With a mobile phone in one hand...
By Eoghan MacCormaic
Life's a stage, isn't it? And there's a point when life and drama
merge, and for those of us who happen to be looking on, the blur
of it all becomes a form of entertainment in itself. Sunday
nights aren't going to be the same after the ending of Making The
Cut, and its glimpse of white collar politics associating with
the drug and criminal world.
Mind you, I could always read the Sunday papers. If I really
wanted to. If I really wanted a glimpse of white collar politics
associating with the drug and criminal world. It's all there; the
scandals, the bribes, the land re-zoning. Like a Penguin novel.
d Making the Cut had its ironic moments. During the final show
just after we'd been informed of the crooked politician's links
with a mobile phone company seeking to set up shop in Ireland,
the ad break arrived. The first advert was for a well-known
mobile phone company. Ho Ho. For a brief moment I didn't know if
I was watching fact or fiction. It was a wee bit close to the
bone... I wonder what RTÉ head rolled down to the dole on Monday
morning after that technical fault.
Mind you, Michael Lowry wouldn't have been the only politician
sitting on the edge of his seat on Sunday evening, as the
gripping drama unfolded. Many jaws across the country must have
dropped with a thump on many pious craws as the plot unfolded.
Telecommunications and the need for sites transmitters has become
a point of conflict in this country in recent times, with
protests in various sites across the country at plans to set up
new masts. And as Making the Cut pointed out, telecommunications
equal more than phones: it's TVs, computers, the Internet.... God
knows, maybe it even boils down to ordering your next pizza or
Chinese takeaway. And there are many republicans up and down the
land who have voiced their objections to masts being erected in
their localities, objections for a range of reasons including the
environment, health, privacy etc. But not me. Count me out on
this one comrades. I'm a technophile.
I abstain on the whole issue, mainly on the grounds that I have a
mobile phone. Don't laugh and don't sneer. Th'ole mobile is an
essential piece of equipment in this day and age for
revolutionaries. Have you ever tried finding an empty phone box
just when you needed one? Or discovered that the phone card you
carry everywhere with you has no units left? That's when you need
a mobile, mucker.
d if in doubt, think of PH Pearse. `Some people think that the
sight of Orangemen with guns is a curious sight... a more curious
sight is a nationalist without a gun'. That's what Padraig had to
say way back in 1913. I have my own version for the 1990s: `the
sight of the establishment with mobile phones is a curious
sight.... a more curious sight is a revolutionary without one'.
There you are. I'm prepared to nail my colours to the mast... if
I can find one. Technology and progress is good, it's the people
that control it that stink.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)