Hey Fianna Fáil – leave Conor Casby alone
In an astonishing display of naiveté by someone in the upper echelons of the Government/Fianna Fáil party they have managed to draw an enormous amount of attention to the Conor Casby painting fiasco.
Approximately 3 weeks ago two paintings were hung – apparently without permission – in the RHA and National Gallery of Ireland. The paintings were caricatures – nude head and torso – of An Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
Last monday evening RTÉ news ran a report on the 9 o’clock TV news on these paintings which included several visual shots of the paintings. The broadcaster subsequently issued an apology on Tuesday’s evening news and removed the clip in question from its website.
Today it emerged that Will Hanafin, a presenter on the Today FM radio show which had some correspondence with the artist, Conor Casby, and read out a statement from him on Tuesday morning, had received a visit from a Garda detective who was conducting an investigation into the artist on three charges: incitement to hatred, indecency and criminal damage – for hammering a nail into the wall of the National Gallery. He said that the detective had seemed very embarrassed to be there but was determined to continue as “the powers that be want action taken.” The Gardaí were apparently intent on pursuing this, to the extent that when Today FM refused to hand over correspondence between them and the artist, the detective said he would obtain a warrant requiring them to do so.
I can’t wait to see which judge signs off on that one.
Will also said that a Fianna Fáil spokesperson had confirmed to him that he had demanded an apology from RTÉ.
What gobshite in Fianna Fáil thinks that this is a sensible way to deal with a piece of satire?
TD Michael Kennedy was on Matt Cooper’s drivetime show The Last Word on Today FM this evening making a complete arse of himself waffling on about how it was disgraceful and offensive that this was shown on RTÉ news. He wasn’t blinkered enough to say that this was a good use of police time – although Matt Cooper had to ask him about 5 times to drag that out of him – but he managed to do an extremely good job of taking himself, his party and a cartoon painting entirely too seriously.
Fianna Fáil, get your heads out of your arses, issue an apology to Conor Casby – who voluntarily accompanied the Gardaí to make a statement in Pearse St. Garda station – and tell people like Michael Kennedy to say nothing from now on. The only thing you have achieved by pursuing the matter in this fashion is to ensure that it gets worldwide publicity.
As if we didn’t have enough to be embarrassed about.
Whoops, time to send the Gardaí round
