Cathal O’Searcaigh Mark O’Halloran The Moral Vacuum
March 16, 2008
I have written quite a bit in the last couple of weeks about Cathal O’Searcaigh and the movie , ”Fairytale of Kathmandu“. I have not seen the film and to be honest I have no interest in seeing it. O’Searcaigh is not important to me , nor are the opinions of those who choose to justify him in their various and pathetic ways. So this is my final word on the matter , for what it’s worth….
On Wednesday morning last I got up and had my two cups of coffee , flicked on my laptop and checked my emails. I had my little Sony radio sitting beside the laptop and , as is my habit , I switched it on without any real intention of listening to it…..I like a little ‘background noise’ , I’m one of those people who cannot concentrate without something at least murmuring in the background. The Tubridy Show was on and he , Brian Tubridy was talking to the Irish screen writer Mark O’Halloran but I wasn’t really paying much attention….at least that is , not to begin with.
O’Halloran had been involved in the Irish movie , “ Adam and Paul“, I think he may have acted in it but I have not seen the movie , he may have also written the script , I’m really not sure. The film is about two drug addicts . It’s a ‘day in the life ‘ kind of thing and we are invited to watch as they wander around the streets of Dublin looking for their next fix……It’s a comedy…… Before making the movie O’Halloran had followed drug addicts ( Junkies , as he called them) around the streets and he found it all a great laugh… We know this because he tells us so and he was having a good laugh while recounting the story.
He told a story about two young women , obviously stoned out of their minds , in the middle of O’Connell Street fighting over a choc-ice. He mimicked their voices ……he laughed as he recounted how these women (we can imagine them ) fought in the street like two zombies…..and this was just one of his stories…. He had lots of them , he went to great pains to explain to us how you could have great fun following human derelicts on the streets of Dublin… For , what seemed to me like an eternity , this man laughed and invited us to laugh at the spectacle of those ghost like figures we see wandering the streets of our capital city…..He went on and on ……while still laughing he told us about the young man trying to hold a cigarette in his hand while a needle was hanging from his hand at the same time…..and he laughed and laughed yet again. It was relentless….I sat in my room horrified and sickened hardly believing what I was hearing…..and still it went on …..and on… At one point there was a reference to Beckett and the absurd….but that didn’t diminish the horror of what I was hearing…..
- And O’Searcaigh ? …People keep referring to the fact that he did not feel that he was actually doing anything wrong. …How he was , in his own way , rather innocent….even vulnerable. They wonder why he seemed only too willing to hang himself in front of the camera……We all know the story by now.
But the truth of all of this is really quite simple. O’Searcaigh , like O’Halloran is a moral degenerate. These men have no moral compass to guide them. They are not even aware of the sin they commit. They are , in their own way , truly innocent….but in the wrong way….They do not understand , indeed are incapable of understanding that it is wrong , yes wrong to laugh at , or exploit those who are less fortunate than ourselves. And those who feel the need to say we must not judge in this way (they’ll judges us as ‘racist’ or ‘homophobic’ at the drop of a hat themselves) are no less morally compromised. These media hacks , the paid minions of their media bosses attempt to impose a new morality. Far from being independent they are the lumpen proletaritat in the service of the New European Corporate State. Their morality is ‘modern’ and , when necessary , flexible…….and you need a new morality when trying to justify the ‘free movement of labour’ itself the harbinger of the New European Corporate State. These , the paid servants of their press baron bosses warn of the dangers of racism while our most fundamental rights are being negated by the day…..without as much as a whisper from them. The right to strike abolished for all practical purposes as is the right to free speech….the homeless litter the streets , the sick and aged are treated with contempt , Ireland becomes an economy in place of a country and they have nothing to say…….nothing that is apart from the stock phrases , ‘HOMOPHOBIC’ and ‘RACIST’………….and like O’Searcaight and O’Halloran they are well paid…….and they know how to get an Arts Council grant….in the past we had a name for people like this ……They are the New Ireland……and they have the confidence (arrogance) that goes with new wealth……alongside their masters they have their heads in the trough and are feeding with a frenzy…..
As I said many times , O’Searcaigh is not the real issue and never was. The real issue is both simple and complex at the same time and has to do with the society we inhabit. It has to do with our values , our morality if you want to call it that. But it also has a lot to do with power and how it is exercised. It has to do with a new morality for a New Ireland and how to sell that morality……
The moral relativism of O’Searcaigh did not come from nowhere. He , and the many , the very many who stand by him are a product of the society they live in. Our education system educated these people. And none of this is an accident. It hasn’t just happened. There is , as indeed there always is , a very real logic behind all of this……there is an inevitability about it all….
