Punishing Dundalk FC for a fan flying a Palestinian flag is devoid of any logic.

Punishing Dundalk FC for fans waving a Palestinian Flag during a match against Croatian side Hajduk Split is a gross example of selective myopia. The town is reeling, and there are damn good reasons why. 

The size of the fine is maddening and the club can ill afford it. To compare, Villarreal were fined €12k when someone threw a banana at Dani Alves; an action designed to hurt and offend, and it did. The waving of a Palestinian flag by Dundalk FC supporters was designed to do neither, and it didn’t. 

It should be noted that Dundalk FC were fined for two offences, one for an inappropriate flag and the other for standing in the stadium. The latter comes under health and safety which is taken very seriously: In a highly comparable case from earlier this year, Bayern Munich had part of the stadium closed for fans standing. They too were issued with a fine, €10k, for inappropriate flags. How the fine is proportioned between the two offences will be interesting to see. 

But I’m struggling to see the logic behind issuing the fine at all. I am no UEFA, LOI, FA, ETC... aficionado; but it doesn’t take one to see the myriad of comparable situations that have not incurred the wrath of footballing authorities.

The road between Dundalk and Glasgow is a well worn track. A small army makes the regular pilgrimage to matches of varying importance and follow them across Europe. I’d dare say, if there were as many committed Dundalk FC supporters in Dundalk as there are Celtic supporters, club finances wouldn’t be taking so hard a hit. And in the bags of every platoon that travel to Celtic games are the tricolours that those of us watching at home use to spot the Irish in the crowd. And if Celtic were fined for every tricolour...well you can start to see the argument that this was a politically motivated fine. 

And it’s not just a Dundalk or Celtic thing; from what I can see flying a national flag as a signal of solidarity is part of the fabric of football support. Since the news broke about the fine social media users have been quick to point to many other instances of national flags flying as signs of solidarity with something or other. There are so many it hardly seems an uncommon occurrence. That’s why I’m struggling to understand how UEFA have acted to issue a fine at all.   

There is already a strong belief that the problem is that flying the Palestinian flag was politicised, whether it was the fans that flew the flags in the first place or UEFA’s disproportionate response that really introduced that political question remains to be seen. The weighting of the €18k fine between the two offences could be telling in this regard. 

I don’t view the flying of a national flag as an overtly political act; the national flag does not belong to the government, but to the people. They are visual signifiers for where someone is from and if we know the country represented, we might know something of what that country has experienced. It is not a description of an individual or even a group’s political, religious or any other opinions. 

It is not clear to what degree the conflict in Gaza has played a part in the fine or its scale, if it did at all. But considering the size of the fine and so many other situations when flying a national flag went without comment, it seems likely. But, there is no logic in presuming that the flying of a national flag is an antagonistic act based on recent conflict. If you follow that logic then every tricolour flown would be viewed as an anti-British act, or the flying of a Union Jack and Stars and Stripes would be anti-Iraqi, and so on until presumably, hopefully, someone realises how foolish this line of thinking is.  

There are examples where UEFA have issued fines when a national flag has had a political slogan on it, or when it has been used in a way that is intended to cause offence to the people of that nation.  Celtic were fined €50k last year for a tricolour with Bobby Sands on it being flown at a match against AC Milan. Earlier this year Russian-side Zenit from St Petersberg was fined €15k for fans burning a German Flag. The German Football Association was fined €25k when a neo-nazi flag was flown at their Euro 2012 match against Denmark.

However, it is difficult to find examples of national flags being flown in isolation, without some sort of potentially offensive slogan or action that has incurred a UEFA fine. 

€18k is a considerable sum for the club. There are already calls for the fans to dig deep and help pay the fine. But it would be a stomach churning response for the town raise funds for this fine and not for the countless resource-starved charities and community groups that desperately need money.

