,ULVK([DPLQHU 6DWXUGD\ 

It’s time to be straight about gay rights

FIRST met a Protestant when I was 0LQLVWHUIRU+HDOWK/HR9DUDGNDULQ57‹VWXGLRVDIWHU 12. My family had moved that year KHFDPHRXWSXEOLFO\RQDUDGLRVKRZ to a town where there were a number of them. There were 3LFWXUH0D[SL[-XOLHQ%HKDO rumoured, to be a few in my hometown, as well, down in the “deep south”, but nobody my age. raised outside the traditional nuclear I still remember the name of that first family. Protestant. He was handy at football; he Such a campaign also fails to acknowl- moved with a certain grace that was edge that adoption dictates that the child beyond me. not be raised by his or her biological par- There was nothing extraordinary about ents. him — he wasn’t that good — but his All of the available evidence suggests name and appearance have stuck with me that other matters, such as the quality of into middle age. The first few times I was the relationship between parents, mental in his company, I couldn’t help staring at health, addiction, and socio-economics him. Would he betray his rogue origins? determine a child’s upbringing. Would he, at some point, burst into tears, But, then, generating fear of the because he was beyond redemption, unknown, rather than producing evi- doomed outside the one, true Church? dence, is a well-worn tactic of those deter- What would it be like for him, out there in mined to resist the force of change. Back in the ether, while I was lying up in the here- the day, they wouldn’t have had that prob- after? lem. The Church would have merely Pretty soon, my curiosity morphed issued an edict and the population would into sympathy, and pretty soon after that have complied, in both letter and spirit. I forgot that he was different. We weren’t Now, it is necessary to go down a differ- friends and I didn’t encounter him ent route, one that is laced with cynicism. beyond the point where children disperse If the changes of recent decades are to be into their own groups. properly acknowledged, the very least that But anytime I saw him around the the country deserves is an honest debate, town, or played football with him, I based on genuinely held couldn’t help remembering that he had beliefs, rather than a been my first Protestant. dishonest tactic I met my first gay person when I was 19. designed to It was in New York, in a house in Queens, spread fear, full of Paddies and soaked in booze. Ire- instead of per- land on tour in the 1980s. suade through which two men were brought to trial after with the proposal, and that’s their pre- Charlie was from Meath, a little camp argument. a sexual encounter in a public toilet. rogative. However, the basis on which the guy with spiky hair. He was very funny, Don’t hold except when he was drunk, and then he “What was illuminating was the “The no campaign main plank of the no campaign is being your breath. manner in which the men were ‘patholo- run harks back to a time when the Cath- often descended into sadness. One night, The no campaign gised, represented as immature, recom- olic Church controlled the State. Most of when I came home from work, he was is scaremongering that is largely built mended for medical treatment and pub- those in the no campaign ride shotgun for drinking in the kitchen and told me that around scare- licly humiliated’,” Ferriter wrote. “A the Church. I believe their objection is he had an awful time growing up. I felt mongering. sorry for Charlie, but found it difficult priest referred one of the defendants to a a yes vote will impact based on their religious beliefs. to take him seriously. psychiatrist; the other was deemed to be Politically, they know that the Church, I had no idea what he had been talking suffering from depression. They were adopted children as a brand in social affairs, is pretty tar- about, because I didn’t know anybody bound to keep the peace for a year, the nished, despite the genuine contribution who was really gay. Sure, there were one judge commenting, ‘it’s a completely to social justice of some within the insti- or two fellas in school who were described unnatural performance’.” nalised community. He is one of the main tution. as “poofters”, because they displayed When that’s the start you get, it takes a lawmakers in the State. Yet, he does not To run a campaign based on foisting re- feminine traits, but nobody believed that while for the spell to wear off. But, to the enjoy the right to cement a loving union ligious beliefs onto a sceptical population they got off with other boys. And then credit of this country and its citizens, the in marriage, simply because he is gay. would be as doomed as the Protestants of there were the girls who had no interest in spell has lifted at an accelerating rate in On Wednesday, the Government pub- my youth. So, instead, they have resorted making themselves attractive. Dykes. recent decades. Intolerance