'Miss Piggy' TDs are an embarrassment to the Irish parliament
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 11:24 AM
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Today's news that Independent TDs Mick Wallace (left) and 'Ming' Flanagan have been forced to apologize after being caught slurring another parliamentarian 'Miss Piggy' is hardly a surprising revelation.
Wallace is the same TD (broadly Congressman) who is supposedly planning on defying a planned new dress code for the parliament by continuing to wear his bright pink t-shirts to parliamentary sessions, and whose previous summer employment includes stints working as a human scarecrow (as well as a property developer, before apparently realizing that politics was his calling), while 'Ming' Flanagan (real name Luke) is a West of Ireland TD whose persona revolves primarily around his much publicized use of, and campaign for the legalization of, cannabis, and who has previously served jail time for refusing to pay a littering fine.
And while it may be pushing it a bit to say that for Wallace the Miss Piggy remark and his trademark bright, pinks shirts are in any way connected, they do demonstrate a creeping disregard for decorum and the office of a TD at Ireland's upper legislative chamber that seems to have been picking up steam in recent years.
Green Party TD Paul Gogarty's famous "f**k you" lashout at Labour Deputy Éamonn Stagg, which supposedly prompted concerned members of parliament to hastily draft an experimentary list of outlawed words which could not be uttered while debating in the Dáil, was probably the most shocking example of this, at least in recent parlimentary memory, but the Ceann Comhairle - the officer of the Irish parliament responsible (among other things) for keeping order and keeping the day's agenda going - seems to have been getting a good bit of vocal training recently in his usually futile efforts to quell unruly TDs and their often chaotic arguments.
Kerry politician and scion of the infamous Healy-Rae political dynasty Michael Healy Rae could also be added to this list of less than exemplary TDs, after a tabloid's Freedom of Information request unearthed the fact that he had used, or authorized his staff to use, the parliament's telephones to try convince people to vote for him on a televised gameshow - Celebrities Gone Wild - which he was competing in at the time (the end to this story is that Healy-Rae was unapologetically sacked from a State board and forced to pay back the phone bill as a result).
Irish members of parliament have also taken very strongly to using Twitter as a means of communicating with constituents in recent times, as well, of course, as gossiping about one another, and it was a Tweet from Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney that set the wheels of the whole 'Gargle-gate' scandal in motion (in which Cowen allegedly came on national radio while still badly hungover).
So it may just be me, but it does seem as if Irish politics is headed on a downward spiral, at least so far as decorum and the respectability of some of its members is concerned, and while it's one thing for the country to descend into financial chaos, forced emigration, etc, it's quite another for a situation in which public representatives are allowed debate issues of national importance while dressed as if they're heading for the beach, call other members of parliament 'Miss Piggy', swear at each other, and use the chamber's telephones to try win votes for Celebrities Gone Wild to be allowed persist. Collectively, it risks turning the whole business of national politics into little more than a thinly glorified farce -- and that will do nothing to aid its already damaged image.
As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said during a celebrated farewell address before the British parliament, the people in politics are a direct reflection of the greatness of the political system itself. Unfortunately it seems as if that's a lesson that some of our own Deputies could learn.
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Towngate | Jul 16, 2011, 11:58 AM EDT
Thanks GD I know about them from all their "drinking whisky and rye" on the day the music died! ~ but I was just reflecting the term mamagee used. ~ so tell me: What are " good ol' 'down-home' boys and how do they differ. ~~~ Btw: you didn't answer what kinda "Southern Gentleman" ya are? We'd love ta know!
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GeorgeDillon | Jul 16, 2011, 10:54 AM EDT
Towngate: "those good ol' down to earth lads". In my part of the world we are referred to as Good Old Boys.
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Towngate | Jul 15, 2011, 04:56 PM EDT
George! Your self description shocks me! What kind of S/G are you? ... on the lines of 'Boss Hogg', Jed Clampett,'Big Daddy' or Rock Hudson in "Giant"? How big's the Plantation and is "da'oid bid'nis" still pumping away? ~~~ Wonder y'all can faaand the taaaam fer us little folks! Don't worry about MamaGee ~ she lying out on a sweet-potatoe bank staring up adda moon wid a biiig smaaaaaal on her face, remindanissin' of the last good 'banter' she had wid those good ol' down to earth lads! Yes, Sirreeeee!
