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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Fuss over royal wedding a perfect example of our dumbed down society

Posted on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 10:04 PM

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No I was not one of those who set the alarm clock for 4.a.m this Friday morning

Unlike millions I slept soundly while the sound and fury signifying nothing from London blathered on.

As an Irishman, there are many things about Britain that I deeply like.

Royalty is not one of them.

The British have a great culture: they gave the world soccer, rugby and much of modern democracy. I love London, The Beatles, their chocolate and the ordinary British bloke or gal. Just not their royal family.

I don't believe in what Warren Buffett has termed the "lucky sperm" club, the notion that because of an accident of birth, you are entitled to great privilege. I'm sure Prince William is a splendid fellow, but his list of real accomplishments is pitifully small.

Kate Middleton seems a perfectly nice young woman but has never worked a real day in her life. Yet the world is supposed to believe that the marriage of the two will produce what, exactly?

As Princess Diana put it when her two kids were born, "an heir and a spare" is really the only future requirement for Kate and Will.

Lie back and think of England, Kate.

I also object to the sectarian nature of British royalty. No Catholic can become king or queen, an archaic ban that should have been done away with generations ago.

If Kate had been unlucky enough to be of that faith, she would never have been allowed to set foot in Buckingham Palace -- an inconvenient truth, perhaps, and one that is not widely discussed in the ogling media, who are acting collectively like love-struck teenagers.

The sugary confection of a royal wedding is perfect for our frivolous times. This has been a week of fuss and feathers about birth certificates and royal weddings. Such conceits drown out any real discussion of war, collapsing economies or real suffering.

That great Englishman George Orwell had it right in his novel "1984": we are being fed the equivalent of soma on a weekly basis lest we worry our pretty heads about real issues.

We are truly in the Orwellian century. As that great Englishman Shakespeare had Miranda remark, "O brave new world! That has such people in it!"

He was being ironic -- I think.

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FallsRNat | May 04, 2011, 06:42 PM EDT

paddyRanger - why not, u don't think that for a minute the 1m brits in Ulster will want to leave their kith & kin who are buried there, they will want to repatriate the bodies, it's a perfectly natural exchange, sirpeter et al say the brits must go home then it's only right that the irish in the UK (who have paid lip service to the RA) are sent back to their UI.

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paddyRanger | May 04, 2011, 12:49 PM EDT

Wingeire1 "But you need to remember that it will not be over until British troops are out of Ireland",........and what about the Irish out of Britain then, how do you seperate something like that, and if you kick out all the irish out of England you want me to dig up my grandparents??

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paddyRanger | May 04, 2011, 12:38 PM EDT

"Unlike millions I slept soundly while the sound and fury signifying nothing from London blathered on"........the sound and "FURY" what fury, you are a bleether, so good for you that you slept through it, and it was hardly nothing if 2 billion people world wide thought it was worth there watching, you comments is pretty small minded

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Fastest | May 02, 2011, 02:13 PM EDT

Mr.O'Dowd; To further your point about all the attention the 'Royal' wedding has received, there are dozens of comments to your column, yet only several in response to the events in the Middle East.

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Towngate | May 02, 2011, 12:11 PM EDT

oflaherty:You cite two examples of 'words of wisdom' and then ignore the advice by making snide judgements on fellow commenters and even question the the motives of The Boss himself! ~ another of Twains statements was that when he was eighteen he was appalled by his father's ignorance and stupidity ~ but by the time he was twenty he was amazed how much his father had learned in the last two years. ~ you are invited to share your thoughts on the Posts. Stick to that for the time being. Slainte.

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Liamkeyes | May 02, 2011, 11:07 AM EDT

The other Capital of Ireland "Liverpool" gave us the Beatles. George Harrison's Mom was from Dublin and he used to visit there all the time before he became famous. Paul McCartney's side was Scotch and Irish. Sorry Ringo, you were only half Irish.

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oflaherty | May 02, 2011, 08:07 AM EDT

That memorable quote by Mark Twain "Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt" applies on so many levels here! Or as my Dublin mother might say - If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. What do you think, Niall? Methinks you wrote this column just to create a stir.