So if UEFA do not revoke the fine, in the face of every other national flag that has appeared at a UEFA match, despite issuing lower fines for worse acts and what appears to be their ignorant and illogical presumption that flying a Palestinian flag in Dundalk was designed to inflict harm or offend, then let’s be clear and determine exactly why they are punishing anyone at all.

Masculinity versus Make-Up: In a period of flux, how big an impact will cynical advertising be likely to have ?

When David Beckham’s bulging Armani advert was posted on billboards and busses earlier this year it caused quite a stir. Some complained it was gratuitous while others just delighted in the spectacle of it all. But a quick glance at magazines and TV screen shows that there was really nothing unusual about a toned man displaying muscles to shift a few units for the sponsors. Yes, the male body has been commercialised.   

The advertising of men’s grooming products is on the up and only the finest specimens are chosen to advertise them. Even skin tone, defined muscles, chizzled jaw’s, intense eyes and a heavy brow are the common features that men are seeing every day. And it’s not just in models and movies, news readers, TV presenters, politicians, rock stars and footballers are all do a stint in the make-up chair before making public appearances. With the increase in the quality of our TV screens anyone who stands in front the camera stands to have every imperfection exposed.

If it is true that celebrity trends trickle down to the increasingly primped and pruned masses, then in coming years we are likely to see generations of men incorporate the application of make-up into their daily routine.

By Mimi Haddon Getty Images

The men’s cosmetic industry is thriving; companies like Clinique and L’Oreal have finally struck gold on a hereto untapped market and it’s an easy transition for them to make. To a large degree, the ground-work has been laid. For over 100 years cosmetics companies have employed the finest scientists and experts to brew potions and lotions to suit a wide variety of skin types and individual feature needs. It’s a simple rebrand, repackage, change of marketing strategy and hey presto it’s ready to roll out.

Many men rebut projections for the future of the sex. Some argue that because the male ideal physique is traditionally rugged and burly that these marketers cynical play on male vanity will not work. But they would be missing the point - the aim is to convince that these qualities will be enhanced, making them more striking, more sexually appealing and more affirming of masculinity.

There is an art in applying make-up and its greatest successes are the most subtle. No one is suggesting that men will start utilising the rainbow of eyeshades to match their manbags any time soon. Men’s cosmetics are more tactful; it is about covering up blemishes and the use of shadow to highlight the contours of the face. The product ranges of the most popular men’s lines like Calvin Klein and Clinique are all geared towards shine correction, concealment and enhancement. They have not yet dipped into the more decorative items.

The state of play is changing, but perhaps, not as quickly as cosmetics companies would like. The men’s fashion industry in the UK is now worth more than €25bn a year and rising; men’s cosmetics in the region of €870m.

The main buyers of ‘guy-liner’ and ‘manscara’ are the under 24’s and the market is expanding.  Beauticians are increasingly offering their services to men, there are hundreds of YouTube tutorials of how to achieve the no make-up look and – in short men are plugged into the beauty trade.

As fourth generation feminists continue the battle over unrealistic depiction of perfection having a distorting effect on young women’s body image – the question is what effect are these paradigms of manhood having on young impressionable men? 

The simple answer would be - it’s making them more conscious and concerned about their appearance. Not such a bad thing really, well not yet anyway. The industry has not yet reached the destructive proportions that marketing to women has had but the method of delivery is the same. Convince you that your appearance is inadequate and offer you a quick-fix solution.

The question becomes are men somehow immune to the influence that the exposure to images of perfection that populate the media? How will men fair when their insecurities are turned against them and the pressure to look a certain way becomes the norm?

One of the areas where it will really hit is when it comes to employment.  When men start to lose out on the jobs front because they are not aesthetically up to scratch, how will they react? There are host of recent surveys by recruitment companies that say a clean shaven, well groomed candidates is far more likely to gain employment than one that is not. The pressure increases when you suspect you are suffering personally from societies' ugly side.   

