John Delaney cartoon caricature from Charlie’s latest Double Vision column (printed in the Connacht Tribune and appearing online every week illustrated by me!)
I don’t know much about football but I know that if you throw a stick at Irish public life you’re going to hit some dodgy dealings. from the charity sector to sports, we never seem to learn anything about governance and good practice until someone is caught in the sweetie jar, and then they are just quietly moved on (usually), the story blows over and everything goes back to “normal” until the whole cycle repeats itself. It’s a hell of a way to run things. We seem to kowtow to strong personalities who then get to run things as a personal fiefdom, usually at the expense of people for whom funding was intended. It’s a sickness in Irish life that I don’t know will ever be addressed, because if everyone’s looking at this scandal this week, it takes the heat off that scandal over there for now. Ireland is run like a used car business in the 70s. Keep the polish high, it doesn’t matter that the engine is a trip around the corner from seizing completely, just take the money and get them to drive away.
The repercussions for John Delaney initially were to be moved sideways. Someone in a similar position looking on is just going to shrug their shoulders and carry on because what’s the disincentive? A finger wagging from a Dáil committee where you can just refuse to answer questions? There’s something wrong in the roots, there’s something wrong in the branches. We’ll just sit in our nests and pretend the tree won’t someday collapse.
More Double Vision cartoons here.