………..’and we have seen it all before. We’ve seen how , in Hitler’s Germany , millions of good decent people voted into power one of the most evil men in history……and we have asked ourselves how these people could not only let it happen but be willing participants in the affair…and even while we ponder the question our poor , sick and vulnerable lie for days in hospital corridors….with every passing minute our society becomes more uncaring….the rich get even richer while the poor are marginalised…..there is a new brutality in the air…..we have become selfish…..We have become both liberal and intolerant at the same time… we are , if we but knew if , the new barbarians…
No , O’Searcaigh is not important….and his poetry even less so. He is the product of a new Ireland but more importantly the product of a new Europe…..Had he been born twenty years earlier he might have been a Christian Brother. O’Halloran will continue with his movie career….no one will condemn him , no one will point to the obscene racism behind his warped sense of humour…..The journalists of Ireland will continue to prostitute themselves in the pursuit of advancement in their trade…..Tubridy will , no doubt , continue with his radio programme……he will I imagine ,warn us of the danger of racism from time to time…..and he’ll be well paid for it too…
…………………and the landlords of Ireland will smile……..
”Sure isn’t it a great little country”.
You can find a podcast of The Tubridy Show HERE. It may take a few minutes to download depending on the speed of you internet connnection.
March 16, 2008 at 12:44 am
[...] Scoopeo - En attente… wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt I have written quite a bit in the last couple of weeks about Cathal O’Searcaigh and the movie , ”Fairytale of Kathmandu“. I have not seen the film and to be honest I have no interest in seeing it. O’Searcaigh is not important to me , nor are the opinions of those who choose to justify him in their various and pathetic ways. So this is my final word on the matter , for what it’s worth…. On Wednesday morning last I got up and had my two cups of coffee , flicked on my laptop and checked my e [...]
March 16, 2008 at 1:38 am
[...] See also my last post on this issue. Posted by sillyoldtwit Filed in Cathal O’Searcaigh, Culture, Current Events, Ireland, Poetry, Religion, crime, discrimination, dublin, irish art, life, media, nepal, politics, radio podcast, sex tourism, society [...]
March 16, 2008 at 2:37 pm
a moral degenerate? fuck you mate. my film was all about the invisibility of a group in society given the name ‘the junkies’. in fact the film plays with the idea that if a group in society remains nameless then it is easier to be cruel or ignore them. as to me laughing at the missfortunes of other - well i believe that life is an absurd and grotesque comedy. that does not mean i do not empathize or try and evoke empathy in my audience. adam and paul is a deeply moral film - but u r one of those stupid people who comment on things they have not seen and do not understand. go use some one else to perpetrate ur witch hunt u fuckwit.
March 16, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Mark,
There is no witch hunt going on here but if you go on public radio and laugh at people as you have done then I reserve the right to comment…..you are only too typical of many in Irish society today unfortunatly..
March 16, 2008 at 5:44 pm
go see the work. watch my television series prosperity or my film garage. to arbitrarily throw around phrases like ‘moral delinquent’ is piss poor opinion writing. as to laughing at others misfortune, well that is what most comedy is predicated on. it is what u choose to do with ur comedy that is important. i use comedy in my work to help understand characters that an audience may find repellent or outside their normal experience. go look at the work and then throw ur wild accusations around.
March 16, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Mark,
I have heard others express themselves just as you did on The Tubridy Show last week but they have been mindless street thugs….and your no different except that you are far from mindless….
But people can judge for themselves by downloading the programme in question…..
March 16, 2008 at 7:12 pm
ur evading the kernal of the matter. u called me a moral delinquent and likened my conduct to that of cathal o’searcaigh’s. i take great offence to that. my work comes from a genuine desire to engage with this society and in what ever way i can to promote understanding. my work has received much praise from those who work in the fields of drug counseling or community groups. you are someone who has no knowledge of what i do and after only half listening to me on the radio then slanders me on an anonymous blog. shame on you.
March 16, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Mark ,
I have no doubt that your films have recieved praise from the quarters that you mention…..
Such people are like parasites who feed on the less fortunate under the pretence of being ‘concerned’ etc. They are the same one’s as those who run the homeless shelters and the various other agencies to ‘help’ the less fortunate…I know such people far better than you and I’ve seen the damage they do…and I’ve seen it up close…They are hated by those they like to think they are helping and with good reason….but they have all the power and their ‘help’ comes at a very hight price. I despise such people…..at a very fundamental level they are the worst kind of racists…..these are the same people who ran our orphanages and industrial schools….
They are nothing short of a curse….I write about such people in my blog on a regular basis and am well qualified to do so….
I don’t know what you mean by calling my blog ‘anonymous’…I do not publish my address for obious reasons but anyone wishing to know exactly who I am only has to ask me….but I don’t see what point there would be in doing so…
March 17, 2008 at 1:55 am
ok. i know you now. someone who hates everyone. someone who does not need to see anyones work to know their intent. i name you a fool. because that is what you are. goodbye.
March 17, 2008 at 2:03 am
and by the way. do you not wonder about my work before publishing ur slanderous remarks. do u not think that it is ur responsibility to know ur ’so called enemy’? or is it ok to just ‘think’ what u think? it occurs to me that what ur blog amounts to is intellectual vandalism.
March 17, 2008 at 2:26 am
No , I don’t wonder about you work. Why should I? I have more important things to think about. And having heard you on the radio I think I know all I need to know about you..I’m not at all suprised that you consider my comments to be intellectual vandalism , it must be a great shock to you to find that not everyone is impressed by you..you obviously don’t handle critism too well….