When we talk about pressure that is put on us to look a certain way, it is worth remembering that much of the pressure is self inflicted. While personal hygiene and general grooming are always welcomed and style and self-confidence celebrated, there is no pride in falling prey to astute marketing and succumbing to the pressures of insecurity and vanity that has been assimilated into ‘femininity’.  It is hard to detach, but it is not impossible and the result can be more rewarding.  

Nothing is constant and just as femininity has changed and adapted through generations, so too will masculinity. But this time, what it is to be a man is being reshaped to fit in with our evolving cultural values in a context where most of the major pitfalls of marketing influence are as obvious as the billboards that promote it.  


First published in Seamus Magazine June 2012

Turning 30 will always be a milestone, even if the road it's on changes.

“Age is just a number, it doesn’t really mean anything,” assures a friend. And yet here we are discussing how to celebrate my 30th Birthday. And besides, she can easily say that, she’s not turning 30 for another 10 months.

Planning these celebrations inevitably leads to questioning what exactly is so great about this particular anniversary. It’s a milestone, the passing of every decade is and although these annual inevitabilities only carry the significance we attribute them, leaving your twenties behind and entering into your thirties does seem to carry some extra weight. 

My family are the first to start commenting on it; the things I should know, own; wear and “not be at” now that I’m “turning the big three-O.” All said in that jokey way where the “but, seriously” is silent. My friends tell me to pay no attention; I take to the internet for solace. 

“21 is the new 30” reads a headline. Relief; But it’s not true, because turning 30 is something more, it is a passage into maturity.

When celebrities, particularly women, turn 30 the media mark the milestone with interviews and commentaries asking how they feel about it, what it might mean for their look and their career. And when our time comes we end up asking the same questions of ourselves. In the spotlight or not, the preceding months can contain a mixture of excitement and anxiety; and with all this talk of change it hard to keep the issue at bay. 

 Anne Hathaway and Beyonce recently turned thirty, and both gushed about the experience. They saw it as a badge of maturity and were happy to enter this new phase. Being 29 is an odd age in a way; you’ve done so much and are practically 30 without the title. Although saying I’m in my 20s is technically true, I don’t feel entirely honest, it really only feels about 10% true.  

However, some celebrity stunners like Kim Kardashian have spoken of their age anxiety. Psychologists Anne E. Barrett, Cheryl Robbins in Florida State University identify three main sources of age anxiety; fertility, declining attractiveness and health. But it is the latter two that cause the most distress and women suffer more of it than men. 

I don’t usually make a big thing of my birthday, but I have to concede that it does feel like the ending of an era, and it would be a shame to not hold a funeral for my twenties. 

I’ve decided on a simple celebration, close friends going out for dinner and then to the local late bar.  And instead of asking myself, what am I going to wear? I’m asking what I can wear?  Does my hemline have to drop an inch or two? Easy on the eye-shadow? 

 For all but few, by 30 the inherent, vibrant beauty of youth has passed. The beginning of a battle against the signs of ageing has begun; close inspections of foreheads for wrinkles, and eyes for crows-feet increase. And I can’t help but being more captivated by those pseudo-scientific terms that anti-ageing creams throw at you. 

Beauty experts say that prevention is better than cure. There’s no cure for wrinkles except Botox or surgery and it’s too soon for that. But it’s time to pay attention and start a routine that will keep it at its best, damage to skin will not be so easily repaired now. Heavy make-up ages you too, so the older you get, the older it makes you look. So from now on, less means more. 

Health-wise turning 30 is a pivotal point, especially for smokers. A recent study in the UK shows that women can cut the risks of tobacco- related death by 97% if they quit before 30. I stubbed my last cigarette out years ago but everyone should do some form of physical activity, and it needs to be tailored to age. Those that do tend to have lower mortality rates. 

For over 30s the World Health organisation recommends either 2 ½ hours of moderately strenuous activity or 1 1/2 hours of intense activity a week; and that is just for the minimum maintenance. There's much more work to be done if improvements are to be made and to delay middle age spread.  It might be time to pick up the pace on my nightly walks and start a new hobby or two.

