Re: Re: Noel O’Gara on The Late Late Show

There’s nothing really to comment on this, as it was just more of the same ramblings. It was deeply disheartening to see that, having been on the radio programme numerous times, he was given a free ride on the Late Late – presumably on account of his by-now familiarity with Pat. Essentially his story was painted as the little guy getting one over on ‘the system’. If there’s one ugly fault in the Irish, it is surely their love affair with such fables.

One can thus be hardly surprised at the populist, ill-informed warm applause he received at the end. As if any of the audience supported his wild notions of Irish heritage revolving around Celtic burial grounds and misty castles, while urban Ireland is trashed by m̩-f̩inist, second-rate, 1970s, ironically British, planning ideology Рor should that be lack thereof.

The best line of the interview referred to his living in a listed building, and needing planning permission to change the wallpaper. As if this wasn’t bad enough, luckily for those more receptive to such misinformation, they were quickly dealt a welcome insight into Noel’s thinking when hearing his objections to being legally obliged to wear a seatbelt in a car (and thus saving the lives of those who would rather not be extinguished by the dead weight of a couple of sacks of spuds from the back seat).

Fair enough, by all means give the man a platform, but doing so entirely unopposed does a grave injustice to any concept of civic life, and indeed rational thinking for that matter.

The video can be seen here:

http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/av_20090403.html?2521198,null,228