…and now goodby to you …..your beginning to bore me…
March 17, 2008 at 3:09 am
i can handle honest intelligent critism but ur is not that. urs is ranting. and a sad spectacle it is too. engage ur enemy with rigour or shut the fuck up.
March 17, 2008 at 3:13 am
and finally what all this says about u is that u r all talk and no trousers. a silly old toad ranting into the darkness without even figuring out who his real targets are. silly old moo.
March 17, 2008 at 6:32 am
Came upon this blog by chance.Won’t be returning. High moral ground seems a favoured place in Ireland. Having kicked the church of its pedestal, it appears that artists were given the position instead .But the honeymoon it seems is over. Now they’re for the chop. But who will replace them ? I suspect the poet in question is but the beginning of a deluge of post secular druid priests to have his sins ( or, if you prefer, moral shortfalls) served up to the flock for their gratification. More miscreants will soon be outed and pillored for the herd’s edifiaction. But repalcements Gods will have to be found. I wonder who will they be ? Unhappy the land in need of such hereos….And utterly empty and dull and cruel.
Not much changing in Ireland after all these years. WHich is strange given all the talk about the Celtic Tiger, new confidence etc . I think the impact of colonialism is far from worked out. (Who else but a newly ‘liberated’ society would have the gall to adopt such a patronizing attitude towards the Nepalese. their laws and culture ??? (ANd Im not talking only about the sad and deluded poet) There’s and old fashioned missionary zeal at work here which leads the onlooker to wonder if the missionary is not plagued by his own demons. The island of Saints and scholars is an ideal that reallyseems to torment you all.And you’re the last to see it as is always the case with the deluded. Saints, poets, artists, spirituality, those poor Nepalese boys, …blah, blah. You all seem tormented by your own phony high idealism, but yet in the scramble to create and tear down heros you have no regard for the reality of people. (Irish, and Nepalese in this instance). And the fact that the contemprary saints and scholars are rockstars,opinion columnists poets etc changes nothing. Maybe all this horse shit your screaming about is but the latest version of an old Irish saga….Reminds me of an earlier version, at the opening of Portrait of an Artist…Parnell,Kitty , those raging for , those raging against….What can anybody say to you except after all these years. One things for certain namely change is unlikely ! And this is really tragic.
March 17, 2008 at 4:29 pm
An interesting “exchange.”
O’Halloran says that to him life is a comedy. In his radio interview, he shows that this is indeed his sincerest belief- i.e. that drug addicts’ suffering is somehow something to laugh at. That to laugh at life is an apt response. Then he turns around and gets worked up because somebody might not take him as seriously as he does himself!
Talks about the absurdity of life and then wants, what?, recognition for what he’s doing to encourage understanding between people. A contradiction surely, if life is absurd what communication can there be? And what possible good could it do? And what does “good” mean if life is absurd?
I thought the original blog was considered and temperate. O’Halloran’s response defensive and invective. And he pleads for rigour?
O’Halloran is what I would call a skin-deep egoist. He has no moral or aesthetic basis for what he does. If anyone critises him, his only reaction is to see it as an assault on himself personally. But even that egoism does not go deep, otherwise why would he be so defensive? I imagine he rather suspects that his work has no value, moral or aesthetic. It’s all about career, making himself known. I can’t imagine Beckett being interviewed by rte chat radio, either rte wanting to or Beckett demeaning himself by agreeing.
I admire Beckett’s work, but i think the cult that has been made of him by certain people is because what attracts them is precisely the easiness of Beckett - i.e. a philosophical system that they think they can understand (only by reducing it to the level of goth rock, “Beckett’s great man, he really looks at life, totally depressing! Wow!” The way they talk about Bekett is like Cure fans of old.
the way O’halloran invokes Beckett is in line with this.
Look at my work says O’H. Have you no pride? Have you no self respect?
March 17, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Thank you for your comments Eoin,
O’Halloran reminds me of those good people who lecture us on the virtues of multiculturalism and inclusivity and then move to a nice neighbourhood , send their kids to a nice exclusive school , prevent them playinging in the street so then never meet or interact with those outside their social class and generally do all in their power to live an apartied existance …..while all the time lecturing others (less powerful citizens) on ‘diversity’ and all the other stock phrases on half digested ‘liberalism’.
He does not understand that Beckett was saterising his OWN society , laughing at himself if you will which is quite a different matter from laughing at a small marginalised group of socially deprived citizens…
…in short , he does not understand that they are not there for his amusement…or to be turned into a cause..
March 17, 2008 at 6:02 pm
wow. i get called a ‘moral delinquent’ and then to reply to that wild accusation i get called defensive. i will say one thing though, i am very proud of my work and also at least i am getting out there and standing by my work and beliefs. bloggers are just mouthy cowards and lazy bastards. engage the world and do something.
March 17, 2008 at 6:23 pm
and btw. i do not believe in ‘muilticulturalism’, i do not have children, i moved to the southside because i got a good deal on rent there, i do not lecture people on ‘diversity’, i myself have no power whatsoever and beckett was not a satirist. again i would maintain that you can not make generalisations about who i am without knowing what it is i do. to make those generalisations only exposes you as an idiot.
