Tipping point
Posted by Maman Poulet on 28 Mar 2009 at 02:31 am | Tagged as: Irish Media, Irish Politics
I’ve been trying to get some sort of hold on what I think this week’s events are about. So here goes…
Picturegate was not about the pictures, not about the gallery and someone putting the pictures into a gallery. It’s not about gender or the exasperating comment heard from Mary O’Rourke this week ‘if a woman was painted in that manner people would be up in arms.’ We would not have seen the pictures in the press if images of naked women had been involved. And again especially for Mary O’Rourke – it was not about Brian Cowen’s privacy in the toilet.
It was about the apology, the subsequent coverage, what constitutes news and a right to cover the story and way in which that coverage should be framed. It most importantly is about the ongoing Garda investigation which only took speed 2 weeks after the incident. It’s still about the lack of understanding of satire, art and the role of caricature in public discourse.
Miriam Lord confirms my impression that few in the Dáil or anywhere else cared much about these paintings until the apology was made for the report on the Nine O’Clock News.
Portraitgate exploded on Tuesday night after RTÉ apologised for featuring images of a very unflattering caricature of the Taoiseach that was stuck on a wall in the National Gallery when nobody was looking.
But here’s an interesting thing. The incident happened a few weeks ago. It came to public attention when it was featured, with photographs, in the Sunday Tribune . The following night, RTÉ news ran the story.
The next day, Tuesday, was a sitting day in the Dáil. Lots of activity around the place, lots of journalists about, lots of TDs. Here’s the funny thing: nobody was talking about the caricatures. In Leinster House, if there is a controversy brewing or indignation on the rise, it flies around the place in record time.
That night in the bar, the talk was of lots of things. But not of those rude paintings of Biff in the Buff. Then, at the end of the nine o’clock news, that apology was read out. Mobile phones beeped throughout the House.
Portraitgate had became a talking point. Certain people decided it was time to be offended. Strange, the way things happen. Maybe some good can come out of the mess. Look at all the publicity two paintings of a half-naked politician can command. As the week went on, people were clamouring to buy the offending artwork. Websites were doing a steady trade in Biff-in-the-Buff T-shirts.
I’m off to work on my postcard.
Spot on, MP! It’s a Watergate moment where people start to ask (more widely) WTF is going on… just a pity Cowen wasn’t pictured in a tent, cos Gilmore would have gone to town on that metaphor!!
Garda investigation which only took speed 2 weeks after the incident.
What evidence do you have of this? We know they went in to Today FM 2 weeks after the crime. We don’t know when they started investigating it.
Caricatures? I thought they were fairly accurqte representations of Brian Cowen.
It seems to me that people find accurate pictures of him offensive. What does that tell you?
I wonder if anyone else really cares about how the artist, a teacher in an Irish school, has been treated?
I’ve heard on FF politician as much as say the man’s job was on the line.
The state power used against him, the confiscation of his property, and many other aspects I can only guess at.
The pressure he’s come under: one citizen faced with the naked power of the office.
In my book he’s entitled to exemplary damages running into millions of euros.
But what I’ve noticed is how few people seem to take this use of state power seriously. As if it were some sort of Charlie Haughey foible.
My hypothesis is that civil society in Ireland is incredibly weak and inexperienced at standing up for itself. I feel so angry at what this government has allowed to take place in relation to this individual. I feel disgusted at the lack of action by Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore – both of whom might well have publicly associated themselves with the individual citizen. I am persuaded that neither of them would defend my liberty if it suited them not to.
This government is finished. It’s credibility is not an issue any more. But the opposition who will replace FF is weak and liver-whatever…
So too is the media. Perhaps I’ve missed some splendid acts in support of the rights of this solitary citizen. But, if I’ve missed them, others have too.
A society used to bribeable public representatives, a community used to following the leader, a people used to clapping each other on the back and feeling proud of its insular approach to knowledge of other regimes… it’s probably unfair of me to expect any more than we are getting from elected representatives.
Not one single member of FF resigns membership of the party, not one single member breaks ranks and tells the Taoiseasch to get real…
Meanwhile much of the rest of the democratic world smiles at the Irish, and feels glad it’s not saddled with our addictions.
I feel like giving up and going back to my primary love: mental health. I have a strong impulse to stop writing and sharing my thoughts and feelings about the politics and economy.
There is nothing this government could throw at me in the budget which would upset me half as much as what’s happened already. I assume it’ll be awful because they are awful and only capable of designing awful things.
Why did I come back here, if that’s all the good I can find in the place? There are people saying why don’t you go back to UK. Isn’t it just as bad over there? It isn’t. That’s a society where people have fought for civil liberties, rather than nationalistic hubris. [But let's not get distracted into trading evaluations of the UK.] I better stop before I say something I’ll regret or go beyond my considered view.
Simon – look at the original report in the Sunday Tribune:
http://www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2009/mar/22/cowen-hung-out-to-dry-in-national-gallery-hijack/
“When the prank painting was spotted by security staff, they immediately took it down and brought it to the attention of gallery management. Gardaí from nearby Pearse Street station were called to the scene where they examined the portrait and CCTV footage.
Bemused officers told management, however, that it was unlikely the rogue artist had committed any type of criminal offence.
Ok – so when the thing was reported, the Gardai said it was “unlikely” that the artist had committed any type of offence. That’s not a definitive statement, but it’s a hell of a long way from the list of charges that were quoted to Today FM, which included, if you recall, indecency and incitement to hatred.
So – where did those charges come from? It seems unlikely that the National Gallery would have thought the paintings indecent or an incitement to hatred. And who were these “powers that be” that the Garda spoke of?
Something doesn’t add up here.
I discovered the banned RTE report is still online at RTE’s site:
http://markhumphrys.com/picturegate.rte.html
Mark Humphrys
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woesinger I am guessing that the persons who came from to the Gallery were ordinary police officers I might not know what the law is on the matter? Take away the political aspect of it. What law is stopping any joe soap putting pictures up in the national gallery? What if I want to put up pictures of the 2001 winning Ireland team . Should I be allowed to? Surely that should be stopped? But what law is against that? We have very little facts about this issue and the facts have been replaced by conjecture which on the blogosphere has become fact. The blogosphere is well out of touch on this issue. Which I think was highlighted by the fact that while administrating over this country terribly. FF went up in the latest poll which was taken on the days in the middle of this storm