In my twenties I created an image of who I wanted to be by 30; and like me many people created this image of the future in the boom years, basing it on projections of never ending opportunities. The only way was up. Life as a 30-year-old now is quite different to how most people who spent their carefree twenties riding the Celtic tiger thought it would. 

Laughing about how unrealistic our expectations were at 21, my nearly-30 friend confesses “I thought I would walk straight into a well-paid job after college and planned to be earning about €50k a year by the time I hit 30. But at least graduating at the dawn of a recession has taught me not to plan too much, and just focus on enjoying life and being grateful for what I have.”

So I didn’t shoot up the career ladder and instead of weekends in Europe and trips to New York I’m grateful for a few pints and later turning a friend’s kitchen tiles into a dance floor. And it’s difficult not to feel a little disappointed and frustrated at times.  

Your twenties are fun and can be wonderfully carefree by comparison to what comes later in life. But the experiences you have in these glory days should strip you of your naivety and prepare you for what is to comes next. So having seen Ireland, friendships, relationships and jobs go from boom to bust and back again over the past ten years, as well as promises from my mother that I will see it again someday, I feel more knowledgeable, capable and confident that I can cope with whatever comes my way. 

I head out the night before the big day, and half-way through my birthday celebration, my friend hands me a big leather book – a photo album of me, my whole life and so many of my friends had contributed to it. I was overwhelmed, not just at the thoughtfulness of the gift, but because looking through those photos I realised that most of the great things that happened to me were totally unplanned, unexpected and completely off course; and that some of the hardest times have made me stronger, smarter and better prepared for the future.        

As such I’d know this all along, but only really felt it then; and my thirties really began to feel more like a blank canvas, now standing on a sturdier easel. 

And no social-guillotine fell when I hit 30. There is still frivolous fun to be had, wild nights out and duvet days. There’s just a little more work to be done on the serious side of life and with the knowledge gained the results are more successful.

In general, there are signs that things in Ireland are picking up. But even if it doesn’t, at 30+1 month years-of-age, I can see how much I’ve learned, how much better I understand the world and how to navigate it. And I’m looking forward to the next ten years now I’ve an idea how much more is to come and that I’m prepared to make the most of it. 

They’re the best years of your life I’m told. And I believe it, they could be now that I know what to do with them. So now I’m telling my 30-minus-a few-months-old friend not to worry; that age is just a number, but if she thinks about it, it is one of the best.   

“Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” – Cady, Mean Girls.

French maids, sultry secretaries and no doubt a few virginal Anastasia Steele’s will all be making appearances this Halloween Night. But for many  men and women putting together a Halloween costume is less about the scare factor and more about the sex factor.

After the unprecedented success of 50 Shades of Gray, this year women in particular are likely to be as confident as ever to display their sexuality. One of the most remarkable aspects of the phenomenon was it was women bringing sex into everyday life as they read the book on trains, cafe and lunch break. Just a quick dose of arousal before it’s back to the grind stone. And that is what Halloween is all about.

This year it started when Kim Kardashian tweeted pictures of herself shopping for a Halloween Costumes in L.A., all of which were chosen to extenuate her ample assets “Rawarrrrrr!” she teases, “Shopping for Halloween Costumes.” Seizing the opportunity the tabloids ran with photo galleries of top 10 sexy celebrity Halloween costumes. And right on cue, feminist blogs began the annual demonization of the women to don the Risqué outfits and those who promote them. They talk of the hyper-commercialisation of Halloween and how sex is used to ‘sell’ it in the same way it’s used to sell just about everything else. 

But this is just another calendar date in the sexualisation is slavery versus sexual empowerment debate which has been raging among women since they first realised that showing a bit more leg can sometimes get them ahead in life.  A worthy, but heavy debate, and its Halloween- surly time to let loose and have some fun?