March 18, 2008 at 2:03 am
silly old twit, i disagree with you regarding all managers of homeless shelters, schools, care homes etc..however, where you find the vulnerable in society alas you find those willing and more than able to prey upon them..like ol’ no mark o’ halloran..doesn’t like the spotlight on himself when he laughs at life while doin’ a line-on others! anyway..not all that work in social care are bad bastards…and no i don’t work in the field..gave up fightin’ the fuckers at the top a long time ago.
March 18, 2008 at 2:11 am
all i can say is look at the film. it uses humour yes. but it an honest portrayal of those that suffer. u guys as such a bunch of curmugeons.
March 18, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Hi,
The way irish people talk about Beckett makes me laugh. Penguin has a copy of First Love with an intro by some irish academic who takes 4 pages to “prove” that the streets Beckett had in mind when he wrote were Irish streets. so what?
I listened to rte podcast with o’halloran. it was like silly old twit said. really disgusting. plus, was that a real “culchie” accent?
Irish people think they’re great. this guy thinks that by acting like an artist that makes him one. he thinks that by dealing with important themes that makes him great. he is wrong. Very wrong. I think i saw Posterite on television. it was like a film from bulgaria in the 80’s. “portentous” is the word in english i think.
I like your blog. You are one of the few irish who understand that ireland is disappearing. it is not like it was five years ago even. People have surrendered their particularity. now ireland is another part of anglo-america. you should change the name of the country. Call it “eire-shire.”
Bye
Andrej
March 19, 2008 at 10:04 am
Wow, this has got very interesting.
March 19, 2008 at 10:09 am
I think the writer of Adam and Paul is a phoney. His work deals with charicatures, cliched Dubs inhabit all his work just like the cliched Dub-a-lin accents he used in the fil-im. He plays to to “right on” gallerey. He’s a better actor than a typist and judging by his comments above not used to reading some bitter truths, why? Because he chooses to hang out in the back slapping HQ of right on Ireland.
March 19, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Hi,
I’ve just read through mark’s comments again. he’s right about one thing - there is something a bit weird about blogging, being able to speak in public while remaining anonymous. in its defence however this allows people maybe to be more sincere, to say what is really on their mind. but this time i’ll accept his challenge and try to be more rigorous.
He thinks that somehow by putting his work out there, this in itself gives a moral value. to me it smacks of a sort of cultural mentality out of the Community Games - you know, that participation is what counts, not the results in themselves.
I didn’t mean anything personal. it’s nothing against him as a person. it is simply that he is filled with the delusions of the age - in his case thinking he is doing something dangerous, against the current etc. in reality all that stuff about how he is trying to help society deal with ignored minorities - itself risible - is in fact the ordre de jour. you see the same mentality in irish times editorials, rte etc. etc.
More importantly John complains about people taking the moral high ground. surely he doesn’t mean what he says. it is one thing to complain that people adopt moral high ground without justification. it is true that this happens a lot. but to go from that to saying that ALL moral positions are false is absurd.
I AM on the moral high ground when i say child abuse is wrong. I am justified in this. it is a simple moral judgement.
Equally, to be disgusted by someone’s giggling at the reduced and pained lives of drug addicts is a moral position, a justified one.
Mark, you are wrong, morally. it really is as simple as that.And you really cant bring your “laugh at the skangers” act on radio, and then turn around claiming you’re an artist in the tradition of beckett. Please!
Anyway, silly old twit. i like your blog a lot.
i think like me you feel yourself more and more an exile in your own country
March 19, 2008 at 2:24 pm
i never ever claimed to be an artist in the tradition of beckett. what i was objecting to was being called a moral delinquent on a par with cathal o’searcaigh. if it was my intention in my work to laugh at a marginalised section of society then that accusation would be correct. but i refute that. now as to weather the work is any good or not - well that is neither here nor there. if it is judged to be bad well that makes me a failed artist and not a moral delinquent.
March 19, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I didn’t mean to suggest that you are on a par with o’searcaigh. that is evidently not the case.
however, your performance on the radio show did show a moral failure. perhaps your giggling was just an embarrassment response. i don’t know. Whatever it was, it was very badly judged. to my mind, it and your responses to my and sot’s comments showed that your response to life is emotional. you do not demonstrate any sign of having done intellectual labour, i.e. thinking things out for yourself. This is a moral failure. from such a moral failure, no valid art can come. This to me is axiomatic. but as you say, your work and its worth is neither here nor there. the question is about your performance on the radio.
a question for you: in retrospect, do you think that your performance on the radio was acceptable, was useful, was positive in any way? or do you think it was thoughtless, tasteless?
by the way, “weather” pertains to climatic conditions. “whether” is a synonym for “if.” such fundamental mistakes rather undermine your claims to be a writer at all, nevermind a great one.
March 19, 2008 at 3:45 pm
ok. listen you have me pinned. you have never seen my work but you can tell that i can’t spell and that i am a moral failure. i do not think the radio interview was ill judged. i was nervous yes and i tend to giggle in those circumstances. oh well. i was on to try to advertise the dvd release of my movie garage. one has to do these things i am afraid. it was not for ego’s sake i did it. i will admit to having a very healthy ego but would rather avoid interviews to be honest. why not try to see my work. apply yourself. then if you still feel the same about me i will readily accept your critique.
