tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post8691729436822756754..comments2023-10-29T07:54:36.000+00:00Comments on georgiasam: In Answer to the Question, Whether I Have Anything to Say on Water Charges in Irelandputhwuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05606399161863289851noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post-54005037479451423762015-04-25T00:23:09.121+01:002015-04-25T00:23:09.121+01:00There isn't, so far as I can see, a word I dis...There isn't, so far as I can see, a word I disagree with here. There is nothing ghastlier than poets writing about what they feel they should, rather than what they want to. An amusing side effect of the water charges revolt though has been the social media implosion of Cork poet Gerry Murphy who has taken to calling the tactics of the anti-water charges movement as being at least reminiscent of "fascism" . This is not in poems - more's the pity - but in social media comments. Clearly Gerry's political education during his Flirtation with International Socialism (the title of one of his collections) was patchy. But that is perhaps the fault of his tutors. It is clear that, poetry entirely aside, there is a certain type of Irish concerned person - those believers in all things Fintan O'Toole and Michael D - who fall at least partly in the category of person I was thinking of when I wrote this in 2013. "THE AVERAGE commentator on an Irish internet political discussion forum holds two opinions. First: that, unlike the French or the Greeks, the Irish will never stand up and say no.<br /><br />Second: that, when some group, actually does stand up for themselves he is absolutely against them.." http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/63692/when-we-werent-all-in-it-together <br /><br />Now, as ever, to contradict myself slightly, far from writing poems against water charges, I think those Irish poet commenters on social media who love water charges should each be asked to write a Sestina on the incipient fascism of the protesters, some of whom, unlike Margaretta D'Arcy, aren't even members of Áosdána.Jonathan Swifthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12013462226996351800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post-70897500533316119622015-04-13T23:03:41.549+01:002015-04-13T23:03:41.549+01:00Is this in response to a call for trickle down poe...Is this in response to a call for trickle down poetics?Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.com