Sunday Independent Article

Bards

Guys & Gals,

I've been a regular browser of this forum for a number of months and I just couldn't let the article below go by without some kind of comment.

The article was written by Gwen Halley and as a Waterford person, she can only be described as a traitor to this City. She should never be allowed again to cross the bridge and set foot on waterford soil.

I would be keen to read your comments


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AS A Waterford woman, I have taken a keen interest in Monicagate - the saga of the PR contracts awarded to Waterford PR consultant Monica Leech, a political supporter of my beloved local deputy, Environment Minister Martin Cullen.

For some reason, the national media seem to share that enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the local media in Waterford city.

Neither the Waterford News and Star or Waterford's local radio station, WLR FM, seem to be remotely interested in the story.

Indeed, the News and Star primly admonished the national media for giving any space at all to the riveting story of their own minister and the glamorous local celebrity, Monica Leech.

And, just to get the record straight, is it possible that Liveline presenter Joe Duffy misheard Norm, the Cork caller who had to be cut off the air for making a crude remark about Monica?

Having listened to the tape until it broke, it is my impression that Norm is not from Cork but from Waterford - and that what he was actually saying in that dire accent was, maybe she's "cocking his snook" (at the taxpayer).

Actually, Martin Cullen is well able to cock his own snook.

'Able' is one of the adjectives one could use to describe the minister. Arrogant is another. Waterford is the most provincial city in Ireland, and he and Monica Leech are two big fish in a

Psychologically, perhaps Minister Martin Cullen is very much like a diminutive Pee Flynn. He needs a smart daughter he can show off - and Monica Leech is his Beverley Cooper'

small pond by the Suir - or would be if their favourite fund-raising venue, the Granville Hotel, had a small swimming pool.

To understand these two protagonists, one must understand the class politics of my native city. Unlike Dublin, which has a large lower middle class (lookat Bertie Ahern), and Cork, which has a huge merchant class (look at anyone), there is no realmiddle class in Waterford city. Just a small narcissistic upper class and a larger working class looking up at, not to, them.

The rural-based upper bourgeoisie, which has only recently (in the past 50 years) moved into town, lives in the Grantstown and Dunmore Road area, and much prefers to do its shopping in classier towns like Kilkenny, in shops like Sabo and Kilkenny Design.

On the other side is a small working class and a large welfare proletariat who live in Ferrybank and do their shopping in No Name and Barretts.

Because it has no big urban bourgeoisie, Waterford is an acutely class conscious city that offers few outlets for those with ambitions to climb the class

ladder.

One of the few such outlets is local politics, and there is frenzied competition among those who would aspire to be a Martin Cullen or a Monica Leech.

Sinn Fein has now got stuck into that scene, and they have a much bigger PR budget than Martin Cullen. During last May's European and local elections, Waterford city looked very much like a fascist rogue state.

Along the quay, practically every telegraph pole was draped with posters of the local Sinn Fein pole-dancer. Because of the acute class divide there is almost no swing vote in Waterford.

So the bigger political parties don't bother. But Sinn Fein does. For every Simon Coveney (FG) campaign poster, there were 10 David Cullinane posters.

In the depressed gulf between proletariat/solicitariat Waterford city, it isn't hard to see how a beautiful, formidable and charismatic person like Monica Leech would make a big impression on an impressionable city.

Few women can pull off an Eighties-style papal purple power suit but Leggy Leech does - and she looks much better in real life than in her photos.

Martin Cullen too has always gone down well in Waterford, which long ago realised that he was no pedigree Progressive Democrat.

Like Waterford itself, Cullen has plenty of the common touch - possibly a bit too common for politicos in his own party. He ran a ruthless political campaign back in 2002, which left his Fianna Fail running mates feeling shafted and enraged.

When he got the Environment portfolio he became high king of Waterford.

Cullen lives the ministerial life to the full. Leaving off his children to the famous Quaker academy, Newtown School, in the ministerial limo profoundly impresses downmarket Waterford.