March 19, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Mark, beware of protesting too loudly. Perhaps some of your comments were out of place (although I have to say I wasn’t as keenly aware of the inappropriateness of some of your comments during the interview as SOT was) Murney’s last comment should cause you to reflect just a little about the dangers of using a platform like puff daytime radio to profile your work - Turbidy is only interested in ‘the laugh’ at any price - witness his flippant comment on Dave Fanning’s thoughtful piece on the pervasive influence of alcohol during yesterday’s Turbidy Show. So he’ll do anything to get that angle into his shows - I even thought I heard him sniggering today when he was interviewing the woman who was in the M3 tunnel over the weekend.
In my opinion, both Adam and Paul and Garage are superior works of art … The most frequent comment I have heard about both films is how strongly the humanity in both comes through, and how powerfully they strike a common chord. It is there that you should rest your case …
March 20, 2008 at 3:28 am
in fairness to mark..i have not seen his work..and i hope it’s good…but he did come off like a spare tit on turdity.. the fact he’s protesting signals more to me he is human..as the is clearly becoming successful through his work..so could act all divaadonis at this stage in his game..so i think he deserves a break for now…
March 20, 2008 at 3:31 am
what i meant to say was the fact he is protesting signals he’s human as he is now achieving success in his field…my spelling, grammar and everything goes to hell on sillys site…speaking of which silly..can you edit after you’ve posted..?
March 20, 2008 at 11:11 am
Yes Ze , posts can be edited..but you can’t edit comments…
March 20, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Mark Mark Mark
I was trying to be conciliatory. but once again you show that you are uninterested in meeting the points that silly old twit raised, or perhaps you are unable, i don’t know.
This stuff about “see my work before you judge me…” is neither here nor there. if i see someone doing something wrong, i can say that it is wrong and they are wrong - i have no responsibility to go research their whole lives, what work they may do - before i make that elementary moral judgement. Silly old twit was responding to your interview on radio. Your work has got nothing to do with that. Maybe it is as great as you think. I doubt it, but it’s possible. I can’t say I’m particularly curious to find out about it (you’ve lost a sale, and as you say you went on the radio to sell your dvd, and “one has to do these things…”). Perhaps the loss is mine. Nevertheless, the radio performance was as it stands. You clearly don’t understand why it was disgusting. You clearly don’t care that you might have disgusted listeners. Just as obviously, you are not interested in anyone’s response unless it is from critics praising you for your “humanity” give me a break.
to my mind, you have in your comments proved and proved again that silly old twit was right about you.
you are the perfect pseudo-artist for the neoliberal age - there, in the marketplace, flogging your wares, faffing on about humanity and helping society while all the time the only thing that counts is you, your ego and your career. “One has to do these things…” the unquestioned assumption that the market’s demands can only be met.
moral vacuum? you’ve proved here that you live in it.
moral delinquint? it sounds about right.
anyway, seeing as you are incapable of intelligently discussing your performance and silly old twit’s response, i don’t think there is any further point in trying to make you do so.
a final thought - you suggest that i am presumptous to say you can’t spell without seeing your work… i say you can’t spell because Mark, you can’t spell, though the whether/weather mistake is one of lexis.
your line of hysterical invective and half-arrogant half-abject self-justification might be more bearable if it wasn’t all so shoddy, so slipshod, so lazy, intellectually, aesthetically, morally.
Silly Old Twit? I notice you haven’t added to this exchange since you started it. what are your thoughts about it now?
March 20, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Thank you Eoin for your comments..
I didn’t want to rush in …Mark was so intent on digging a hole I though I would leave him to it..
There is a temtation in blogging to have the last word and I try to avoid that. I don’t moderate comments and for the most part let others have their say..
You said that blogging is a bit weird. Compared to regular journalism that is but this is not really true..
Journalists are isolated from the world…they live for the most part in a kind of closed community , ie their own social/professional circle and yes , we know their names but that’s about all we know…
If you read an amatuer blog on a regular basis the author of the blog will tell you a great deal about himself , his fears , prejudices etc….even perhaps what he earns , the sort of house he lives in ….and a lot of stuff like that. The professional journalist can hide (and does hide) behind his very professionalism..
and of course he gets paid…
I will write a post about this in the next week..but what I will say here is that this closed community that journalists (poets/film makers etc) inhabit is not used to critism….at least it does not handle critism from anyone outside that circle very well….’but as I say I’ll flesh this argument out in my blog sometime next week…
March 21, 2008 at 4:26 am
silly..
I see the oul’ sot Nell McCafferty is banging her lid loudly in support of Cathal O’
..Now here is a real moral delinquent, this woman has built a career on being the ‘voice of the underdog’..the abused, women and children of the world. I have no more words to waste on her except to say I had often suspected that she was a self serving fake and blow hard, one who parades ideals as a testament to her own advancement only..Now she has surpassed herself and truly makes me feel sick. What is wrong with these people?