of diversity lished the wording for the forthcoming to fear and to concern for children. Their That’s the kind of country in which I has been driven underground. referendum on same-sex marriage, and campaign is now largely built around grew up. It was intolerant of diversity, not Religious bigotry has, to a major extent got cracking on another bill, on adoption scaremongering that a yes vote will have as enthralled to the Church as previous in the Republic, disappeared. The Cath- rights. As with other referendums, the a negative impact on adopted children, generations, but enough to contaminate olic Church has, to some extent, moved Government is playing catch-up already, denying them the right to a mother and to the minds of the children. Minds filled with the times. I don’t think that children and the dangers of it failing are very real. a father. This, despite the fact that one in with muck about how those outside the today have the same hang-ups that most Some people in the country disagree four children in this State is currently one true Church were to be pitied rather of my generation had, even though the than hated, and how those of a minority Church still maintains its grip on pri- sexual orientation had been corrupted, mary-school education. were now deviants, and, consequently, The influx of immigrants over the last were doomed. But, thankfully, like the 15 years has opened up the country in a snakes, they have largely been banished way that never would have been dreamed from the sacred isle. possible a generation ago. Some things do Society as a whole, or at least most of it, persist, though. bought into that warped narrative. In his Last Sunday, Health Minister Leo Var- book, Occasions of Sin, Sex and Society in adkar, who is regarded as extremely able, MICHAEL Modern Ireland, Diarmuid Ferriter refer- told a radio audience that he is not an enced the reporting of Nell McCafferty on equal citizen in his own country. This is a district court case, in September 1975, in not somebody from an ostensibly margi- CLIFFORD There are no winners in the farce that is Irish politics

H, POLITICIANS. Aren’t they just wonderful? The award d)@ ÿ Z)@ ÿ 5)d 5@"P ÿ J&@V@P season is getting into full SHAUN swing, what with the nomi- &n˂Ď ˅şƩƉ Ɛn˅ $nations for the Oscars, Grammies, and şŖ ƞĴĹƐ ĹƐƐƩĎ nƞ top soaps, so isn’t it time we celebrated our very own Dáil superstars? CONNOLLY ĹƉĹƐĴĎ˄nőĹŖĎƉŷõşő ‘Best actor in a leading role’ would, obviously, go to , for his sterling performance in The Imitation Game, in which he imitates a national leader when he is really just a mid-division football /XFLQGD&UHLJKWRQKDVEHHQQRPLQDWHGIRU manager facing certain relegation. ,WȁVDZDUGVVHDVRQEXW ɧZDQQDEHRIWKH\HDUɨIRUSXEOLFLVLQJKHUQHZ He needs to remember that his once- SROLWLFDOSDUW\ impressive box-office appeal is waning, WKHGUDPDTXHHQVDQG as critics have warned that his de- 3KRWR6DP%RDO3KRWRFDOO,UHODQG cidedly hammy performance in the SUHHQLQJZDQQDEHVLQ Dáil, when he insisted garda commis- sioner Martin Callinan had “resigned” WKHPDNHEHOLHYH and had not been effectively sacked, may well come back to haunt him. ZRUOGRIWKH'¡LO The Academy wanted to give Gerry Adams a lifetime achievement award, GHVHUYHQRDFFRODGHV but the Sinn Féin leader refused, stating that he was not, nor ever had DQGLQHYLWDEO\WKH been, a member of the Academy, even The problem is not so much his accent, though he regularly speaks on their ELJJHVWORVHUVZLOOEH but the odd stream-of-consciousness behalf, and shares the wider aims of exploding from his mouth, at scatter- the movement. WKHYRWHUV gun speed, which makes observers The ‘foreign drama award’ would go wonder if they are, indeed, listening to to , as the health minister the English language at all. was busy sunning himself in Miami ‘Cameo of the year’ must go to every- when the long-predicted trolley crisis one’s favourite, befuddled-looking tax exploded back home. cheat, , for his role in Vat- As the Oscars always attract desper- Man Returns. ate attention-seekers, the ‘wannabe of Though not a re-imagining of Broke- go to the Republican leadership, for opinion poll results have seen the in- diminishing returns, The Hangover. The dark noir tells the story of how the year’ award could only go to Lucin- back Martin, the comments caused urging anyone with information about itial Burton Bounce slump to the Joa- The post-election opening scene sees the Wexford TD remained unscathed, da Creighton, for her role in The The- quite the stir, royally annoying cur- the whereabouts of all the paedophiles nie Jitters. the Fianna Fáil boys awake in the after revealing he knowingly lied to ory Of Everything (But Policies On No- rent government partner, Labour, and rapists the IRA quietly shipped The award for ‘achievement in tragi- wreckage of mass destruction of their Revenue by providing under-valued thing), as she runs in front of