Yes, Halloween, like everything else in western society and been sexualised for commercial gain, but unlike Mrs Clause costumes that would make a French maid blush or Easter’s Playboy bunnies, Halloween remains rooted to its ribald history and at least in this respect – nothing has changed. Old customs find new ways of expression and it would appear especially at Halloween. Even the elaborately carved pumpkin began as a humble turnip, scooped out to create a simple lantern.

Initially as autumn harvests were brought in, people took stock of what they had prepared for the winter and then they celebrated by praising gods of harvest, fruits and seeds, the gods of reproduction- and it was sexy then too. Halloween has a long and fractured history with origins in the world’s pagan Harvest Festivals and is generally celebrated in some format wherever autumn descends.

Even when early Christians rolled all these festivals into one 'All Saints Day' it was regularly celebrated with costume parades that descended into wild parties and licentiousness. Up to the mid-18th century it was celebrated in rural areas with ritual fertility rites and cities erupted in carnival-style parties.

With the emergence of Victorian morals, Halloween became less public and more a private, family holiday. Costumes became more demure, homemade, and it became an event that was largely focused on children. But, it wasn’t long before opportunities to shed the daily obligations of manners, humility and chastity were seized upon by adults too and Halloween could scarcely escape its rather virile origins.

By the turn of the century children celebrated the ghouls and ghosts that emphasised the pagan and the Gothic. Meanwhile adults were inspired by the emerging pop culture and started to use Halloween to emulate the sirens of the silver screen and an excuse to show a little more flesh than was usually acceptable. Then when Hollywood started making heroes for kids, they adopted their guises at Halloween too.

By now the deconstruction of this strict moral code is almost complete with a particularly rapid decent in recent times and we regularly see displays of and everyday outfits designed to titillate and excite. Raucous parties fuelled by alcohol and lust are a standard weekend for many. But at Halloween it has an added Oomph! as the feast-day continues to invite modern revellers to draw on its origins to inspire costumes and capers.

So perhaps what we are seeing at Halloween is simply all the layers of traditions past piled on top of one another, from trick or treat to the humble origin of the carved pumpkin as a turnip. Bonfires harking back to pagan times are still lit to ward off evil spirits with effigies of Guy Fawkes thrown on top.

And so it would seem that the costume parades of the All Hallows were bound to find a place in modern society where we still celebrate bounty and are partial to a carnival; where the call to emulate screen sirens is in the daily papers and we still need an escape from the daily rules and routines.

The ghosts of protest past haunt the Irish Press

17/04/2012

On a busy weekday afternoon Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton visited the Marshes Shopping Centre, Dundalk, County Louth to launch a jobs fair. As she began her speech a group of gathered protesters began to heckle and jeer growing so loud and disruptive the seasoned politician abandoned her speech and left, protesters in tow.

Afterward Minister Burton said that the protesters had given Dundalk a “bad image,” fellow Labour Party member, Colm Keaveney TD described them as “Neanderthals.” In turn, the protesters were forced to defend their choice to use the event to stage a demonstration arguing that Ministerial visits are so few that they are often the only times dissatisfaction with the government can be openly displayed.  

There has been much questioning of why the Irish did not get caught up in the waves of public demonstrations that seemed to sweep the globe in 2011. Commentators were perplexed as to why the Irish did not take to the streets and cause civil unrest in the face of an apparent loss of sovereignty and the introduction of controversial austerity policies. The main explanations that emerged focused on the residue of Victorian values in society, or the apathy that a decade of luxury has installed in the national psyche. 

There are without a doubt a whole host of inter-related and inter-disciplinary causes that contributed to the Irish being largely passive viewers as the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, Los Ingndatos, and Greek’s took to the streets in waves of public demonstrations. However, the true root of Ireland's 'failure to launch' is down to its fractured relationship with a violent history and a weariness from decades of trouble in the North which can be seen most acutely in Ireland's media

Ireland stands today having unsuccessfully swept its past under the carpet; it is a nation uneasy with its turbulent history of civil unrest and troublesome neighbors in Northern Ireland; and it is in this broad context that the people of Ireland choose the mechanisms by which they confront their government. The Irish are predisposed to avoiding methods of protest that have been tainted by historical revision and a fear of association with violent republicanism. 

