He’s quite right, too. Partying in the street like common gougers. Properly civilised people have their parties with a glass of wine in one hand, and some tasteful finger-food in the other, in the more refined surroundings of somewhere like, say, the Merrion Hotel:
Scenes outside Croke Park last Sunday were unacceptable and lessons need to be learned, says @simoncoveney
— Daniel McConnell (@McConnellDaniel) August 24, 2021
These are the scenes he’s referring to, courtesy of a lady who is almost as annoyed as the Minister is:
Something seriously wrong when this is allowed outside Croke park today yet musicians aren’t allowed to go to work & play at weddings of 100 guests in a controlled environment 🤬 The Irish government should be ashamed of themselves. BLOOD BOILING! @LeoVaradkar @MichealMartinTD pic.twitter.com/JFZeHZoTya
— Claire Malone (@Clairemsings) August 22, 2021
Of course, there are some problems with his position, too.
For one, Sunday’s Final went ahead explicitly with Government permission. Those who attended did so with Government permission. Unless the Government is entirely stupid (which is not something one can casually rule out, alas) then they had to foresee that after an all-Ireland hurling final, there would be celebrations. If it was a “disgrace”, then it was one facilitated by the cabinet, and Mr. Coveney.
For another thing, his position is absurd on the merits. There was one major football match in Ireland this weekend. Across the United Kingdom, there were well over a hundred games with 20, 30, 40, and up to 70,000 people in attendance. Many of those provoked celebrations, too (alas, not for Manchester United at St. Marys, but that’s for another article). The obvious question to Coveney, our Minister for Foreign Affairs, is this: Why are celebrations from Irish hurling fans “unacceptable”, but celebrations from British soccer fans not?
All of it goes back, of course, to the fundamental problem with the Irish Government, which is its belief that Irish people are children, who have to be denied any freedoms because they cannot be trusted with them. That, above all, is the governing instinct. The notion that if restrictions are lifted, the country will go “clean mad”. The fact that such “madness” is mitigated by the vaccines does not actually matter: They disapprove of the celebrations and revelry almost as much as they disapprove of rising covid cases. They do not only dislike Coronavirus, they dislike alcohol and parties too. That’s borne out by their legislative priorities, and the constant efforts to restrict the sale and supply of alcohol. We are expected to believe that this same attitude does not inform their approach to covid restrictions. Well, if you believe that, you are very trusting.
And why should anybody listen to them, anyway? As alluded to in the opening paragraph, this Government has shorne itself, repeatedly, of all moral authority when it comes to telling people not to do normal things. Simon Coveney’s party leader had no issue going to a party, recently, and indeed, had the Attorney General issue a statement confirming that said party was legal.
The scenes on Sunday were legal too. But some of us can’t call on the Attorney General to clarify that for us, can we?
All of this comes down to one major political problem for the Government: The sense that they just don’t like us – any of us – very much. They don’t trust us. They believe we need to be controlled, and regulated, and scolded, and lectured to. So is it a wonder, then, that many voters reciprocate the feeling?
And it is of course, not just on Covid that this attitude persists. The Greens in Government have made it worse, by extending the moral superiority to issues like the Climate. Being an ordinary citizen in Ireland these days is more akin to being seated in a hard line Presbyterian church: The booming voice of the Minister, ever present, reminding us that we are all sinners.
And now, of course, to cap it all off, His Majesty the King has spoken, and commanded that an end be put to such frivolity:
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan has said only vaccinated people should be allowed to attend Croke Park for the All-Ireland final in the coming weeks.
Dr Holohan also said Nphet would not have any major concern about an outdoors event like Electric Picnic going ahead for fully vaccinated people.
“We’d like to see those events being confined to people who are vaccinated,” he told Independent.ie.
There is no particular reason for Holohan’s advice to be public, of course. He is an advisor to the Government, not our ruler. One does not regularly see Government economic advisors, by name, announcing economic policy in the pages of the newspapers. As has become increasingly common, the Chief Medical Officer is behaving more like a cleric, or a monarch, than what he is: A civil servant.
If you are entirely sick of all this, then you are not alone. And many, many voters, you suspect, are going to wait for the opportunity to let their views be known. We are not children, no matter how much certain politicians insist on talking to us as if we are.
Anyway, don’t mind Coveney. He’s just annoyed that Cork got a hiding.