every allowing Fianna Fáil the glow of decon- south across the border to go to the farce’ is shared by dumped justice own making, as they try to piece to- Vat returns for two years when he was camera that has a working flash to tamination for taking the nation to gardaí with what they knew. minister and Martin gether the chain of disastrous deci- managing director of his construction push her alleged new party, which has the brink of bankruptcy, and hugely A cross between Judi Dench and Callinan, who, ahem, “resigned” as sions that led them (and the country) to company. everything, oh, apart from a name, benefiting Sinn Féin, who now have Meryl Streep, with just a hint of the , and hero whist- this very sorry state. After Wallace’s company reached a anybody else of note (sorry Eddie enhanced legitimacy in portraying sauciness of Sarah Jessica Parker, leblower, Maurice McCabe: they all Why, they even have to deal with an €2.1m settlement with the Revenue Hobbs), or, indeed, any ideas at all. themselves as the only alternative to Joan Burton is, of course, the grand starred in The Triangle Of Disgust, in angry (Celtic) tiger, which they lost over the matter, the TD claimed he tax- The Oscar for ‘most touchingly naive the austerity agenda of the triumvirate dame of Irish political theatre. which Callinan branded McCabe’s control of, and which then turns on dodged in order to try and save the performance of the year’ has to go to of the establishment parties. After four consecutive victories as actions “disgusting”, Shatter backed them in ferocious anger. company from going under, yet failed Simon Coveney for the heartbreaking Speaking of which, the shiny little ‘best actress in a supporting role’ — up the top cop, leading to two of the And, as everyone who saw the disap- to explain how this tallied with him outing of his bromance affections for bald fellow — Oscar, not Michael when she won for acting-out support three being swept into history, while pointing, unfunny sequels to the Holly- doubling the salary paid to himself and Micheál Martin, whom he gushingly Noonan — for ‘most unoriginal script’ for Eamon Gilmore, when, in reality, the truth-seeking garda was vindicated wood version knows, it is just the same his son, from €148,141 to €290,000, in branded as “very competent”. would go to the finance minister for she took every chance she could to in the final reel. plot, with the same old cast, set a the year ending August, 2008. The love that previously had not ripping-off Brian Lenihan’s post-bail- stick the knife into him — La Burton is Mr Coveney is a double award- couple of years on. And the loser is? You, the voter. dared speak its name certainly broke out emergency agenda and presenting now up for ‘best producer’ winner, as his overtures to Mr Martin While predictions can prove tricky, the hearts of many Fine Gaelers, who, it as his own. Best producer of waffle, best pro- pave the way for taking the ‘worst it’s a safe bet Independent TD, Mattie I initially, hoped they had misheard the The award for ‘most unconvincing ducer of grand aspirations without remake trophy’ in the form of the McGrath, would walk away with ‘best Follow Shaun on Twitter: remark “very incompetent”. dialogue in a continuing drama’ has to substance, and best producer of dismal next trot-out for that franchise of very adaptation from a foreign language’. @shaunconnolly01 ,ULVK([DPLQHU 6DWXUGD\ 

The real crime is not arresting decline

HERE is no rural crime epi- 7KRPDV)O\QQZDVMDLOHGIRU\HDUVZLWKWKUHHVXV demic. There is no rural crime SHQGHGDW&ORQPHO&LUFXLWFRXUWIRUEUHDNLQJLQWRWKH wave, sweeping across the country, driven by marauding KRPHRI0DUNDQG(PPD&RUFRUDQLQ1RYHPEHU 7thugs whose stock-in-trade is terror.  3LFWXUH/LDP%XUNH3UHVV These statements may, to some, appear self-evident, but to anybody engaging kinder, gentler time. One more reason to with the media over the last few months, fear the future. they need to be spelt out in plain English. Across rural Ireland there are many in- The impression conveyed by vested in- dividuals and organisations focused on terests is that rural Ireland is going tackling the problems of economic decline through an epidemic of burglaries, most but a national policy is required. That will of which are perpetrated by recidivist be difficult, messy, and will require diffi- thieves terrorising home and farm cult decisions to be made in the short term owners. This is simply not the case. in order to secure some security over the There is certainly a huge amount of longer term. But that needs to be the focus fear about crime across rural Ireland, but if Rural Ireland is to have a future. the basis for that fear is questionable. The alternative, retreating into victim- There is also a specific problem with bur- hood, or hyping simple issues like crime, glaries, particularly of commercial and may temporarily satisfy