The West: Wide faces, wiry hair and big ears

Pat Kenny sent Marie Louise O’Donnell down to Mayo to cover Enda Kenny’s homecoming.

To say that her report was over the top would be an understatement and in the end Pat just fell into an embarrassed silence. One listener called in to inquire if Marie Louise was in love with Enda Kenny.

Certainly, I think many in the West might be considering legal action after Marie Louise described them as wide faced, wiry haired, big eared citizens.

Here’s just a flavour of her report:

I knew I was in the West because I got a seat up on the balcony looking down on the sea of people you had that kind of whiff of human haze of the West of Ireland.

The smell of turf and porridge and tweed and prayer and the clothes and the jackets and the huge mass of people.

And a kind of hue of them like you would get at a big country Mass, all standing around ready for Enda to come in.

And you know you’re in the West as well, they have great wonderful wide faces, sparkly eyes and thick wiry hair and kind of big ears, bright dancing eyes and great Mayo tones and great manners and great strength.

3 thoughts on “The West: Wide faces, wiry hair and big ears”

  1. Marie Louise is daft. She demonstrates this regularly on the Vincent Browne show on TV3.

  2. That woman makes me cringe!
    Does she really think Ireland is like this in 2011? So sick of those hackneyed, embarrassing descriptions of this country. Ditto the Famine songs and Irish music dominating the airwaves in the days up to March 17th. Ireland is not like this any more! Move on!

Comments are closed.