Possibly Newtown - with a teaching staff rich in poets and historians, and a Quaker ethic which extols the simple life - was less impressed.

But in spite of heavy hints from the national media, I doubt if the relationship between Martin Cullen and Monica Leech has any nudge dimension.

It is much more complex than that. Psychologically, perhaps Minister Martin Cullen is very much like a diminutive Pee Flynn. He needs a smart daughter he can show off - and Monica Leech is his Beverley.

Journalists who get aroused at the thought of junkets are welcome to get worked up about Cullen and Leech's addiction to flashy PR junkets, which included eight junkets to flashy foreign places.

Far more important is the whole obscene €7.5m PR souffle which has now fallen flat. But even if Cullen is acquitted of crimes against the taxpayer, he should be convicted of crimes against good taste. Monicagate is not so much cheap and nasty, as expensive and tacky.

Sadly, power does not suit Martin Cullen. Challenged on Questions and Answers, Cullen gets as tetchy as if he were Taoiseach. He often refuses to make eye contact with his opponent and dismisses queries with an imperious wave of his arm.

What he needs is a good PR person.

Gwen Halley

DéiseGirl

Don't worry, nobody takes the Sindo seriously.

kano476

monica leech - good looking!?

jrd

I wouldn't wrap fish'n'chips in the Sindo. They are too good for that rag. Stopped buying any Independent publication back in the mid-90s. How many ghost writers ? How many lifts from the Telegraph ? How many stories of pure fiction - eg the ATM ripoff one from just last week.

The only way to stop the Sindo is to stop buying it.

DéiseGirl

jolly wrote:

I wouldn't wrap fish'n'chips in the Sindo. They are too good for that rag. Stopped buying any Independent publication back in the mid-90s. How many ghost writers ? How many lifts from the Telegraph ? How many stories of pure fiction - eg the ATM ripoff one from just last week.

The only way to stop the Sindo is to stop buying it.

Agreed! My father buys it every week out of habit, but I'm going to try and "persuade" him to switch to anything else. He probalby won't appreciate my input as I'm rarely at home these days, but I can always try. I usually just stick to the Sunday Times these days. It has more original Irish content on one page than most editions of the Indo/Sindo. :mad:

The Life magazine in the Sindo this week really had to be seen to be believed....but it's probably a topic for a different forum!!

merlante

That's a horrible article from a horrible paper. She hints at some of the class issues that Waterford has, but to be honest, I think she's been away too long. Things are improving.

For 95% of the article she is completely out of line. If Waterford politics appear a bit ridiculous at times, and it does, it should be remembered that Waterford is in no way exceptional in this respect. Local politics is just as ridiculous in Dublin and elsewhere. Politicians all over the country are robbing us blind for the benefit of their own constituents: that's just the way things are run, and Waterford hasn't even done all that well in that respect in the past.

And yes, I wouldn't even let her into ferrybank, not to mind across the bridge.

This is exactly the kind of 'honesty' that you get from Waterford people talking about Waterford that you don't get from Limerick people talking about Limerick.

keu

funny satire haha

jmcc

Bards wrote:

Psychologically, perhaps Minister Martin Cullen is very much like a diminutive Pee Flynn. He needs a smart daughter he can show off - and Monica Leech is his Beverley Cooper'

Interesting psychological insight there. But psychology is a pseudo-science in the same way as this insight lacks credibility. Cullen needs Leech because she is a very effective political manager.

To understand these two protagonists, one must understand the class politics of my native city.

Only those whom the British refer to as oiks use the phrasing 'one must' around here.

The rural-based upper bourgeoisie, which has only recently (in the past 50 years) moved into town, lives in the Grantstown and Dunmore Road area, and much prefers to do its shopping in classier towns like Kilkenny, in shops like Sabo and Kilkenny Design.