When choosing how to protest the ghosts of troubles past and present guide the way.    

Think Tank

Collective memory is a complex, social process in which instrumental and symbolic struggles by different groups in the collective wrestle over definitions of the past (Prager) the purpose being to bind the individual members together- strengthening the collective. Because of this preoccupation, the past comes to impose itself on the present. It exists as a sort of haunting presence and it finds expression in the cultural practices of the day. But Ireland has lost the facet of protesting and causing disquiet from its cultural expression and leaves the population without a powerful tool in driving cultural and social change.

On the surface of it Irish history is punctuated with great examples of how outspoken heroes stood up to foreign and domestic oppressors for the good of the many–The Flight of the Earls, The Easter Rising, and the Suffragettes etc. But the vestiges of pride and appreciation for these aspects of our history of disruption have been sullied by Civil War, Partition and decades of unrest in our estranged sibling up North.

The Revisionists of Irish History, in their efforts to reveal the truths of our past, perpetrated a negative view of nationalism and all that is seen to embody it. When the resurgence of protests began in Northern Ireland in the 60’s, the response of the Republic’s government was to reconcile the nation’s violent history and outspoken origins with its struggle with the growing militant-nationalism in the North. A state-formation narrative emerged, which facilitated a ‘statist-histography' (Regan)

Herbert Adams describes the process: “In their eagerness to prevent the gruesome past from haunting their future, well meaning social engineers seek to create ‘a common history’ between hostile groups.” The assimilation of southern nationalist identity with the state was a political achievement, in that it culturally ostracized the more unruly factions in society and delegitimized their policies and principles.

This leaves the modern-day Irish population with very little by way of current celebrated revolutionaries, positive protesting role models or events commemorative of the achievements of Ireland’s politically assertive past. There is an element of the post-colonial syndrome of apology and shame for this type of behavior. French philosopher Ernest Renan noted “for national communities as for individuals there can be no identity without remembering.” Memories however, are malleable and affected by the trappings of the post-colonial personality and revisionists. These are the historical legacies that help shape current attitude to large-scale political demonstrations.

The Good Friday effect

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement marked a real opportunity for Ireland to emerge from its murky past, a chance to put it behind them and move on. But the form that this New Ireland would take was not unaffected by its recent turbulent history. While forgetting, or historical error as it was for Ernest Renan, can be vital in the maintenance of communal solidarity, the effect of a recent traumatic past can overshadow the present and install a need to respond to it.

In responding to a difficult past a culture can either define itself in relation/response to the past or by insisting on its irrelevance. Some have embarked on the politics of forgetting, of ignoring parts of its history that it is uncomfortable with, the consequence of which is a limitation in the historical cultural practices that have been a feature of a society for a long time, which are carried on into the future. 

In his dealing with the macro post-war Europe, Tony Judt was concerned with the price that was paid for the deliberate and sudden disconcert for the immediate past.  He offered this a one of the major consequences: “One was the ways in which the memory of that experience was distorted, sublimated and appropriated bequeathed to the post war era an identity that was fundamentally false; dependent on the erection of an unnatural and unsustainable frontier between the past and present.”

The Good Friday’s Agreement and the peace it brought was celebrated, as was the opportunity to sweep the troubles under the carpet. But this ‘false identity’ is untenable as Ireland is still a nation that has failed to truly be comfortable with its own history of civil disorder and was compounded by the desire to be seen as different to those who instigated it. So what happens when the facade crumbles in the face of these junctures?

With all this in mind one would imagine that when protests do occur, this fear of the social unrest seeping in from the North would materalise, and it does. One example of this came in 2010 when Gardaí expressed fears that republicans would infiltrate economic protest groups and subvert them and turn them to the perpetrators of civil unrest. A headline in the Irish Independent read ‘Gardaí fear terror groups will recruit economic protesters.’ What this, and other examples like it demonstrates is the presence of an endemic fear that protest of any kind is vulnerable to being hijacked by the violent republican cause.