March 21, 2008 at 5:13 am
silly..
I hope your focus on Mark brought home to him the gulf that does exist b’tween those who inhabit the artistic/media Camelot of Dublin 4 and it’s surround empire and the rest of us
..While those banqueting at the table may settle themselves with the idea that it’s only the no talent terminal triers, who in their bitterness, set out to taint them, they must truly open the their eyes to the sordid little empire they have created. An empire steeped in nepotism and back scratching elitism.
For an educated peasant or working class man to scale these heights is hard enough for a woman nigh on impossible. Yes it has been done by many but the problem is, that once there they appear to leave all their previous morals and ideals at the door, and they then protect their patches with a near pathological zeal.
They basically become one of them, the club members above any reproach, who only mix with each other, who when a producer approaches asking for a job/part/kidney for their little darling, will comply immediately.
Nepotism is immoral as far as I am concerned. I experienced it first hand, even in schools, were brighter pupils were put into lower classes to accommodate teachers or local dignitaries kids..If this happens in schools you only have to guess at what goes on in the wider community.
Look at acting dynasties, directors, writers and musicians..yes these doting parents can delude themselves that the talent is in the genes..while the rest of us look on and cringe. The world of celebrity has become a soap opera for us, most of us do not respect any of these people, particularly the ones we know are only there because of who they are.
I do get angry when our artists and writers cannot identify with the very people they are trying to portray. It just comes across as trite and patronising to us all. Finally, I think people are getting fed up with these know-nothing charlatans parading as artists..There is a backlash on the way and it’s long overdue..
sorry for soapboxing silly..but i would love to know your take on ‘the immorality of nepotism’ particulaly in arts and media..an arena that should sure try for some integrity..
March 22, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Thank you Z for your kind comments. Unfortunatly ART has always been the refuge of chancers and the like .It’s a job like any other but there are those who insist that they are following a higher calling by working at it and there have always been those who buy into it out of snobbery..
I have alway been wary of those who are in receipt of grants and the like. I don’t believe that art should be or needs to be subsidised nor should it be governed by itself ( paticularly when it’s using public money…..but I don’t loose sleep over it any longer , I gave that up years ago when I first realised that I was surrounded by barbarians for the most part..
….but no , my blog post did not, I’m sure bring anything home to Mark and it never will , he is just too far down the evolutionary (cultural) scale for that.
But I doubt he is worried as I suppose he must be making a small fortune in royalties etc..and I don’t doubt that his movies give pleasure to a lot of people …I watch quite a lot of films but most art house stuff tends to be a little self consciously self indulgent…much of today’s cinema comes out of a society that has feed well , made a pig of itself aquiring wealth and decides it now wants ‘meaning’ etc.and that ultimatly is very boring..
March 25, 2008 at 4:03 am
The foul language Mark O’Halloran uses to express his opinions speak volumes for the type of person he is - a moral degenerate. But then again a large proportion of Irish society is now well and truly morally degenerate.
March 25, 2008 at 2:19 pm
JACKALS JACKALS JACKALS
Mark O’Hallaran is an artist I’m aure. as such he is a special person. he is human and sensitive. he has FEELINGS. how dare you rampage on his FEELINGS like this
have you no hearts? have no respect for ART and the suffering of ARTISTS.
YOU are ALL Jackals, rummaging in the trashheaps of your souls. Mark I beg you, have the courage and will to rise above them all, the heartles ghouls, the vampires.
I too have suffered slanderous attacks. I too had my feelings and self rampaged upon. And all anonomously. (that means they didn’t use their real names) Imagine my horror, my distress, my pain when i discovered that the so-called anonymous blgoììoggers and email- writers were people I knew!!! MArk, I warn you. this guy Murney. is surely a false name. this is someone you know, close to you, jealous of your SUCCESS and TALENt, trying to termite-like undermine you. I warn you because I lived it. Look hard at your friends, those around you, look hard and look twice. is some vampire heart eaten by ENVY and bitterness even now, smiling at you, commisserating with you, only to spit out poisonous bile vile? I warn you.
As for spelling. Many great writers (Woody Allen, JOni Mtichell to name two) have reported difficulty with spelling. while others look to letters, REAL ARTISTs look to words and the music of WORDS.
MARK I hope this is comfort AND warning to you.
Leave the jackals be
Frank Lowland
NY
March 28, 2008 at 10:40 am
silly..
has the balladeer Brian Kennedy made any comment on Cathal’s predicament?…they were or are big buddies..Kennedy visited Nepal with him often, or so i’m told..
NOT making any suggestions here..seriously, just wondering if Kennedy has piped up?
March 28, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hello again,
I really wasn’t going to add anything else for the reasons i explained last week. But then I discovered a magazine called Film Ireland (aided by the arts council, i.e. taxpayers i.e. you and me). The last edition of this film magazine was guest edited by, guess who?, Mark O’Halloran.
Now obviously he wasn’t hired because of his literacy skills. Just look at his comments here. Nor was he hired for his penetrating intellectual acuity. No, the reason was that he is a specialist in cinema and sex.
