healy Rae in the Dáil to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar

IN THE DAIL ~ EXTRACT

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

Like I say, off with you with the airy fairies [StarryPlough01: ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE UNCLEAR AND FANCIFUL IDEAS] and see how far it will get you. But you can be sure of one thing, it is not a nice thing to look down your nose at me and say what you said to me a while ago. Not nice.

 The Tánaiste

And it is not nice what you said to me either, Deputy, just there, quite frankly. Reflect on it and think about it. Just think about what you said.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2022-03-22/2/

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22076676/

BELOW ARE MY NOTES

Joe Duffy said in past months - in the Dail -  Healy Rae has used the phrase airy-fairies 4 times as an adjective, but not as a NOWN ?? as he did on this occasion.

@JOE DUFFY, THERE REALLY AREN'T ANY FAIRIES. HEALY-RAE WAS DESCRIBING PEOPLE WITH UNCLEAR AND FANCIFUL IDEAS. 

StarryPlough01: Healy Rae was talking about nonsense from Leo Varadkar and related phrase airy-fairies back to that nonsense.

A man who is gay -  Michael Doyle rang in to support Independent Michael Healy Rae -  he was the first caller to ring up the radio station and says:   (Scroll to:  20:56)

"I really don't see what it's all about. I would agree with Michael [Healy Rae] that it's very unfair that this sort of storm has blown up. I really feel it's a storm in a tea cup.

"Because when I think back to being a child, or knowing that I was gay from the age of 11 or 12, my grandmother if I came up with a crazy idea or decided to do something silly, she would say to you: 'You are away with the fairies, or go off with the fairies."  And how could I take offence?

"Fairy has been used like one of your texters said. It's a term used among gay people, and it's used sometimes as a slur against them.  But I really _really_ don't feel that Michael Healy Rae meant it in that way. I think that he meant it exactly as he said it is.  That he [Leo Varadkar] was away with the fairies. And it had nothing to do with the sexuality.

Joe Duffy said: "Away with you with the airy-fairies."

Joe Duffy then asks:

Why do you think the Tanaiste took such *immediate* offence?  [Scroll to: 22:48]

Michael Doyle replies:

"Well what I would say is, Michael or myself, or any of us when we say something to somebody in whatever way we meant it, or didm't mean it, we can NOT control how someone reacts to that Joe.  So therefore Leo, Mr Varadkar, is the only person who can say why he reacted in that way.  

"It may be something very personal to him. I'm just thinking… it's just my opinion. Something in his own life, or a particular story came to mind, or an incident that happened to him.  But I really feel that a gay man

Joe Duffy interrupts Michael Doyle here and asks: 

"Should we be careful in public discourse about the use of the word fairy and airy-fairies, to refer to people, not about ideas or legislation, or whatever?

Michael Doyle answers:

"NO.  I think Joe that there is so much that we say every day and we don't know what people are going through whether it's a woman in a domestic violence situation, or someone who is being bullied at work, or someone who is dealing with weight problems, whatever.  And we say stuff all day  every day without thinking.  If we spend our whole life thinking about every word we said, and especially in a debate like Michael Healy Rae with Leo Varadkar were, it really is off-the-cuff and it's politics, and it's quick. It's very hard to think about every word you say and

Joe Duffy interrupts to say:

"But language does matter. 

Michael Doyle:

"It does matter. Of course it matters. Yep, it does.  But I really feel that in this situation to have taken offence at that is probably going a little too far. But I will not say that he shouldn't have taken offence.  We don't know why he did. This is what I'm trying to say.  [Scroll to: 24:31]

Joe Duffy asks Mr Doyle about an apology and refers to Miriam Lord's article.

Michael Doyle:

I think the Apology might go something like this if it were to happen. And that's Michael Healy Rae's choice of course. And I respect his decision.  It might say "This is a saying that I have always used. It was said in the height of a debate."

Although it doesn't sound like an apology, I would say: "IF I HAVE OFFENDED YOU, THEN I APOLOGISE, BUT THAT WAS NOT MY INTENTION."  And I don't think it was his intention, and I don't think it was said in that way.

Joe Duffy:

Only Michael Healy Rae knows his intention, in fairness to him. He said it wasn't his intention. Do you think that he should put that on the Dail record?