Shadow of a gunman

Another manifestation of Ireland’s discomfort with its recent past coming into the spotlight was during the Presidential Elections in 2011. Sinn Fein member and former IRA leader, Martin McGuinness’s bid for the Presidency meant the Irish electorate could no longer ignore its recent past. During the campaign it is arguable that the hostility shown to him by many was reflective of a nation trying to put civil disorder behind it but suddenly confronted with one of its living icons.

Despite ambiguity about the length of his IRA membership and the degree of his militant participation, he was considered to be a credible candidate and placed third on the final count, but his campaign was dogged by his association with the turbulent North. McGuinness was endowed with a great degree of influence and credibility in the wake of the peace process. It was acknowledged that he undertook the position of peace-broker at much personal risk. He has formidable reputation as a peace-maker, he has received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998, and he was celebrated for taking the first steps toward power sharing.  However it was his murky past that overshadowed his achievements in the end. Everyone remembers the bad things.  

One snapshot of this cultural tension was manifest during Miriam O’Callaghan’s interview with McGuinness during the presidential debates. O’Callaghan challenged him on his religious faith asking how he could reconcile this with having been involved in the murder of so many people. Whether you agreed with it or not, the aggressive and confrontational line of questioning and the controversy it caused, was not reflective of a country at peace with its past or one that had moved on once peace descended. There is still very much a chip on the national shoulder and is reflective of a nation at still at pains with its history of unrest.

The relationship Irish people have with their recent history has an effect on the choice of methods selected when attempting to protest against domestic political issues. They display an aversion to association with civil disorder when selecting these methods. Ireland has a fractured relationship with its history and it is within this collective psychological turmoil the reaction to the decades of protest, leading to violence, perpetrated by those who call themselves Irish and acting in Ireland's interests, cultivated this aversion to engaging in similar activities.

Because of this aversion the Irish were predisposed to shy away from the mass protests that occurred in the summer of 2011. Whether the continued success of smaller protests, such as the student protests and those against the septic charges, coupled with the coming Centenary of the 1916 will stimulate a rise in nationalistic pride, and thereafter action remains to be seen. 

But for now, when protesters will take the opportunities they can get to voice their anger and even a small group in a local shopping centre, will meet with criticism and scorn. Unless Ireland clears the debris from protests past, public demonstrations will continue to be an uncomfortable reminder and for many will continue to create a 'bad image.'

Chris Brown: FAME, Fortune and the factions that stand against him.

27/11/2012

Some things can never really be lived down and Chris Brown is slowly learning that beating up your girlfriend is one of them.  In recent weeks the promotional tour for his album Fortune has landed him not so much in the spotlight, but in the cross hairs of a firing line.

Although he has made some efforts to atone, he still reacts sharply to continued criticisms over his 2009 assault on reigning queen of pop, Rihanna. But in the absence of any tangible acts of contrition or credible public remorse, these criticisms are unlikely to go away.      

Four years ago the LA police they found a woman, bloody, bruised and beaten sitting in a car parked in the glamorous neighbourhood of Hancock, LA.  It was Rihanna who identified her then 19-year old boyfriend Chris Brown as her attacker. He was nowhere to be seen.

Although later that night he handed himself in to police, in court he initially claimed he was innocent of the charges of assault. It took him four months to take responsibility for the attack and pled guilty.

Before his Stockholm show pictures of Rihanna’a face taken by police after an assault were plastered over the city.  He cancelled a show in Guyana because of protests over the attack.  Irish rappers The Original Rudeboys turned down the offer to support him at his Dublin’s O2 show this December 3. 

Every stop on his tour, he has been dogged by women’s groups protesting and there has been a constant stream of digs at the rapper on Twitter. It is clear that despite the fact Ri-Ri has forgiven him, as have many of his fans (Team Breezy) there is a large and vocal section of society that does not.  But then, he has given them no good reason to.