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GeorgeDillon | Jul 14, 2011, 10:09 AM EDT
I wouldn't like to be a fly on the wall when Moma Ginnty is gossiping with her cronies. I'm a Southern gentleman, I was raised to have standards. With all that cussing and obscenity I'd have to wash out my ears!
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mamaginnty | Jul 14, 2011, 06:38 AM EDT
T.D. are embaressed, Oh dear. A bit of banter from the down to earth lads. would love to be a fly on the wall when the T.Ds in silk suits whisper about each other.
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Towngate | Jul 13, 2011, 06:35 PM EDT
Oh,dear, Up and Out! ... what are we to do with you,at all. You've taken a little pop at me for no reason rather than address the topic and you couldn't be more wrong.I promise! ~ ~ ~ Now, the important thing is that I have since seen a photo of the individual and listened to the Tape of the offending comment made my TD Wallace and note that no less a personage than - the man to watch for the future - TD Shane Ross, has also been implicated which convinces me that this is developing into an 'anti independents' push. Although TD Mary O'Conner herself has said plainly that she is "over it" and "there are more important things than... (herself), she gives Mr Mick Wallace all credit for accepting full responsibility for the remark and making no less that eight attempts to apologise to her personally - none of which she had accepted. On Newstalk she stated it was "...three lads bantering" and added that she " . . . was over it". I hope they get themselves sorted out and get on with repairing the country. ...but it just goes to shows how careful everyone has to be, especially in these very sensitive irish times!!
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themurphia | Jul 13, 2011, 03:56 PM EDT
Ahh now eiriamach..don't you know he is part of the meeja mafia and they look after their own...not a good positon for a potential presidential candidate to 'alien'ate half of the electorate...sure wasn't it a black day when women got the vote...a chara...not a term familiar to David Cameron I'm sure....
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eiriamach | Jul 13, 2011, 03:16 PM EDT
Towngate must be in training for a run at a TD position himself. He has the sexist pr*ck qualification for the job "mastered," it seems.
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Towngate | Jul 13, 2011, 01:42 PM EDT
Sunnyside: - don't be too hard on Danny. Its just a bit of fun disguised as a bit of fun! ~ Behind it though, is an attack on four independant TD as the same time. A proposal for an official 'Dress Code' in the Dail is mooted as a further 'attack' on the indo's who have formed themselves into a body called 'The Technical Group', I believe, as this gives them formal speaking rights. ~ The only 'fault' I find in Danny's piece is that he has erred on the side of Gentlemanly Courtesy by not publishing the name or shape of the female person in question, presumably to spare her blushes. This is misguided as it's only when we see her for ourselves, can we make up our minds if Mick Wallace's description was Rude or Right!
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Sunnyside | Jul 13, 2011, 12:40 PM EDT
This is a non-story, yet it's a story which Danny Boy has managed to write a story full of inaccuracies about. The profession of journalism suffers similar farcical image when ill informed articles such as this are published.
The TD's in question, were having a private conversation amongst themselves, whereby they were inadvertently picked up on the microphone system. The 3 TD's involved have all publicly apologised and the TD referred to has accepted this apology.
Now just what Micheal Healy Rae has to do with this story is beyond me. He didn’t instruct any employees of his to make phone calls as he was not a TD at the time and neither was he forced to make a repayment. He made a repayment voluntarily.
And why bother mentioning Minister Coveney and twitter in the article in the first place? What possible relevance does that have??
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Towngate | Jul 13, 2011, 12:03 PM EDT
I blame the man who left the mick on! Can't they do anything right? ~ ~ ~ As for decency and decorum in the chamber,Danny, when was there ever that? - They've always been just a bunch of bag-suited pea-brains,pulling the wool and making a fast buck! - they all'think',look,and sound as if they are in The Muppet Show - but without the laughs! Don't worry, either, about the downward spiral,Danny. It's already at the bottom.
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biggles008 | Jul 13, 2011, 12:02 PM EDT
He looks like Mr. Piggy
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themurphia | Jul 13, 2011, 11:54 AM EDT
The shameful thing is that they just don't 'get it'...apart from the extreme case of pots and kettles...haven't they got any mirrors in Ireland...the attitude to women in Ireland generally and politics in particular is just so neanderthal...Just look at the make-up...no pun intended of the Cabinet...As far as the bhean TD is concerned she is on record as having defended her own slightly unusual choice of business attire...So I agree the House rules need to be more rigorously applied...if she's a muppet does that make sartorially disadvantaged fascisti...Wallace and Gromit?
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