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From one Mansergh to another
national |
miscellaneous |
opinion/analysis
Sunday February 08, 2009 19:33 by Paul O' Sullivan paulosullivan01 at gmail dot com
Last week, Martin Mansergh unwittingly gave an insight into the Fianna Fail's attitude toward the opinions of the electorate. His appearance on TV3 was a reminder of his less antagonising sibling. A senior member of Cork County Council stood aloofly, drumming his fingers against the desk in front of a young audience. A bundle of sheets introducing the new module was passed along steeply sloped rows of seats, upholstered with black leather covering. |
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5thank you for this thoughtful & thought-provoking portrait of one of the few Protestants still involved with the Dail. the reflective tone is a welcome breath of fresh air on a normally oft-strident, polemic website.
speaking of Mansergh's background, i've always thought it quite ironic that, at one stage in the 80's, there were 3 Jewish TD's for a mere circa 10,000 Jews compared to 3 Church of Ireland TD's for circa 250,000 Protestants....
Actually the number ten thousand members of the Jewish faith in the republic during the 1980s when there were three Jewish deputies in the Dail is an overestimate. Here is what the wikipedia entry says about the demographics: "The Jewish population of Ireland reached around 5,500 in the late 1940s, but has since (2008) declined to around 2,000, mainly through emigration to larger Jewish communities such as those in the United States, England and Israel."
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Ire...phics
Here's a comprehensive round-up on the past and present state of judaism in Ireland north and south:
http://haruth.com/jw/JewsIreland.html
A radically reverse trend in the republic during the last thirty years has been the huge increase in the muslim numbers. One muslim, a South African asian psychiatrist based in Clare, was elected to the Dail on a Labour ticket but after serving a term did not seek re-election.
The interesting point was that when there were 3 Jewish TDs
they were ,one from FF , one from FG ,and one from Labour
[ M Taylor who was the only one to get a Cabinet post ever ]
Of course the original one Robert Briscoe ,pal of Dev was FF
but never given any Government post by "his friend " Dev
over the many years from 1916 to 1960s and he was
only elected Lord Mayor of Dublin when they had passed him
over too many times before in favour of younger ones and could not
ignore him any longer in the mid 50s .
Basil Booth used to be FF TD and Maurice Dockrell for FG
- both Protestants and there was an
Independent one from Donegal at one time in 40 s and 50 s .
Basil Booth was not a FF TD , it was his brother Lionel
Maybe we'll get an increase in representation now that they seem to have the green light to clone our passports.
As for Mansergh.Typical patrician condescension; but now that Fianna Fawlty has mastered the dynastic presumption of their established right to govern in perpetuity there should be little danger of incompatibility.
Mansergh strikes me as a prime example of the ability of the educated self-server to convince the lazy and compliant mediacrocy that his expedient rationalisations actually represent a commitment to rationality and reasonabelness.