Captured Irish media: They just don't get it

Our corrupt political system bears full responsibility for the destruction of our country.

Bankers could not have operated their Wild West business operations without the full cooperation of our corrupt political system.

Property developers could not have borrowed billions in unsecured loans without the full cooperation of our corrupt political system.

Regulators could not have ignored what was going on right before their eyes if our political system was not corrupt.

It is our corrupt political system that is directly responsible for the immense suffering and misery inflicted on the Irish people, for the return of mass immigration, for the imposition of severe poverty on this and many generations to come, for the shaming of the nation on the world stage and not least for the many, who in absolute despair, could not deal with the catastrophe and decided to end it all.

Listening to the largely captured Irish media, however, a stranger could be forgiven for thinking that the political system and in particular the Fianna Fail party played no part whatsoever in the destruction of our country and indeed deserves an equality of sympathy for the ‘mysterious’ disease that has been inflicted on the nation.

Veteran journalist Olivia O’Leary.

And there are individual stories, there’s going to be an awful lot of grief in an awful lot of homes today and I suppose you have to feel a bit sorry for that.

No, she’s not talking about the victims of our corrupt political system; she’s talking about the politicians who lost their seats in the election, the guys and girls heading off into happy retirenemt with big fat pensions.

Brendan O’Connor (Sunday Independent).

There is almost something pathetic about the end of the party (Fianna Fail) that was thought to be hardwired into our DNA. For some reason there seems to be little joy in it.

Wrong O’Connor, there’s immense joy in seeing these traitors suffer at least a minimum of inconvenience. If Ireland was a real democracy Fianna Fail would be banned as a political party and its leaders would be on trial for treason.

Terry Prone (Irish Examiner)

Toughest of all, of course, is the situation, today, of those who lost their seats, their livelihood, and in some cases, their self-respect. We have become so furious and cruel a society that the general reaction to their loss is “serves them right”.

It is deeply insulting to the millions of Irish people who are victims of our corrupt political system to witness self-righteous journalists like Prone accuse them of being cruel because they are furious and want justice.

Marian Finucane:

This must be a terrible personal tragedy for him (Brian Cowen’s fall). I mean to see the party he loves so much, to be at the head of Government of a party that you’re so proud of that brings in the IMF, I mean on a personal level that has to be very difficult.

Isn’t it amazing that a politician who has led a privileged life, who has never wanted for anything, who was among the best paid politicians in the world, who is retiring with a fortune at the expense of the people he betrayed can be described as a tragic figure?