The first step towards forgiveness is contrition, and Chris Brown can’t be accused of displaying much humility following the attack. Initially denying it but later accepting a plea deal that incurs a lesser sentence than a guilty verdict in a trail doesn’t indicate heartfelt sorrow. His YouTube apology, that came too long after the assault appears scripted, robotic and insincere. He has made some efforts, meeting the children who have been effected by domestic violence. For many this isn’t enough.    

Since the incident he reacts testily to those who pick at his healing wounds. He periodically lashes out those who criticise him over the attack. He deleted his Twitter account for the second time after bombarding one of these critics, comedy writer Jenny Johnson, with abuse. The first time it was after lambasting family friendly retailers who refused to carry his album Graffiti in response to the assault.

He has also been provokingly smug about the whole episode.  He scoffed at complaints when he got the best album for Fortune - “Hate all you want coz I got a Grammy Now! That's the ultimate F*** OFF” he tweeted, as if the accolade somehow a vindicated him.  

In terms of his career and social standing it doesn’t appear he has had to face many of the repercussions that most would were they so publically exposed as the perpetrator of a violent assault. He has recovered remarkably quickly from this damning episode. While Brown may be truly ashamed of his actions, it’s difficult to see this as he self-promotes and goes from strength to strength.     

At first the wave criticisms following Brown’s arrest looked like they might kill his career and exile him to Hollywood Hall of Infamy. But with the exception of a rocky start to the release of singles from 2009’s Graffiti, it has been all uphill.

By September that year, nine months after assaulting Rihanna, his album was climbing up the US top ten list. His follow up multi-award-winning F.A.M.E and this year’s Fortune both peaking at No 1; He has been busy collaborating with major artists since the attack including former lover punch-bag Rihanna who appears to have unreservedly forgiven him; He counts Nicole Scherzinger and Justin Beiber among his friends; And currently worth an estimated $24 million.

Considering his successes and his devoted Team Breezy behind him it is easy to understand why he views those who take issue with him as little more than cracks. The 23-year old thinks society hasn’t matured enough for him.  "These b****** crazy. Further proved my point of how immature society is. #CarpeDiem. Catch me in traffic," was his farewell to followers before he signed out of Twitter for the last time, again. 

However, as he continues to self-promote and without a display of real penance or humility, for many Brown can’t atone for his crime. He simply hasn’t suffered enough, if at all, and will be subject to all the torments and jibes that society heaps on recreants.

Even the most innocuous of things he does will be jumped upon. “Serious tweet: I THink SKATEBOARDING AND BREAKDANCING should be an Olympic sport,” he wrote. “Or intergender boxing, you’d be in with a chance of a medal there mate” replied comedian Frankie Boyle.

Ike Turner’s recovery from his violent break-up with Tina took nearly 30 years. And in that time he suffered greatly for his loss of reputation. For a long time he was considered a violent erratic character, his career nose dived and his friends deserted him. Whitney Huston’s partner Bobby Brown suffered a similar fate. Charlie Sheen breakdown following accusation of domestic assault resulted in his sacking as the star of hot TV show Two and a Half Men. Few recover as easily as Chris Brown.  

While the pressure from society for men to not be abusive or domineering over women is a good thing, how this is focused on an individual man is important and it does not always going to lead to change. Forgiveness has to be based on a real sense change has happened which is different to being sorry. There must be a certain quality of remorse which is demonstrated through behavioural changes.

For Mr Brown it is a Catch 22. His family may see it, and Rihanna may see it, but society has not yet seen a real change that they need to back-off so he can work on altering his behaviour.

 Back in 2009, Brown, in his public apology professed to being determined to change and to become truly worthy of being a role model. Last week’s tirade of misogynistic abuse toward Jackson indicates that after four years he may not be all that that remorseful, because in public he has not changed all that much. He still lashes-out, he still abuses, verbally, and is demining to women. And so he has not yet earned clemency.

By Niamh Kirk