Matt Hancock resigns but why no sex scandals in irish public life

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joe sod

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Yet another British politician caught up in a sex scandal, whats new . This got me thinking why do we never hear of any irish politician or media personality or serious public figures caught up in sex scandals like in the UK ? Its hardly because they are all goody two shoes here I suspect that its really because Irish society is still very hush hush but is that a good thing?
 
Our media outlets aren't as prurient as their UK colleagues and in a country as small as ours our politicians don't have to same opportunities as their UK counterparts to exercise their peccadilloes.
In any event it would only be another matter to avoid resigning over if such adventures did come to light !
 
Strict libel laws they say. Not sure we're missing a whole lot. This lad was incompetent, no harm he's gone. Feel sorry for his wife (& her husband) and it's a bit classless/grubby, but I think I'd be French is terms of the national significance of these things - le wife et la mistress, et pas de probleme (gallic shrug emoji)
 
Deiseblue said:
Our media outlets aren't as prurient as their UK colleagues
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but they lap up all the international celebrity gossip all the same, I think the smallness of dublin and the fact that the movers and shakers in the media and politics all know each other probably has more to do with it
 
Have to laugh at UK media.

One page has a story about someone snogging someone that is not their partner.

Another page (or pages) is full of adverts for escort services.
 
joe sod said:
Yet another British politician caught up in a sex scandal, whats new . This got me thinking why do we never hear of any irish politician or media personality or serious public figures caught up in sex scandals like in the UK ? Its hardly because they are all goody two shoes here I suspect that its really because Irish society is still very hush hush but is that a good thing?
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The divorce rate in Ireland is 15.5 vs 41.2 in the UK (2019). We are still essentially a catholic country. Our sex scandals tend to be restricted to the activities of the clergy.
I have to laugh at how everyone in the UK, especially lover boy himself, is making this out to be about breaching Covid rules. The idea that there would be the same furore if he was caught shaking hands is ridiculous.
 
But we made a big fuss of the RTE going away party.
We made a big fuss of the golf dinner.

I don't think it's because it's a sex issue, it's because it was hypocrisy on a grand scale. Hancock had said that the scientist who visited his mistress in breach of the rules had to resign.

If a government Minister were having an affair with an aide in non Covid times, it would make the front of the newspapers, but they wouldn't be resigning.

Brendan
 
I think it needed both. Boris was backing him to the hilt as he did Cummings, and in that case Boris got support from his MPs. But the video of MH was so cringemaking that his credibility was completely shot. One Tory MP did refer to moral values.
I think if it was just a pat on the back Boris' support would have carried the day as it did for DC.
If it was just the cringemaking video of him snogging an aide with no Covid dimension, he would still have got Boris' support (he encourages that kinda thing) and maybe would have survived, but his credibility would still have been shot.
 
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Duke of Marmalade said:
The divorce rate in Ireland is 15.5 vs 41.2 in the UK (2019). We are still essentially a catholic country. Our sex scandals tend to be restricted to the activities of the clergy.
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you make a good point about sex scandals being restricted to the clergy but hardly because only the clergy were involved in sex scandals in Ireland but only the clergy has been exposed so far ? When a scandal does get exposed then its a "dam burst", but before the church scandals it was decades of hush hush
 
joe sod said:
sex scandals being restricted to the clergy
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I'm inclined to interject here to make a distinction between what we class as sex 'scandal' and sex abuse.
Bishop Casey and his affair with Annie Murphy was a sex scandal.
The systematic cover-up of child abuse over a prolonged period was criminal on many fronts. What Casey did was a 'crime' to his flock, others might see it as normal human behaviour.
Just thought it worth noting not to conflate what Brendan Smyth and many other child sex abusers with consensual sexual affairs between adults, albeit 'scandalous'.
 
That said, to answer the question of why no sex scandals here? I put it down to either a subservient media not wanting to interfere in the private, personal affairs of individuals so long as it has no bearing, material or otherwise on the affairs of Irish public life, or,
a dignified code of practice by the media not to interfere in the private, personal affairs of individuals so long as it has no bearing, material or otherwise, on the affairs of Irish public life.
 
@WolfeTone I take your point on the difference between sex abuse and sex scandal, I was being tongue in cheek.
But I do think sex scandal is rarer here and is related to the low divorce rate which is related to an inherited catholic moral ethos - not a bad thing.
I think if there was a video of Michàel Martin snogging Nell McCafferty (yuk!) there would be no reticence from the media in exploiting it, or maybe I am referring to those heathen Brit redtops that have encroached on our decency in recent times.
 
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@Duke of Marmalade @joe sod just to note, my comment was not a criticism of your views. Just a cautious observation that the sex crimes of decades of widespread Vatican child abuse cover-ups not be conflated with the sexual 'scandalous' affairs of consenting adults, albeit deceptive and hypocritical affairs.
I put the word scandalous in ' ' because that is what sells newspapers. But the heel of the hunt is, man kisses woman (or woman kisses man) outside their marital affairs and, in my opinion, it is for their personal marital affairs to do what is best for them on a personal level. On a public level, only proper he resigned given his duty and responsibility for leading his nation through the pandemic.
 
What our politicians do or don't do in bed and no matter whom they are with in that bed is none of our business and one's personal life is just that their personal business. The last thing we need is the press prying into peoples' personal affairs. It's time the British Press matured accordingly.
 
Much and all that it makes me happy to see a Tory Brexiteer on their political uppers what consenting adults get up to in private is not something that is of public interest. It certainty is something that the public is interested in but that's not the same thing.
 
I don't share the view that our media are so virtuous and upstanding that they would ignore salacious information if it came their way. They lapped up all the British celebrity and royal family sex scandals, the Diana and Charles stuff was all scrutinised with great enthusiasm here.
There is probably a bit of the "green jersey" mindset and self preservation , if they exposed a senior political figure then it would be open season and all the media personalities would also be in the firing line.
 
The only sex scandal of an Irish public figure that I can recall is Charlie Haughey (Sweetie) and Terry Keane. It was well known in elitist circles for years but the plebs only got a sniff of it and I doubt if, for example, the Irish Times ever mentioned it. I am not sure that is a healthier situation than across the water.
I think that sort of thing is a big disadvantage to political advancement in Ireland which probably explains the lack of high profile sex scandals. We are still a long way from being mature enough to let a Donald or a Boris in charge.
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
The only sex scandal of an Irish public figure that I can recall is Charlie Haughey (Sweetie) and Terry Keane. It was well known in elitist circles for years but the plebs only got a sniff of it and I doubt if, for example, the Irish Times ever mentioned it. I am not sure that is a healthier situation than across the water.
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Yes and it wasn't reported on out of some sense of 'maturity' but because too much of the media were in thrall to Haughey and such dalliances weren't the only thing he was given a free pass on... took a long time for dodgy financial dealings which were in the public interest to know about to come to light.

There are also our libel laws to consider I suppose.

I don't think our media is any more 'mature' than the British about this, the British press has brought to light many genuine scandals that here would have been swept under the carpet or brazened out.
Our media doesn't dig up stuff they should that are political scandals.
Their media digs up stuff they shouldn't, they should be left as personal matters.
 
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