frustration, but farm premises, in midland counties easily does little to address the real problems. accessible by the motorway network. A few years back, we were told by other This problem has grown in recent vested interests that the abandonment of years. For example, burglaries in Co Of- rural Ireland was exemplified by changes faly have increased by 67% in the last five in drink driving and fox hunting laws. years. The recent public meeting in This was spurious nonsense. This time Thurles, Co Tipperary, which attracted a around, it looks like the recent campaign huge attendance and where much anger will ensure that rural crime is a major and testimony was vented, illustrated the election issue. high incidence of burglary from farms in If so, the main event is being missed. particular. Rural Ireland has far That meeting followed the criminal bigger fish to fry. conviction of a vicious gang who terro- An organised and rised the Corcoran family in Tipperary sustained con- two years ago. The family had been sub- centration on ar- jected to a terrifying ordeal, and the gang resting econ- members received lengthy sentences. The omic decline is patrols, and tackling the sale of stolen Development of Rural Areas has received family were extremely traumatised by what should be goods, is designed to tackle the specific a lukewarm response. what was a life-altering event, but the to the fore of any incident was highly unusual. issue affecting the midlands. Time will “Rural Ireland is in So, as the night of recession lifts, a cold group which pur- tell whether it is an appropriate response. dawn is emerging in rural Ireland. There In August, John O’Donoghue of Doon, ports to represent That is the positive outcome. The is a general feeling of abandonment in Co Limerick died of a heart attack after long-term decline the interests of negative outcome is the campaign has many areas, rooted in the belief that the discovering his house had been burgled. rural Ireland. This was an extremely tragic incident and generated huge fear. Up and down the State is pulling out, retreating into the generated much anger. Again, however, it country rural dwellers, many elderly or principally due to major towns and cities. was not indicative of any trend. vulnerable, have slept with a lot less ease The outcry over the closure of garda The crime statistics from the CSO show in recent weeks and months. economic forces stations is symptomatic of the prevailing that while burglary increased in the last The only organisation to broach the sentiment. It’s difficult to sustain the five years — as would be expected in a re- possibility that things have been blown claim the closures have any impact on cession — by 20%, four fifths of that in- out of all proportion is Muintir Na Tire, precious little was done through policy to rural crime. On one hand we’re told that crease occurred in the greater the group which set up the community tackle the transforming landscape. organised gangs of thieves are behind area. Outside the midland counties, with alert scheme 30 years ago. Appearing be- During recent years the Government’s burglaries, yet on the other we are to be- a few exceptions, there has been a fore the Justice committee on concentration on righting the economy lieve that they were heretofore put off by relatively small increase in rural Ireland. Wednesday, they referenced the possibil- relegated normal governing matters such the presence of a single garda in a rural Any violation of one’s home is trau- ity that crime can be “overhyped”. as formulating a long-term vision for station for a few hours each afternoon. matic. Even when, as is the vast majority “The fear of crime can be almost as rural Ireland. Instead, we’ve had the For many the significance of the clo- of cases, the thieves have come and gone harmful as the actual effects of crime,” piecemeal withdrawal of services, politi- sures lies not in anything to do with before the crime is discovered. But those the group said in a statement. cal knee-jerk reactions and the setting up crime, but the psychological impact of the who live in Dublin, Cork and the other Generating unwarranted fear is a of a task force to find out what’s wrong. In latest example of the state’s withdrawal. cities are far more likely to be targeted. major outcome from all the hype, but it is the great tradition of these things the One more service gone, the shutters Human stories naturally have a huge not the only one. Kicking up fear and findings of the Commission for Economic pulled down on one more vestige of a impact on the public consciousness, and anger about crime also provides an easily those that came to the fore in recent digestible distraction from the really seri- months understandably generated much ous issues blighting rural Ireland. sympathy and anger. Rural Ireland is in long term decline What resulted was a campaign by