Miriam Lord: Lowry’s trip up rural roads skirts INM issue

A blockbuster return for the Dáil on Tuesday after the Easter break.

All the big names up in lights.

It was nostalgic.

There was billionaire Denis and the two Michaels (Lowry and Moriarty) bringing a lovely blast from tribunals past and – most nostalgic of all – unbridled love and respect from politicians for the ladies and gentlemen of the press.

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Plus one slightly unnerving moment when Leo Varadkar waxed lyrical about the Fourth Estate and Eoghan Murphy, beleaguered Minister for Housing, looked up momentarily as if wondering how many residential units the Fourth Estate might feasibly hold.

It was a sad day too, with news of the death of Big Tom, gentleman of Irish country music and all-round legend.

Perhaps that’s why Independent TD Michael Lowry, who was once up to his neck in the Moriarty tribunal morass along with mobile phone mogul Denis O’Brien, was the only speaker at Leaders’ Questions not to address the burning issue of the outrageous data breach at the Indo group of newspapers, where the principal shareholder is his old mucker O’Brien and where a number of individuals specifically named as having had their private electronic correspondence “interrogated” were INM journalists and lawyers who once worked on the tribunal.

Instead, Michael decided to broach another matter of supreme national importance, informing the Dáil: “this is a massive political issue.”

He raised the issue of rural roads. In particular, the roads in his constituency.

The state of them!

Even engineers and public representatives “feel helpless and hopeless” without the money to do them up.

Tipperary is incensed.

“Our roads are not fit for purpose” he cried, as fellow members of the Rural Independents Group nodded in agreement and TDs all around the chamber smirked at his insouciance.

Only recently, said Michael, an elderly man had to be taken down the lane from his rural home by tractor in order to meet up with the ambulance waiting for him on the road at the end of it.

Lanes not fit for purpose either.

This problem is all over the county: “north, mid, south and west Tipperary” – four rural road networks.

As Lowry was banging on about potholes and storm damage, it was impossible not to think of Big Tom and him singing about the Four Roads to Glenamaddy, his most famous song.

How does it go again? We looked to Michael Lowry for inspiration and then thought about what the Taoiseach had said and what the Fianna Fail leader had said and what the Sinn Féin leader had said and we got mightily confused.

The words wouldn’t come to us. And then the Green Party leader got up after Lowry and he too talked about the hugely concerning data breach at INM and about the general parlous state of indigenous media in Ireland today.

How did the chorus go?

Ah yes.

Four Courts to Moriarty.

Four Courts where cases start

Four Courts to Moriarty

Are the four legal byways to my heart.

Once in a while I hear the sound of Denis in the winter night

I see now and then

The lounge bar where we sheltered from the rain

And once in a while I see that final judgement in the morning light

And oft are the times I dream of taking action once again.

Four Courts from Moriarty

Four Courts ne’er to depart

Four Courts from Moriarty

Are the four legal byways to our heart.

What a beautiful song. Timeless.

Or maybe that’s just how it seems at this stage.

Anyhow, the above musical interlude and homage to Big Tom was brought to you in capital letters by Independent News and Media.

Not to be confused with independent news and media, which is what a lot of us did on Tuesday while listening to Leo Varadkar say he believes journalists “must be free to pursue stories that they want to pursue” with their sources protected and “free from any unjust interference, external or internal.”

He declared: “I think having independent news and media is a cornerstone of our democracy.” Which is not the same as having INM.

With the Big Tom news and then Leo saying such nice things about the hacks, we began to feel a little emotional. But it was probably just our knees talking. Being a “cornerstone” puts a terrible strain on the joints.

“The reported data breaches represent a very significant threat to the freedom of our press but the way in which the media have responded to this threat to date should reassure us that our press will not be silenced” the Taoiseach told the Dáil.

(Instead, on occasions such as election campaigns they’ll simply be herded onto buses and taken to highly controlled events where they won’t be allowed to find out anything anyway.)

Noting the importance to democracy of maintaining independent voices in the media, he commended journalists who worked on reporting the INM data breach story, “including journalists in Independent News & Media, who have not allowed their independence to be compromised.”

And talking of never being silenced, Mary Lou McDonald had a fair bit to say about the data breach at the country’s biggest media group. She was particularly struck by the news on Monday that INM’s O’Brien is accusing the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement of deliberately leaking details of the data scandal.

“The ODCE has been investigating this story for a whole year without any leaks, but as soon as the affidavit arrived at INM premises there were numerous leaks and INM even reported on details of the affidavit “ remarked the Sinn Féin leader, wondering if an attempt was now underway to silence the State’s corporate watchdog.

Meanwhile, Éamon Ryan, leader of the Greens, said he had “listened here to the sweet words that were blown up to our friends in the Press Gallery about the importance of the media and how it is central to our democracy.”

He didn’t disagree with the Taoiseach on this. However, he pointed out that international interests such as Google and Facebook and Sky are taking vast amounts in advertising revenue out of the country “and the Irish media are on their knees.”

What does the government propose to do about this?

Not much, if Leo Varadkar’s response is anything to go by.

Business is business. If domestic media goes to the wall, so be it.

Think we need a song to cheer us up.

All together now. Sing up there Michael! Attaboy Denis!

Four Courts, to Moriarty.....