Michael Doyle:

I'm a firm believer in the stronger person, as hard at it is, sometimes stands up and says OK this has happened as a result of a conversation. Yes, I don't feel that I'm to blame, but someone has been offended.  So in order for them to feel [StarryPlough01: less vilified?] vilified, I suppose. Yet politics is such a messy game, it goes beyond that.

Joe Duffy returns to {fundamentalist) Michael Healy Rae.  Joe asks Healy Rae if he voted Yes for same sex marriage.  Healy Rae didn't. He said that he was true to his values. 

….

How Michael Healy Rae and his Secretary helped a Transgender person transition over last 6 years:

Caller Tony rang up to say: ' Going back to 7 years ago,' 'Healy Rae helped his brother (36 years old) transition (to being his sister) over last 6 years - with mental health issues, social exclusion, trying to organise housing that was a safe place for his sister. "

 "Michael and his secretary went above and beyond what any other POLITICIAN was approached for help done."  

"Words can be twisted to suit an agenda'.

Tony said he came on "basically to say what Michael Healy-Rae did for his family when nobody else would do it.  And his family are "very very grateful to Michael and his secretary" for the assistance they provided." 

I will leave my note taking there. [55:38]  Time poor.  

If it helps with discussions on homophobia or transphobia, this is a positive.  Attacking Healy-Rae is negative backbiting. 

 If it were me, I would say: "I'm sorry it was taken the wrong way." 

I would have to spend time searching for this, but returning to the debate in that Dail discussion about impact on disadvantaged people with rising energy costs, etc. I do know that Michael Healy Rae voted YES to CAP RENTS. I double-checked at that time. See below where Healy-Rae supports Mother and Baby Home survivors.  

Here's Independent Michael Healy-Rae supporting survivors for redress, etc...

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2021-11-24/22/

Dáil Éireann debate - Wednesday, 24 Nov 2021

Vol. 1014 No. 5

Mother and Baby Homes Redress Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

Amendment put:

The Dáil divided: Tá, 57; Níl, 73; Staon, 0.

Ta

• Healy-Rae, Michael.

Nil 

• Varadkar, Leo. [StarryPlough01: Mr Varadkar's democratic right to Vote No]

Tellers: Tá, Deputies Richard Boyd Barrett and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn; Níl, Deputies Jack Chambers and Brendan Griffin.

Amendment declared lost.

Motion put and declared carried.

This debate was about extending the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, not allowing it to be dissolved... Government declined. Judicial Reviews that followed on fair procedure... were highly successful.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2021-02-24/2/

Dáil Éireann debate - Wednesday, 24 Feb 2021

Vol. 1004 No. 5

Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes: Motion [Private Members]

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

"I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this very important motion. It is important that we discuss it here and support the Social Democrats in what its members are trying to achieve. They are seeking fairness and fair play, with a proper listening process for victims and their families, who have been the subject of the commission's work. Extensions have already been given but the events of recent months have put a big question mark over the process, with the disappearance and reappearance of files and records. All people want is the truth and to know what happened and how it happened. They want records and a determination of culpability. They want the truth and they are entitled to it. It would be very neglectful of any person not to support this excellent motion before the House today. It is seeking something honest and straightforward.

"For God's sake, will the Government come off the fence on this? Its members should stop saying one thing on the radio and something else in the Dáil. There are mixed messages being sent out by the Government. Sometimes it gets things wrong and very wrong but why not accept what is being sought here?  Give the extension of time. It is the right and honourable thing to do. Will the Minister agree with the context and content of the motion to allow the victims to get what they want, which is justice, honesty and fair play?

Oireachtas Licence:

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/corporate/governanceAndReform/2016/2016-03-27_oireachtas-psi-licence-open-data_en.pdf

sydthebeat

Jesus, is that a party political broadcast on behalf of the healy raes ?

On this particular incident, its a complete non issue. "airy fairy" is a phrased used everyday without homophobic connotations. Leo was wrong here

Deusexmachina

While I agree that Healy Rae did not mean ‘Airy Fairy’ in a homophobic sense, I do find the ‘Dem up in Dubbelin’ provincial nonsense very irksome.

Michael Healy Rae was trying to goad Varadkar simply to score points as some sort of culchie working class hero. This kind for playing to the gallery is why the Dail doesn’t work.

The people of Kerry choose these morons to represent them. It reflects very poorly on them.