el- principally due to economic forces. The ements of the media, ably assisted by change is not unique to this country, but garda representative bodies fighting for is felt keener here because of history, cul- more resources. This led to a response ture and the higher proportion of people from Government, which culminated in who still live outside cities and towns. last Monday’s announcement of Oper- This decline was masked for at least 15 MICHAEL ation Thor by Frances Fitzgerald. years, firstly by the construction boom, Operation Thor, which includes de- and then by a recession . In a political cul- ploying high-powered vehicles, motorway ture that caters only for the short term, CLIFFORD Keep-a-lid-on-it-Leo has turned into Dr Do-Little

NDA KENNY sold us a five-point plan to become d)@ ÿ Z)@ ÿ 5)d 5@"P ÿ J&@V@P Taoiseach but, since taking SHAUN power, he has been imple- &n˂Ď ˅şƩƉ Ɛn˅ menting( a secret five-word plan on the şŖ ƞĴĹƐ ĹƐƐƩĎ nƞ health service: “Keep a lid on it.” This week that plan blew up in his CONNOLLY ĹƉĹƐĴĎ˄nőĹŖĎƉŷõşő face. People being forced to endure 29- hour stints on trolleys or chairs in Irish hospitals was nothing new. Trol- ley counts, strike ballots and opposi- tion Dáil theatrics are commonplace. We ignore them. Mr Kenny ignores them. He ‘Keeps a lid on it’. 7KLV\HDUROGZLWK But it was the story of a 91-year-old 3DUNLQVRQȁVGLGQȁWQHHG with Parkinson’s who spent 27 hours on a trolley in Tallaght Hospital, in an DFXUHKHQHHGHGFDUH ordeal one crusading doctor described as an act of “torture”, that meant we $QGWKLVZDVZKHQ could no longer ignore the disgusting state of our Emergency Departments. ,UHODQGZDVIRXQGWREH We didn’t have to look far for similar stories; we all have them in our own DWLWVPRVWFDUHOHVV families and at least 30 patients a day are waiting 24-hours or more in grim 7KHZKLVWOHEORZHULV conditions. However, it’s the elderly left in such inhumane conditions that EHLQJDWWDFNHGEXWLW can’t be explained away. There is no cure for ageing and the LV0U.HQQ\ZKRLVWR problems it will bring us all. This 91- EODPH year-old didn’t need a cure, he needed care. And this was when Ireland was found to be at its most careless. 7DRLVHDFK(QGD.HQQ\SURPLVHGWRɪHQGWKHVFDQGDORISDWLHQWVRQWUROOH\Vɫ 3LFWXUH&ROLQ.HHJDQ&ROOLQV'XEOLQ The whistleblower is being attacked and this journalist will be accused of Enda-blaming for the sake of it. buildings at the drop of a hat but has Minister” kind of way. isters like Alan Shatter. emerge from the political coffin she catch-phrases of the year but it seems But Mr Kenny is to blame. He didn’t kept his eyes and ears closed on health And Dr Do-Little Mr Varadkar was Also, isn’t it funny how Eamon Gil- stuffed him into to come back and Mr Gilmore is interested in revenge appear in posters promising to “End matters when their urgency has been opening up his old black bag of little more revealed he and his chief flunky haunt her. scorn when it comes to Ms Burton. the scandal of ropey wireless at the obvious. tricks over the latest outrage by insist- started crying after Joan Burton un- Even British Labour’s very own self- Mr Gilmore tried to excuse his J’ac- Web Summit”. The removal of medical cards from ing the 91-year old was “caught in the ceremoniously tossed him out of Cabi- styled prince of darkness, Peter Man- cuse tirade against the Tánaiste by in- He promised to “End the scandal of vulnerable children had to become crossfire” in a conflict between emerg- net after leading the Labour Party to delson, waited until after a tricky and sisting the book was all about how patients on trolleys”. politically toxic after the Irish ency department staff and manage- mid-term disaster, because he doesn’t sticky general election before rushing great Labour is and what a wonderful As the longest serving deputy, Mr Examiner exposed it day after day ment at Tallaght Hospital. mention crying about medical cards out his score-settling memoirs. But it recovery he had delivered to us. Kenny is the father of the Dáil and has before the Taoiseach and his circle No, Mr Varadkar, he was not. He was being snatched from disabled children seems Mr Gilmore could not show such Yet, it is perverse that this govern- spent the majority of his career in op- of advisors did the right thing and caught in the chaos of your incompe- under his watch? decency and restraint and thoroughly ment’s favourite word is ‘recovery’ position participating in the theatrics abandoned the cruel policy. tent handling of the health service you Rather than feeding resources to shafts his successor ahead of a Dáil when the recovery of people like the 91- that shouted ‘shame’ at the minister It was also political toxicity that led have failed to get a grip on in the past 16 where they are needed at the sharp end showdown that was never going to year-old Tallaght patient is put at seri- for health of the day. to Mr Kenny’s biggest