Or in Ardkeen or Tesco or any of the other shops and stores in Waterford. As for calling people in the Dunmore Road area rural-based upper burgeoise - she seems to be confusing them with farmers. There is quite a difference between the reality of how cities develop and how Halley sees things. Cities always expand outwards and there is traditionally a migration of the most financially able from the central city areas in the first wave.

Because it has no big urban bourgeoisie, Waterford is an acutely class conscious city that offers few outlets for those with ambitions to climb the class ladder.

Is Gwen Halley really from Waterford? Cullen is not exactly a social climber like the Sindo types. He went to Waterpark - old school Waterpark when it was a fee paying school. Waterford is not an acutely class conscious city in the same way Dublin is.

Because of the acute class divide there is almost no swing vote in Waterford.

A wonderful political insight from someone firmly embedded in the depths of the Dublin cesspool of Sunday newspaper journalism. The main reasons for the skewed election results were the lack of a Radiotherapy Facility for the South East, and more importantly the new rules covering doublejobbing TDs also running as councillors. The latter meant that big names were all but absent from the local elections and the former guaranteed that it was an intensely fought election as FF was massacred for not providing the cancer care facilities that the South East requires. As for the PDs - well they are a Dublin party and did not even hold the single seat it had on the city council. SF on the other hand got two and came close to getting a third. Labour cleaned up and this could be where some of the FF vote went. But then such brutal simplicities and political complexities are beyond the drooling fools who consider the Sunday Independent to be a "newspaper".

Like Waterford itself, Cullen has plenty of the common touch - possibly a bit too common for politicos in his own party. He ran a ruthless political campaign back in 2002, which left his Fianna Fail running mates feeling shafted and enraged.

Old school Waterpark style. No doubt he is a credit to old Waterpark.

Cullen lives the ministerial life to the full. Leaving off his children to the famous Quaker academy, Newtown School, in the ministerial limo profoundly impresses downmarket Waterford.

It does? Perhaps it impresses Halley but I don't think that most people around Waterford would even notice or care.

Challenged on Questions and Answers, Cullen gets as tetchy as if he were Taoiseach. He often refuses to make eye contact with his opponent and dismisses queries with an imperious wave of his arm.

It is called 'speaking to camera' and it works. Cullen is a far better debater than most of the intellectual midgets that populate the Irish political scene and you can tell the difference between someone who has been coached and someone who has not.

The 'Monicagate' issue has upset a lot of the Dublin PR business as they did not get the contracts. And Cullen has made powerful enemies. The whole thing end up just being a storm in a teacup and may drop from the new cycle soon. As for the Sindo, it will go on pretending to be a lower class version of Hello.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

merlante wrote:

That's a horrible article from a horrible paper. She hints at some of the class issues that Waterford has, but to be honest, I think she's been away too long.

You can see the line of the Sindo editors if you look. Big story hits the press. Sindo people don't have a clue about the world outside Dublin. Said Sindo people need a bit of local colour to balance other articles. Only journo with any Waterford connection gets drafted in to do op-ed piece. Explaining the political realities of a city that is thousands of years old in a few hundred words to Sindo readers without using large words or concepts proves to be an impossible task. Instead the journo in question writes about things that the readership of the Gombeen man's [1] Sindo is familiar with.

Regards...jmcc
[1] O'Reilly.

merlante

It's probably the same everywhere, but the national media is very conceited in this country. You have papers like the sindo and the irish times that claim to cater for the entire country but have blatant geographical biases.

I could forgive a paper for having a socio-economic bias, because different groups of people want to read different news and analysis. Geographical biases are more insidious because it is not necessarily obvious that they exist. If Waterford is not mentioned by a business paper, and people elsewhere think that the paper's coverage is geographically uniform, then they will assume that there is no business in Waterford. The media should aim to inform and not to peddle views of their own through selective news coverage.

Typically when you read an article about a rarely covered location like Waterford it always seems completely off the wall as fact is married to rumour and stereotype. And it immediately becomes clear how inadequate their coverage of that location is when they are trying their hardest!

