Why repeat the mistakes of the 1980s when it’s so much easier to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s instead? This, essentially, is the position of the all-party Oireachtas committee on the constitution. After much deliberation, it has decided that the definition of the family enshrined in Eamon de Valera’s 1937 constitution does not require updating for the 21st century.
Irish society may have changed beyond recognition in the past 70 years, but, as far as our politicians are concerned, its basic unit still comes in antique weights and measures. A family, they say, can only exist if bound by marriage, and no other domestic arrangement is worthy of the name.
This unseemly retreat to De Valera’s archaic pieties is born of pure political expediency. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Progressive Democrat members of the committee apparently believe that any attempt to broaden the constitutional definition of family would inevitably lead to a referendum on gay marriage that, in turn, would reignite the acrimonious social divisions that accompanied the divorce and abortion referendums of the 1980s.
In their eagerness to avoid a divisive debate, however, these spineless time-servers effectively endorse a divisive reality, an outmoded constitution that protects one narrow kind of family and condemns all others to second-class citizenship.
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But then such moral cowardice is nothing new. De Valera’s 1937 constitution was itself a work of political expediency.
Traditionally, Irish people always had a loose, almost tribal definition of family. By restricting his constitution’s definition to one based on marriage, and by exalting the stay-at-home mother above all else, De Valera was simply appeasing the prevailing preoccupations of the Catholic church.
In his 1930 encyclical, Pope Pius XI had declared that “if the woman descends from her truly regal throne to which she has been placed within the walls of the home . . . she will become as among the pagans, the mere instrument of man”.
De Valera’s definition of the family resounds with echoes of this medieval claptrap. It is, therefore, an insult to married people as much as single parents, divorced couples, same-sex unions and anybody else you care to mention.
By shrinking from recommending constitutional reform, the Oireachtas committee threatens the foundation of the progressive legislative changes — in terms of civil partnerships — that it has proposed. Its members should go back to the drawing board — or do us all a favour and spend more time with their families.
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Chomsky preaches to the converted
Manufactured media consensus is a central target of Noam Chomsky, the revered American linguist and left-wing activist who visited Ireland last week. Ironically, however, his host, Amnesty International, has been accused of media manipulation in its handling of the visit.
Chomsky was clearly invited here to preach to the converted. Admission to his lecture at Dublin’s RDS about President George W Bush’s so-called “war on terror” was restricted to Amnesty members. Some press outlets, meanwhile, say they were denied access to the event. Chomsky gave only two broadcast interviews: one to Eamon Dunphy on Newstalk 106, official sponsors of the visit, and another to Mark Little of RTE’s Prime Time.
Little made some attempt to challenge Chomsky, but even this mildly combative encounter was constrained by time limitations and Chomsky’s irritation with his interlocutor’s insolence.
In Ireland, Chomsky’s anti-war and anti-Bush views are positively mainstream, so there was something vaguely absurd about Amnesty’s efforts to present his opinions as the voice of dissent, while shielding him from potentially tough questions.
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Safety is a blind spot for the truckers, even if tolls are not
The truckers were mad as hell and they weren’t going to take it any more. Last Monday, 70 lorry drivers participated in the Irish Road Haulage Association’s “no-pay day” protest at the M4 toll plaza near Enfield, clogging up the new motorway for two hours. The source of the drivers’ annoyance is the €6.20 toll on trucks, which hauliers regard as punitive.
In stark contrast to the industry’s fury about this issue is its silence about the threat to human life posed by the inadequate safety features of many of the juggernauts on our roads.
Last week, a Dublin coroner’s court jury recommended the mandatory installation of additional mirrors and sensors in large vehicles to help eliminate drivers’ blind spots. This followed an inquest into the death of an 80-year-old man who was killed by an articulated lorry while crossing the road.
Eight similar deaths involving large vehicles hitting cyclists or pedestrians who were not visible to the drivers have occurred in the past two years in Dublin alone. Two of the dead were mothers wheeling buggies. Yet we haven’t heard a peep of protest from the truckers.
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There is obviously more than one kind of driver blind spot.
Kiss a hag and see what happens
Niall of the Nine Hostages, the 5th-century warlord, may have been Irish history’s most successful swordsman, but, unfortunately, his wooing technique offers few pointers for today’s would-be Romeos.
Scientists say one in 12 Irishmen are probably descended from the priapic Niall. But we know little about how this reportedly unprepossessing figure managed to bed so many women. Legend has it, though, that Niall spent a great deal of time smooching with what are described as “repulsively ugly old hags” who, once kissed, revealed themselves to be “radiantly beautiful maidens”.
His greatest achievement, it seems, was the discovery of beer goggles.
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Gardai apprehended Collins after spotting him driving erratically. On arrest, he admitted having had “several pints and some vodka”. However, he then refused to be properly breathalysed. “He kept interrupting me and telling me how educated he was,” said the arresting garda, Colm Reid.
Predictably, Collins also seemed determined to portray his arrest as a conspiracy. “He was talking about corruption and kept referring to Eamon Dunphy and Liam Lawlor,” said Reid.
An addiction to blaming others for self-inflicted woes is clearly difficult to kick.