intervention months. of the system, Gilmore and Burton turn out well for Labour. ous risk by their torture in our hospital Taking power with a huge majority in health in 2014 when he personally And to make things worse, Keep-A- bought in to a middle class tax bribe While there is little doubt that Joan corridors. in 2011 was Mr Kenny’s chance to show performed a doctor transplant. Lid-On-It-Leo has now rounded on the that sees healthy five-year-olds from does deserve being on the receiving It’s high time to blow the lid off he could do better but, in the four-and- Dr Reilly was replaced with Dr whistle blower in a diversionary tactic wealthy families get free GP care while end of his righteous anger, it would Kenny and Varadkar’s hypocritical in- a-half years since, he has issued more Varadkar, and now “Keep-A-Lid-On-It- to try and shift attention from the real sick seven-year-olds from poorer back- have served his more loyal colleagues competence on health. press releases about Rory McIlroy and Leo” just shrugs his shoulders at every story. grounds are left out in the cold. better if he had managed to postpone Graham McDowell’s golfing successes new calamity, says how awful it all Funny how Mr Varadkar only seems How Ms Burton must have believed the feud frenzy until the polling I than he has about the health service. is, and rolls his eyes in a “nothing to to champion whistle blowers when she had gotten through the fright night stations at least had closed. Follow Shaun on Twitter: The Taoiseach opens facilities and do with me, guv, I’m just the Health they damage the careers of rival min- of Hallowe’en only to see Mr Gilmore Revenge porn has become one of the @shaunconnolly01 Irish Examiner Saturday, 4.06.2016 Forum 17

More strolling bones than rolling stones

’M standing in the middle of Croke POUNDING IT OUT: Bruce Spingsteen delivering his Park, worried about Stevie Van set at Croke Park last weekend. Time stands still for Zandt’s cholesterol. He’s up there on the stage beside his old mucker, no man they say, but this guy never stands still. Bruce, Springsteen. The only other time I Picture: Stephen Collins saw Springsteen and the E Street Band in a stadium was 31 years ago at Wembley. It what was going on in the world since the was the first time I was away from home, gig had started. full of teenage angst and devoid of a clue There was worse to come. Nothing de- as to the respective locations of my arse fines the antithesis of rock ’n roll like the and elbow. selfie. They were all at it, there at a concert Rock ’n roll was going to save me. Not to hear music, even the music that had for necessarily Bruce and the band, but they most of them long ago died, and all they were in the frame. Stevie was on stage wanted to do was take photos of them- that sunny July evening, a skinny little selves. guy doing his thing at Bruce’s right hand. These photos aren’t even for posterity, Last week when I spotted him I couldn’t but to be sent out to all their friends to help noticing that he had piled on the show them how they are busy being fun pounds. The guy is 65 years of age. My re- people, having a good time, projecting a lationship with rock ’n roll has transmog- smiley face to tell everyone they were rified since I first set eyes on him. Teen- present at the gig, seeing if not hearing it. age angst has been replaced by middle- Then the nail in the coffin. My wife, not aged dread. But what about Stevie? somebody usually given to flighty non- When did he last get his cholesterol sense, beckoned me to her side and I com- tested? He is obliged to play his guitar up plied before I copped what she was at. She there with Bruce for three and a half held her phone up in front of us as if it was hours every night as if the pair of them a device to protect from the fleeting years. had just finished their Leaving Certs and This was my chance. I could rebel. I were jamming for fun. Doesn’t he know could say ‘no, put me in the doghouse if that rock ’n roll’s promise of immortality you must, but I will not submit has been exposed as a lie? to this outrage at a rock ’n roll If Stevie is going to carry on with that, concert’. I could comporting himself like the Mafioso don have fled to the he played in The Sopranos, he’d want to highway get with the programme. Cut out the jammed with pizzas, Stevie. Stay within the weekly 10 broken heroes. units of alcohol healthy limit. Get the full But I was NCT from your local medical centre. tired and de- Don’t mess around as if you still believe feated. I smiled that rock ’n roll is going to let you live a dead smile and forever. appealed to my 19- The longevity of a Bruce Springsteen year-old self for concert allows time for little pockets of absolution. reflection on where it all went wrong. the wife and I hung back about halfway Back in the day when I saw Bruce at “I got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. I