The docile Irish

On the 7th February last, I published an email written by Irish actor Brendan Gleeson describing the horrific conditions his parents had to endure in an Irish hospital. On last Friday’s Late Late Show he again spoke about the matter and because it was live, it was possible to see and feel his deep anger and hurt. Here’s what he had to say;

‘There are people here whose parents are going to die in disgusting circumstances. The only reason people aren’t burning the offices of the health board is because the staff are keeping the people, in as much as they can, in some sort of human situation, but this is absolutely disgusting. John O’Shea of GOAL should come into Ireland and we’ll give him some charity money and let him sort out what we are doing to our old people.

Now I’d like to ask, if they don’t sort this thing in three to six months, anybody who votes for this crowd to get back in next time, might as well shoot themselves. I’ll be honest with you; I don’t think much of the other crowd either. There’s no point in being negative and funny about it, this is really really upsetting.

Do you know what it’s like if your going to vote for this crowd at the moment, this is the way I feel about it – That if somebody came in and started punching your mother and father around the room and you went up and patted them on the back and said “sure I know you must be upset’. It is disgusting that we are allowing people to die when we have billions, a baboon could sort this bloody thing out.

The professor Drumm’s and the Mary Harney’s and all this shower and…you know what’s on the oncology department wall – Michael Martin’s name on a plaque, an oncology department where my mother in law was dying, where they were people on chairs with grieving people, there were people trying to fight for life and cling on to hope beside people who were dead – and this moron’s name is on a plaque, when he screwed the place from the time he went in to the time he left – what the bloody hell is going on?

You can watch the whole clip here.

At the end of my post last February, I asked the question – ‘Why are the Irish people so docile and politically ignorant? I would like to rephrase that. The Irish people are docile because they are politically ignorant.

It is only when an individual or political party emerges that can educate the Irish people in how to get angry that we will begin to see an end to the corruption, incompetence and arrogance that has blighted our country for decades.