FG councillors have no sense of humour

I am appalled by the hysterical reaction of the Fine Gael members of Cork City Council to the Cork Rebel Week brochure.

Their objection to Michael Collins’ gender being described as “langer” shows that they have no sense of humour and no clue about the cultural placing of the word “langer” for anyone under 50 years of age. In a week when many shocking stories about wastage of public monies have come to light, they have demonstrated they have no sense of irony by calling for the destruction of 100,000 leaflets funded by the taxpayer through grants to Cork Rebel Week. Their party may be in power in Government Buildings but with their 26% poll rating they should know better than to try and dictate freedom of speech for the remaining 74%, even when it comes to the subject of one of their own party’s historical icons.

In a healthy democracy the political elite has the confidence to allow the public to make jokes about them and treat them with irreverence. As Milan Kundera, the Czech author, demonstrated, laughter is the first target of politicians with totalitarian tendencies. Members of Fine Gael must be jaded with cheap jibes about Blueshirts but when they behave like this, they have only themselves to blame.