down. That meant I got a crick in my neck Wembley, rock ’n roll was full of promise. went out for a ride and I never came We were going to straining to see over the heads of the We were never going to get old. Things back.” At Wembley all those years ago “ throngs between me and Bruce, but at would be different for our generation, that line spoke to me of the open road, the least an ambulance wouldn’t be required. freed from the shackles that had turned search for a truth beyond the mundane, live forever,born to be Anyway, all around us, while the band our parents into bores. the loner looking for love in all the wrong was playing, people were talking incess- We were never going to settle down. places, the essence of rock ’n roll. wil... then we turned antly, as if they were in a pub, or gathered There would be none of that working-to- At the Croker gig, I had a different per- for a toastmasters convention. They live mullarkey. No sir, work would be an spective. Who the hell did this character wouldn’t shut up, going on and on, each added extra, like maybe cleaning think he was? Taking off in that irrespon- into our parents trying to out-shout the other about how windows with Van, or even choppin’ wood sible manner, actually deserting his great a gig this was to see. To see? No for a few quid here and there to survive family as if he had a right to do a runner. chance they might try to listen? before getting back onto the open road, Who was going to pay the mortgage while there should be one for rock ’n roll, which I was in a state by the time a text pinged where the wind blows through your hair, he was off finding himself? Who would has its own constituency of outlaws. through from my friend who was up in and you never go bald. We were going to support the kids? What about the cost of That was nothing though compared to the stand. “What a show,” he texted. “Un- live forever, having been born to run, their after-school activities? Who would the scourge of the natterers. As it looked a believable,” I pinged back. While I was at born to be wild, born just yesterday. pay for the wife’s therapy? The fella needs bit too dangerous to venture to the front, it I had a quick peek at Twitter just to see Above all, we were never going to turn a serious boot up the rear end if he thinks into our parents. he’s going to get away with that. Then we turned into our parents. The Far worse than my own internal wrest- chain of years did for the dream. We grew ling was the decrepit state of rock ’n roll up, some of us slower than others, and as glimpsed from the hallowed turf last finally realised that it don’t matter what week. Did you know that it is now illegal nobody says, but in the end rock ’n roll’s to smoke cigarettes at an open air con- promise of immortality was a great decep- cert? One man who was ahead of me in the tion. queue on the way in was told to stub it out. This came home to me last week in Inside, a few smokers were furtively puff- MICHAEL Croker when I should have been fully ing away, as if they were inhaling pot engaged in the band belting out ‘Hungry rather than tobacco. Oh mercy. If there is Heart’, which kicks off with the line: a smoking exemption for prisons, then CLIFFORD Reform of our prison system requires bold steps

T’S almost comical now to think that Kilmainham Gaol — voted d)@ ÿ Z)@ ÿ 5)d 5@"P ÿ J&@V@P Ireland’s top landmark by Trip- CLODAGH advisor for the fourth year in a &n˂Ď ˅şƩƉ Ɛn˅ row, — was once considered a dream şŖ ƞĴĹƐ ĹƐƐƩĎ nƞ disciplinary machine that could “grind rogues honest”. FINN ĹƉĹƐĴĎ˄nőĹŖĎƉŷõşő All you had to do was put hardened criminals in at one end of this vast cor- rectional cage, ensure they were separ- ated, silenced and supervised at all times, then watch as they were “ground honest” to re-emerge upstand- ing citizens at the other end. With 62% of our former The prison building itself was de- signed to transform deviant behaviour prisoners re-offending into socially acceptable behaviour. It was a “machine to grind rogues hon- within three years of est”, as Jeremy Bentham put it when he developed the panopticon, or all- release it’s obvious that seeing prison, in 1769. At the time, his invention was hailed not only an inno- our prison system is an vation in prison architecture but an event of the human mind. utter failure, but a new If prisoners knew they were being watched, or might be watched at any Troubled Families time, then their behaviour would im- prove. Or so went the thinking, though Programme in the UK as we know in this world with ‘eyes’ at have their lives fractured by crime and every street corner that is patently not may offer an alternative social deprivation and reach further the case. way forward and deeper for real, lasting solutions? Back in 1861, though, the east wing at The findings from the Troubled Kilmainham jail was intended