Paul Malpas

When I was writing my blogs Dereliction of Duty on17 January and Small Town Ireland on 7 January 2010 I thought I was the only wronged person in Ireland, now after the article on page 16 of the Independent 23 January 2010 and the Pat Kenny show, The Frontline, on 25 January 2010, both regarding modern estates being left with poor infrastructure by indolent and grasping builders, I now realize I am one of many thousands.  Probably anyone who has bought a new house in the last 15 years qualifies for my status.  We all paid over the top prices for sub-standard goods that we understood the Government, the Local Authorities, the professions and the manufacturer, who because of his need to ensure his abidance by the rules and laws  set out by the first three institutions, would produce reasonably perfect specimens of their type.  All fit for purpose, all ready to last well into the years to come.  Alas and alack.

These sub-standard goods or modern houses, as we tend to call them are littering Ireland and will cause grief to owner and a financial burden for the taxpayers of Ireland for generations to come.  Surely if you buy say a refrigerator from a showroom and it does not work properly, under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 you can ask the manufacturer to repair the faults immediately or make the retailer replace it with a similar or a different model of choice to the same financial level.  Why cannot we do this with builders?  Why?, because if we did this there would be no builders left.  So before we waste time and money on builders, let the Banks quickly call in the loans that most of them seem to have, thus ridding this country of  “this vile pestilence”  and then we can attack the Local Authorities and their financial stewards, the Government, who will at the end of the day have to pick up the tab for this shoddy workmanship.  Another catastrophe for Ireland, another 5 cents in the euro rise in income tax, which as the taxpayer is at this moment bailing out the Banks, he will not shirk at putting the builder’s work to rights.  What a superbly fit, flexible and workmanlike person is the taxpayer.  On top of all this there should be a national award given to any builder, engineer and local authority who can prove that they have either built, managed or overseen a modern housing estate to the regulations laid down and with no faults in its infrastructure.  Hens teeth come to mind.

The Pat Kenny show picked up this really massive problem and gathered together a very angry but eloquent audience who were too much for Mr. Finneran, the Fianna Fail, centre half, who it seems, although he was Minister for Housing, had not, in true Fianna Fail style,  prepared himself fully for a subject which must be on the lips of 50% of the country.  In fact he did not seem to think there was a problem and did not really help the discussion.  While I am on about Pat Kenny’s show can I ask why is it when given such a pertinent subject and have assembled for him such an able audience,  does he not let each contributor make their point properly?  He is forever cutting people off in mid sentence or sniggering down the microphone to drown them out, presumably it is because he likes the sound of his own voice better.  To the viewer it is infuriating and it turns the show into a farce.

Hold on a minute! A change of tack.  The postman has just arrived delivering one type written letter, the solitary prize for my endeavours.  It is not addressed or signed, my fan remains anonymous.  I will give it you verbatim:-

Dear Mr. Malpas,

Reading your writings daily leads one to believe you are not happy in yourself and certainly not happy in the town you now live in.

Were you made to live in Boyle?  If not, go back to where you come from and stop slagging off the local builders, solicitors, newspapers, church and the way the Irish live their lifes (sic).  You are not Irish – you’re what we referred to years ago as a “Plastic Paddy”.

Also if you are so upset by the catholic church why are you such a hypocrite and parade to 11.30 mass each Sunday?

People like you are no addition to Boyle or indeed any town in Ireland.

Do us and yourself a favour – Go Home.

The anonymity is a shame because I would like whoever to know that my mass of choice was 9.30am and that I have not attended since driven to write the piece Once a Catholic on 7 December 2009 in the wake of the Murphy Report where the Institution of the Church was held up for what it is, a protectionist of perverted morals and I would never ever demote the Catholic Church to lower case like the writer has done.

Is it not obvious that with a mentality and intelligence that this writer undoubtedly lacks that there are troubles brewing in Ireland, troubles that possibly cannot be controlled.

I would have had a far more rounded view of this fan mail if they had just quoted S. G. Tallentyre’s words which were wrongly attributed to Voltaire.  “I do not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.  Then we would know that this writer had metal.

Keep up the love and support you have for us afflicted ones, and while we are on the subject of Voltaire, this is what he says in Candide,

Si nous ne trouvens pas des choses agreable, nous trouverons du moins des choses nouvelles. Which admirably and hopefully translates as  “If we do not find anything pleasant, at least we shall find something new”.

And on the subject of nationality, let us all remind ourselves less we forget of that old Irish saying:-

If a cat had kittens in a pigsty they would not be called bonhams

Fresh from my blog on the Murphy Report, I settled down last night to watch the Front Line.  The Pat Kenny vehicle on RTE 1 that relates to the topic of the week and this week it was amazingly enough The Murphy Report.  I do not know why I bothered because this type of programme irritates me  because of its format which cannot include much serious debate because of the unbalanced views, the lack of intelligent thought and the general prattling of the invited audience which results in this low brow type of production.  It was a pity as this subject is the closest to my heart at the moment.

Kenny was at his worst, immediately showing his biased unformed views which are inappropriate when chairing any discussion.  He also had on with him the usual stooges – a patronising, grinning wimp of a priest, Fr Joe Mullen, Chairman of the Council of Priests, who immediately excused himself and said he did not know that this abuse was taking place.  This argument is strange because any one and every one educated by or close to the presence of clergy knew it was happening, in my case since about 1961.  So why should not the priests who if you like were in the thick of it pretend they did not know.  Or is this just another lie to add to the previous litany.  On also was Breda O’Brien, a teacher and Sunday Times columnist, who seemed totally unsure where to place her argument and the clever and verbose historian and writer, Dermot Ferriter, who never really came  to the point except to say “”do not expect the Vatican to change.”

There was scattered about the audience various people who were guaranteed to turn this serious subject into a light comedy.  A dry old crone called Mary, who must have been swept up off the back door steps of Drumcondra Palace, an atheist columnist from the Independant newspaper and various old men who could be relied upon to prattle at length whilst Kenny thought of some new device with which to progress the programme.

However some aspects of the piece stood out.  The humility and sincerity of the red-eyed and abused young man from Wexford, who throughout the programme was subject to intrusive close up shots of his private anguish and distaste for some of the arguments put forward.  The determination and emotional steeliness of Andrew Madden, one of the few abused people who stood up over 20 years ago and through thick and thin, against all type of adversity thrown up by Church and State, pressed forward his arguments and ensured eventually that this horrible crime of the Church was brought out into the open.  Another man who distinguished himself was Niall Hunter, editor of IrishHealth.com who succinctly and quickly put Kenny in his place by following up the priest’s and Kenny’s inane interruptions about nuns and clean hospitals with the words “I do not understand your sentimentality in this part of the debate” which sent Kenny scuttling over to the far side of the studio to ask and interrupt more unformed and slack-minded people who could be guaranteed to let the status quo for many years to come except for the humble ex-priest, driven out of the Church years ago by the Bishops determination to favour the institution before the common good.

Most of the content of programmes like this would be better off on day time television where the propulsion is in filling time with cheap rubbish.  Only serious matters carried out in a subdued and careful manner should be debated at this late hour by informed, intelligent people not overwhelmed by outside influence and not chaired by such a populist nincompoop such as Kenny.

I have now had my say in this matter and doubt if I will ever return to it unless of couse some new feature appears or the Vatican decides to sell up and go to Mars.  Do not discount either action and let the abused have peace and solace in the fact they are now not alone.  Most of the world is with them, only bishops and priests stand outside the Pale.