Look up the thing on the Film Ireland website. See how he talks about the irish film industry and particularly about the irish porn industry. he runs a survey on readers’ attitudes to sex and then happily gives the good news - 24% of respondents said they would like to watch a made in ireland porno movie.!!!!
This guy is beyond satire and beyond reason. Apart from the giggling attack on the poor in his rte interview, he then goes off, gets a grant-aided vehicle to discuss the future of pornography in ireland (from the point of view of the porn producers of course). Perhaps in his mind porn movies too are art. After all, they sell, there’s an audience, there’s money to be made.
Porn? “one has to do these things i’m afraid.”
Silly Old Twit, I think you may have unwittingly hit upon the perfect walking talking metaphor for everything that is wrong in this country - m o’halloran, using taxpayer’s money to promote porn, using taxpayers’ radio to sing a song of hate against the poor.
By the way, Frank? You suspect I don’t exist? Can you prove that you really exist?
March 28, 2008 at 1:38 pm
How dare you? you jackal. i am shocked but i will not ressort to namecalling you vampire, you existence-deenying depraved monster. I not only exist but i prevail.in fact if you want to know i am a leading member of the avantgarde poetry writing community here in staten island,i have ppublished on average two sometimes three collections of my work every year since 1998.but poetry doesn’t interst you of course your to busy knowing everyhting about everhting and insulting us artists, us who fly in the spirit.you destroy and knock what you can’t understand. worse. you destroy becasue you do understand and you know that BEAUTY and TRUTH and ART are bigger thhan you, like talibans flying commercial airliners into the WTC.remember there can be no love till hate is defeated.shame.shame.shame. besides too, pornography CAN be ART ttoo if it is tasteful.
So as Mark O?Hellaran put it sussinctly FUCK YOU MATE you homophobe jackal!!
March 31, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Though it has nothing to do with the subject of SillyOldTwit’s blog, I can’t resist asking.
Frank - where can I see an example of your poetry (from the avantgarde poetry writing community of Staten Island)? Do you have a website? I’m fascinated to see some… just an example you know, you don’t have to post a whole collection, from any of the two or three collections which you publish every year… let us know, will you?
SillyOldTwit. Do you have any opinions about this pornography subject? It seems to me that there is a real idealogical effort under way (from all the usual suspects) to banalise pornography with a view to a further reduction of human values. I think you can desribe it as a transformation of all human affection and affect into commodities to be bought and sold. Moral vacuum?
March 31, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Eoin ,
You are of course right about how pornography is used today. It’s part of the social engineering that is being carried on by those who parade themselves as ‘liberal’ while in reality being the most right wing reactionaries ever to walk the earth.
The truth is of course that Ireland is a far more conservative today than ever in spite of the fact that everyone is clapping themselves on the back for being ‘liberal. Frank is typical of the fools who open their mouths to express opinions about things they simple do not understand. Pornography is not art…and it never was. And there is certainly nothing ‘liberal’ about it. The ‘culture’ that is being imposed on us today is imposed for real ideoligical reasons and the fact that most people may not realise it does not alter the reality in any way.
Frank ,like O’Halloran is a victim of this new liberalism but just does not have a clue as to what is really going on. I will be putting up a post on something to do with this in a week or so after a debate i had with some modern liberal types of Facebook.
April 1, 2008 at 11:20 am
Frank,
I do not edit comments however I’ve had to delete your last comment as this is a general forum. Feel free to resubmit your comment but use a little common sense in the matter.
April 1, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Censor! Taleban!! Jackal!!!
April 1, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Frank,
As I said , your quite wellcome to resubmit your comments if you can do that without dragging your penis into the matter. It’s not that anyone will be shocked but we don’t want to bore them to death do we ?
April 23, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I’ve been away for a while. But I’m really curious - what did Frank say? I’ve looked everywhere on the net for his poetry but so far - nothing.
Anyway, sillyoldtwit, keep up the good work
April 29, 2008 at 10:33 pm
This is all fascinating stuff,although I can’t read it all as it is late and I am tired. I’ve just moved back to Ireland after 4 years in France. I had spent 13 years in Ireland prior to that,from 1990 to 2003. I saw it all happen: the rapid,ineluctable descent into the new ‘liberated’ Ireland ,throwing away the shackles of the past ,the rampage of the famous Celtic Tiger,who really went straight for the heart…..Well,you can cast out demons,but if you leave the room empty,worse demons will come in their place …..
To come across the blog of an Irishman who is not only not deluding himself,but has the lucidity and ability to articulate the uncomfortable truths that the powerful Ireland is shielding itself from, is ,to me,something that simply made my day,or at least my evening.I’ll be back .
Thank you for saying what you say,and for saying it so well.
June 28, 2008 at 8:21 pm
There is no correlation nor has there ever been between moral degeneracy and the use of bad language. Anyone who thinks or says so is a fucked-in-the-mouth cuntripper. Some of the world’s greatest thinkers,statesmen (and stateswomen) and writers etc., etc. have been the biggest ‘fucking’ effing and fucking blinding asshole fucks and cocksuckers to stand on two legs.