to en- Tanáiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald needs to take bold steps to reform our penal system but is unlikely to do so. Families Programme in the UK offers a sure that those held captive within it Picture: Gareth Chaney Collins possible path to radical change. Earlier were always visible. A strip of carpet this week, its director general, Louise was even laid along the landings so Casey, explained how the scheme had that 19th-century jailers could creep separation of prisoners to tackle the prisons, however you build them, are were guilty of conspiring to defraud But — and this is a really vital but — helped turn around the lives of some up and peer into cells through a spy- issue of gangs in the prison system. often ill-equipped to do what is ex- the public in 2008 is a rare example of it needs to go further. Anna Quigley 120,000 so-called troubled families in hole on the door, nicknamed the “eye Prison Officer Association President pected of them. High recidivism rates the untouchables being called to ac- from the Inner City Organisations Net- the UK, saving the government an im- that never sleeps”. Stephen Delaney warned last month (62% of prisoners will reoffend in three count. work has said you can’t address the po- pressive £29,000 per family, per year. The building’s fascinating social his- that violence linked to the feud that has years) are proof that prisons do not re- Why is that? Is it because we are in- licing problem without providing sup- After the 2011 riots, the British Gov- tory has been obscured in the recent already claimed seven lives on the habilitate, though many are happy that clined to think corporate wheeling and port for drug addicts and increasing ernment gave the country’s 152 local commemoration of the 1916 leaders streets of Dublin has broken out in they simply keep the wrongdoers off dealing is necessary to grease the economic opportunities for people in authorities £448m to identify and help who spent their last days in this “city prisons and he has called for a system the street. wheels of industry or is it because it’s the area all at the same time. families at risk. The results have been of cells, a place where the silence is a of isolation to be established. What is particularly striking when obscenely convenient to lock up those Independent TD Maureen O’Sulli- impressive and the savings consider- piercing wail”, as Sean O’Casey once Reducing the power of the gangs in you compare the prison of yesterday, who leave school early, are out of work van echoes that view. The former able. described it, but it’s worth recalling prison will also restrict their capacity with its high ideals, and its modern and/or have a history of addiction? teacher said education seemed to be The initial investment involves huge now, if only to remind us of how little to control matters on the outside — so equivalent is that the profile of the Whatever the answer, we now have the Cinderella of the Government’s money. And more, the type of bold, im- progress we’ve made. all of society will benefit, he reasoned. average prisoner hasn’t changed a jot an unrivalled opportunity to do some- new strategy, but it was vital: the ma- aginative and far-reaching steps that If 19th-century architects used space Just this week, the Jesuit Centre for since the 19th century. An Irish prison- thing radical to break the vicious cycle jority of Irish prisoners have never sat are generally not favoured by govern- to enclose, separate and control, mod- Faith and Justice also called for separ- er is still 25 times more likely to come that has entrapped so many from dis- a State exam. In 2008, of the 520 who en- ments during their, at best, five-year ern architects have been more inclined ation, saying younger inmates should from — and return to — a seriously de- advantaged communities. rolled in the school at Mountjoy lifetimes. to favour green areas, openness and in- be kept away from older ones. Some prived area. Justice Minister Frances Fitzger- Prison, 20% could not read or write, ac- The alternative, though, is pretty tegration. prisoners, its study found, were locked Nobody’s going to pretend that the ald’s allocation of resources to fund a cording to Irish Penal Reform Trust bleak. Fast forward another 100 years – Though, it’s interesting to see that up for up to 23 hours a day because well-to-do and those in the corporate new crime taskforce has been welcom- figures. without action, prisons will still be prison officers — the people on the they feared for their own safety. world don’t break the law. This week’s ed by those working in Dublin’s inner When will the Government listen to locking up the poor and disadvantaged. ground — are once again calling for the It’s a bleak picture illustrating that finding that Anglo Irish executives city. those who really know what it’s like to I Twitter: @FinnClodagh