DéiseGirl

Some of the posts on this thread are light years beyond the "journalism" that the Sindo hacks spew forth, and those fcukers get PAID to do it. :mad: I hadn't even read that Gwen Halley piece because I knew it was going to be trash, but reading through jmcc's brilliant dissection, I was flabbergasted as some of the inane comments from her. Just LOVE the one about the folks heading to shop in classier towns like Kilkenny......

merlante

I have to agree that the quality of the posts on this board is very high. Well done to all concerned; it's nice to see some analysis from others on these sorts of articles.

When you live outside of Waterford, particularly in Dublin, you really see how outsiders see the city and how their perspectives are often none too flattering. The more of these sort of topics that people read, the more people will feel inclined to change the situation. I often think that if the entire population of Waterford were forced to live in Dublin for 2 years, they would rule the country after they return home.

Aquos76

Going back to Gwen Halley, she is stuck up, and looks down on everybody. She is so full of herself, and that article just proves that. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. For those who are unsure of her backgound, she comes from a family of well known solicitors in the city.

And by the way I must be part of this proletariat group she refers too, as I was brought up in the city centre and now reside over in Ferrybank.

jmcc

merlante wrote:

I often think that if the entire population of Waterford were forced to live in Dublin for 2 years, they would rule the country after they return home.

Which of course is the core of the problem that Dublin has with Cullen.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

Seems that Gwen's Sindo article ruffled more than feathers even amongst her own family. Today's article is more a grudging apology than anything else with a few well aimed barbs thrown in. Though she does seem to have cleared up the 'solicitariat' thing. Apparently it applies to solicitor types in the Dunmore Road area.

To be referred to as part of the solicitariat is a far more insulting thing than to be called proletariat. Perhaps in Dublin, to be a solicitor is something but here it is the old Father Ted joke about the two sons - the elder of whom becomes a medical doctor.

The ironic thing is that she still does not understand the power structure of Waterford (class is not power) nor the reason why the Cullen/Leech story is a non-issue.

The reborn class warrior act is quite funny especially the "two condemnations makes it OK" part:
"I reminded her that I had more than balanced the unembellished assertion about Ferrybank being "working-class" with a condemnation of the "narcissistic" Dunmore Road solicitariat in my article. "

So Waterford is hopelessly provincial? Coming from an inhabitant of what used to be the second city of the British Empire that is quite funny. Waterford, like Cork and Galway, still has its integrity whereas Dublin is merely a bunch of villages cobbled together. Dublin has all the pretensions of a city without that crucial single identity. Linguistically Dublin is fragmented even Cockney rhyming slang is becoming part of Dublin banter but then it was the most heavily Anglicised town in Ireland.

Waterford is Waterford and the Waterforders tend to stick together against the Dubliners. After all, at the battle of Clontarf, the Dublin people were fighting against Brian Boru. Perhaps it is that attitude that is apparent in Cullen being perceived as "our minister". That and the fact that is good to have someone fighting for Waterford in Dublin.

Sometimes the "tribe" gets worked up because the assertions of the critic are wrong. Righteous indignation always works better when the critic is right. I suppose it is a small mercy that Gwen hadn't the literary depth of knowledge to use that famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt. [1]

Regards...jmcc
[1]http://www.leaders.net/quotes/index.php?id=439

merlante

Nice analysis jmcc, although I haven't read the article.

I think you're a bit rough on Dublin though. Even if you take the centre of Dublin as being 'the real' Dublin, minus the villages, then you still have a city of a few hundred thousand people, with a real identity. Dublin is a lot more metropolitan that Waterford is, obviously. You don't want to loose all identity, but at the same time, you can't read a paper in a cafe in Waterford without people thinking you're eccentric!

The cockney rhyming slang thing is a bit wierd though. Certain Dubliners are really pushing this cockneyish jive. It's annoying because it is basically just cokckey rhyming slang, which you can't really claim as your own, unless you're a cockney!