I hope the fucking spelling is ok and meets with the approval of the fucking Spelling Police.
Dorothy
June 28, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Now,now Dorothy. That’s not nice. In fact it’s outfuckingrageous and you KNOW it! If you had not fucking snatched the fucking choc ice from my fucking hands none of this would have fucking happened! Need I fucking remind you that I - yes I found the half-melted choc ice at the GPO in fucking O Connell Street.
So, Dorothy just shut the fuck up and apologise to everyone for starting this fucking orgy of fucking anonymous communal character assassination. And leave any fucking choc ices I find afuckinglone in fucking future! You fucking Dublin tart!
Fiona
June 28, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Fuck you, Fiona! It was not fucking moi who started this. It was those two fucking cups of coffee and easy access to a stolen, working radio that started this. As for the choc ice I saw it first and it was not half fucking melted! Don’t you fucking remember eating half of it off the ground? You Dublin 4 hussy! I shall not be having fucking elevenses with you ever afuckinggain.
I bid you good night. You shitkicker par fucking excellence!
Dorothy
June 29, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I agree with Dot. As a former cheap coffee drinker and caffeine addict I can safely say that anyone overdosing on two cups of coffee for breakfast is asking for trouble. Coffee is a stimulant and invariably leads to the excessive blogging of supercilious and arrogant ‘who’s like me’ posturing and bombastic ‘I’m-up-my-own-ass’ pretentious drivel.
This is well documented in various scientific papers on the dangers of coffee and blogging on an empty stomach and no brain.
Aidan
July 5, 2008 at 10:13 am
Dear SillyOldTwit,
I don’t know what the last few comments are about, some sort of private joke I suppose, so private that its humour will stay invisible forever.
I’ll make 2 points.
1. recently i read an essay by leon Trotsky of all people written in 1923 where he talks about the use of bad language. for him, its use is evidence of brutalization. In particular, coming from educated or intelligent people, it is a sign of a deep unease, an inability to live authentically, Essentially it is a pretence. I think this might be the case today, all those twits on rte with their swear words to indicate that they come from real working class Dublin (when we know they’re from Terenure), to appear radical, daring ,when in fact none of them would ever say anything that would challenge the status quo.
2. My second point is more important and is the real reason why i am writing. it pertains to MArk O’Halloran. I come from Ennis as he does and I am four or five years older than him, but I would have vaguely been aware of him, might even have spoken to him. But I am not his friend.
Anyway, I was sort of interested in his career seeing as we come from the same town. I thought he was a brave lad, being openly gay and so on. That can’t have been easy, or at least it showed he had a long walk to maturity. So I was well disposed to him, wnated him to succeed.
Then I saw his film Garage. This is a point that will be lost to the vast majority of people who see the film. The story of the film is obviously based on real events that occurred in Ennis a number of years ago. With a sort of ficitonal extrapulation on it. I have to say that I was shocked by the film, that anybody would use the suffering, the disgrace and pain, of other poeple, rehash it in a film like that, for the most part playing it for laughs. i found the whole exercise distasteful and mean and ugly. Even ifit is the greatest film ever made, no film justifies causing pain to real people, to their relatives.
I think that MArk should be ashamed of what he has done. Perhaps he is not aware of exactly what it is he has done. From the comments he made on your blog he seems to have pretty well armoured himself against even the slightest criticism of others with his sense of his own value.
If you’re going to use to dig up disgrace/scandal/gossip/misfortune in order to make films, may i suggest Mark that in future you dig up your own?
Thank you sillyOldTwit, i have had this on my mind for a few years now but have never had the opportunity to express it.
I hope you don’t find it out of place in the context of your blog’s discussion
Shane Moran
July 16, 2008 at 12:34 pm
SillyOldTwit,
I haven’t written anything here for months. in fact I had put the whole mark o’halloran thing out of my mind. you know, you see an example of extravagant stupidity, you shrug and you pass on. And it was the stupidity of o’halloran that astonished me. The moral/intellectual laziness is so generalized in this country that it hardly merits notice. the fact that he answered your comments at all and the fact that he had NOTHING to say in his defense, indeed didn’t even think that he had to say anything to meet your points but just let loose a tirade of swear words and insults, now that was remarkable. Finally, he believed his has the right to say and do as he pleases, but you have no right to respond… stupidity, pure and simple.
Well, I didn’t think more about it.
But today I was in the GPO and i saw that there is a new series of stamps called IRISH CINEMA. the 82 cent stamp is a picture from one of this guy’s films.
Incredible! Talk about Establishment Art. IT’s like the Soviet Union here. An imprimatur from the State like that? For a pornographer? For a man who says life is a comedy and the poor fair game for a punchline? This is worse than arts council funding. This is simply Corruption - not just political, but moral, social.
I’m not sure i understood what Shane said in his contribution. Shane, I don’t want you to talk openly about the grief of real people but could you indicate, what is the correlation between the real events you allude to and the film you mention (which is the 82 cent film by the way). Are real people upset? Has there been a protest?
Keep up the good work SOT. I’d be interested in anything more you might have to add to this discussion (which i think has generated a lot of responses, and thoughtful ones too)
Eoin