I'm sure you all knew that already. In a moment of weakness I bought a copy of Hot Press this week. Jesus fucking christ is it such a pile of shite.
Anyway what really annoyed me was thier letter of the week. The one that wins the 20 euro voucher for dolphin discs. I shall quote it in its entirety.
We Irish are a hilarious lot. In this country we beat the shit out of immigrants and rant and rave about them stealing our women, jobs, houses etc. Meanwhile, over in the USA we have a bunch of Irish immigrants slobbering into their green beer about how unfair it is that they won't be allowed to stay in the that country! Honestly, you couldn't make it up.
Where do I begin. I suppose the gross generalisation is a good place to start. "In this country we...", not "In this country a certain minority of individuals..." Then the writer equates this violent, xenophobic minority of people on these shores with the 50,000 or so Irish people working their bollix off in the US illegally. Unless Irish US emigrants have managed to perfect the art of bilocation I doubt they're the same people beating up immigrants here or "ranting and raving" about immigration into ireland. And that comment about them "slobbering into their green beer" is just bizarre.
I don't understand what this correspondent is actually complaining about. These are two separate issues. Irish people's tolerance or intolerance of legal immigration and immigrants is one issue which has been and continues to be dealt with at all levels in our society. It is an important issue, perhaps the most important issue for our society in the short or medium term.
The issue of the status of illegal Irish workers in the United States is a completely different one. I know little about the issue but I'm sure some other thumpeders would know people who are in that position and could shed further light on the issue. I know it is an issue for the United States government and that conflating it with the first issue does nobody any good.
The correspondent is entitled to his opinion but I don't know how the guys running Hot Press thought this was a good or great letter, worthy of financial reward. The Hot Press has been shoddy as long as I can recall but it seems to be getting inexplicably worse, with every page like an advertorial for beer, whiskey, sun tan lotion or dildos. They always seem to have had an infantile, contrary attitude, going against the grain for no logical reason and succumbing to "typical Oireland"-type humbuggery at every given opportunity. The above letter is an exemplar of the form and perhaps that's why they liked it so much. Our society had plenty of problems but letters like this smug, ill-informed one do little to solve them. And yes I have nothing more important to be worrying about. Oh yeah The Whole Hog part is still pretty good. Well that's my rant of the day....
Anyway what really annoyed me was thier letter of the week. The one that wins the 20 euro voucher for dolphin discs. I shall quote it in its entirety.
We Irish are a hilarious lot. In this country we beat the shit out of immigrants and rant and rave about them stealing our women, jobs, houses etc. Meanwhile, over in the USA we have a bunch of Irish immigrants slobbering into their green beer about how unfair it is that they won't be allowed to stay in the that country! Honestly, you couldn't make it up.
Where do I begin. I suppose the gross generalisation is a good place to start. "In this country we...", not "In this country a certain minority of individuals..." Then the writer equates this violent, xenophobic minority of people on these shores with the 50,000 or so Irish people working their bollix off in the US illegally. Unless Irish US emigrants have managed to perfect the art of bilocation I doubt they're the same people beating up immigrants here or "ranting and raving" about immigration into ireland. And that comment about them "slobbering into their green beer" is just bizarre.
I don't understand what this correspondent is actually complaining about. These are two separate issues. Irish people's tolerance or intolerance of legal immigration and immigrants is one issue which has been and continues to be dealt with at all levels in our society. It is an important issue, perhaps the most important issue for our society in the short or medium term.
The issue of the status of illegal Irish workers in the United States is a completely different one. I know little about the issue but I'm sure some other thumpeders would know people who are in that position and could shed further light on the issue. I know it is an issue for the United States government and that conflating it with the first issue does nobody any good.
The correspondent is entitled to his opinion but I don't know how the guys running Hot Press thought this was a good or great letter, worthy of financial reward. The Hot Press has been shoddy as long as I can recall but it seems to be getting inexplicably worse, with every page like an advertorial for beer, whiskey, sun tan lotion or dildos. They always seem to have had an infantile, contrary attitude, going against the grain for no logical reason and succumbing to "typical Oireland"-type humbuggery at every given opportunity. The above letter is an exemplar of the form and perhaps that's why they liked it so much. Our society had plenty of problems but letters like this smug, ill-informed one do little to solve them. And yes I have nothing more important to be worrying about. Oh yeah The Whole Hog part is still pretty good. Well that's my rant of the day....
