Surely in 2008 we don’t have to hear from embarrassing anachronisms like Senator Donie Cassidy any longer? Senator Cassidy has insulted his colleagues – and everyone else who drinks responsibly – by suggesting that several of them are not in a position to debate alcohol abuse as – unlike the good senator – they enjoy alcohol themselves.
I believe that this buffoonery helps crystalise the whole approach being taken to alcohol by such ignorant individuals.
The Pioneering senator smugly stated, “One cannot speak the sermon unless one lives by the Gospel”.
Seemingly ignoring the preening smugness of this remark, his remarks were quite rightly dismissed as ‘daft’ and ‘patent nonsense’ by his fellow senators.
However as a leader of the ruling Finna Fáil party in the Seanad, the senator holds a position of power – and it is clear that he should not; effectivly, he can decide which debates will proceed and which will not. Perhaps Senator Donie should take a look around the house. There are, by his own admission, only three other Pioneer senators. Which means that the rest of the Seanad take a drink. Which means that those not partaking are the ones in the minority – the only people running the asylum (or vice versa).
His crass comments about his fellow senators puts his credibility – always at a low ebb in my book – at drought levels and renders him – not his fellow senators – unable to speak intelligently on a proper national policy for alcohol, due to his jaundiced view.
The situation in the Senate is probably a fair reflection of society as a whole. Most of us take a drink and take gross offence at his suggestion that we’d be any less capable of clear-headedness in our work the following morning. However because one takes a drink of alcohol, drinks it responsibly even, the Senator and any like-minded individuals reckon that we’re all raving anti-social alcohol abusers and incapable of rational judgement.
His views do no credit to the many rational people who don’t partake of alcohol. He demeans their position by such silly comments. John Major ran away from a circus to become an accountant. I’d suggest that in the case of Senator Donie Cassidy, a village somewhere in this country is sorely missing its idiot….