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Aughavey | May 02, 2011, 06:29 AM EDT

seanmelbourne said " to remind them as to who is in charge." ..erm the Royals are totally symbolic - the elected government of the UK has all the power - funny some are linking this with the Dutch William of Orange as it was his deposing the King James of England and JOINTLY ruling with his Queen (King James niece) that ushered in many changes diminishing the powers of Monarchy and conferring them on Parliament. `The Glorious Revolution`. Williams League of Augsburg (with support from the Vatican) was about countering King Loui of France with whom King James was in cahoots with - not quite the simplistic `enforcing protestant rule` being portrayed here.

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RedBranch | May 01, 2011, 05:40 PM EDT

That would be 'great Englishman' Huxley with the soma Niall, Not the socialist Orwell; he did telescreens, doublespeak, etc. etc. I'd be glad to proofread your copy in the future if you think you need it. BTW Miranda wasn't being ironic - I think.

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casualMBA | May 01, 2011, 05:14 PM EDT

Seems as though there are at least two factors working here. One, the Irish (gals, in particular) fascination with the royals, and, two, Irish(and young women's) fascination(?) with marriage as a (?) triumph of love. May also be fear. Fear of disintegrating relationships in a stressful modern world, and in Irish families, and a desire to focus on the positive aspects of a royal wedding today, and not one's carbon footprints.

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LoveDoolin | May 01, 2011, 11:53 AM EDT

I love tradition, and this wedding was about tradition. The Royal Family coughed up the millions to pay for the extravaganza. Had Will/Kate eloped or had a private ceremony somewhere, not only would the Brits been outraged, so would the rest of the world. I myself did set my alarm for 4:00 a.m. and stayed glued to the TV all day. It was a feel-good event at a time when there is little to feel good about. It proves dreams can come true and keeps us all optimistic about the future.

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DanOLoingsigh | Apr 30, 2011, 08:36 PM EDT

seamusmoore - In 1807 Britain’s Royal Navy begin patrols of the African coast to arrest slaving vessels - by 1865, nearly 150,000 people had been freed by British Navy anti-slavery operations.

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seanomelbourne | Apr 30, 2011, 07:45 PM EDT

"It,s fairytale stuff" mcdolan the wedding is over and the humdrum is still with us.A medieval circus,a bunch of robber barons celebrating the wedding of one of there own.Displaying their ill gotten wealth to the masses to remind them as to who is in charge.

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jacersagain | Apr 30, 2011, 07:37 PM EDT

Actually, I think Niall might have a point about Irish people being dumbed-down by this quintessentially British event. Perchance, I passed a group of Irish women (and a few men) watching the wedding event live on television just after 11 am Irish time on Friday. If I’d have had a camera on me I would have snapped the very vision that Niall speaks of... the women were all of different ages but their facial expressions showed they were mesmerised, dumb-struck by what they were looking at, eyes a-popping, smiles from ear to ear, clear delight in their faces. Yep, they were all dumbed down alright. And they'll do exactly the same when the British queen visits the country that her family forebears viciously ruled for centuries. God help us Irish.

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Towngate | Apr 30, 2011, 04:51 PM EDT

God,Niall, you are sure taking a licking on this subject, but I have no doubt you will survive. I will steer it back to a germaine question: The Irish element of the wedding. There may be intentional signals as to deeply held Royal views on the future of Ireland. The Queen rarely makes a move without considerable deliberation and I have no doubt that the Carrickfergus Title connecting Prince William to William of Orange's landing there before putting an end to a Catholic Monarchy in Britain and Ireland, is intended. What niggles me is; that to do so this close to her State Visit to the Irish Republic appears to be ill-advised and combined with Irish President Mary MacAleese who invited her not being asked to the wedding, compounds it. I believe The Queen and her Palace advisers have made a serious psychological misjudgement on this matter and it could well temper the nature of her welcome to the Irish Republic next month. Or even cause it to be cancelled!!

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