Having reported on the first hints of Declan Ganley’s return to the political arena on Friday, as announced through twitter, I couldn’t but notice that twitter isn’t quite on the record.
The Irish Times print edition managed to report on the story without mentioning twitter, referring only to ‘speculation‘.
The newspaper of record either didn’t see John McGuirk’s tweet, or didn’t consider it worth reporting.
It would seem what politicians say is recorded, except when it comes to twitter.
But it’s worth keeping an eye on what they say there.
For instance, Mannix Flynn was moved to defend John O’Donoghue at the weekend. Here’s what he had to say in two tweets on Sunday:
‘John O’Donoghue did more for the Arts than most, he saved the Abbey and enhanced artists funding and standing, now he’s being demonised, why?’
‘Remember O’Donoghue represented three departments, Arts, Sports and Tourism, the civil servants are the ones that make up the Ministers Agenda.’
Flynn’s website describes him as ‘an advocate for those who are vulnerable to exploitation by people more powerful than themselves‘. Perhaps this explains his decision to spring to the defence of O’Donoghue, who appointed him to the IMMA board in 2007.
@the Abbey
The Governments of which John O’Donoghue was a member did us a great disservice with the decision to move the Abbey to the Docklands (a concrete jungle, fuelled by tax-breaks, and the crony capitalism Bertie’s Celtic Tiger Ireland) instead of O’Connell Street or Parnell Square.
Lithuania’s National Theatre is on the main street of Vilnius, the capital.
Is it naive to hope that some managerial imagination will reverse this decision , now that both the Government and property developers have run out of money?
Why not add the Abbey to the cultural institutions in the O Connell St/Parnell Square area eg. the Gate Theatre, the Hugh Lane Dublin City Gallery, the Dublin Writer’s Museum – all on Parnell Square, the James Joyce Centre in North Great George’s Street, the Savoy Cinema which is where all the gala film premieres in Dublin take place.
I wonder what Mannix thinks of this?