JUST when you think that it's safe to get back in the water, the sharks rear their heads and snap ominously. Just when there is the slightest danger of something good being done with our hard earned tax revenues, the voices of "rationality" are raised in an attempt to destroy it.
You get it all the time with public transport issues. An initiative is announced involving increased public expenditure on trains or some such, and suddenly the ground begins to shudder beneath the wheels of a juggernaut of reaction.
Articles by alleged economists begin to appear in the newspapers outlining the "folly" of such investment. Public representatives find themselves consumed with at the "wastage" of public funds.to of invisible strings, these puppets for mouth the lines fed them by the lobbyists the vested interests who stand to lose as a result of common sense being applied to transport issues.
This syndrome now appears to be manifesting itself in relation to Teilifis na Gaeilge (TnaG). Within six months of the launch of something that has been overdue for 35 years, the naysayers are beginning to work up a right head of steam.
The latest outbreak began three weeks ago with a statement from the Fine Gael TD for Donegal, Paddy Harte, who told an eager Sunday Tribune that TnaG was "economic madness" which should be rejected out of hand by the Gaeltacht communities of Co Donegal. Mr Harte called on the Government to think again.
On the Sunday before last the Tribune carried a follow up survey of Dail deputies which purported to demonstrate "widespread opposition" to the establishment of TnaG. That article was deeply tendentious in both its content and presentation.
"Most FG TDs opposed to new Teilifis," the headline informed us. This assertion did not, however, appear to be borne out by the article underneath which stated, deep in the small print, that "more than half" of TDs had responded to the Tribune's questions.
More than half? How many more than half? it didn't say. Did "more than hall" of Fine Gael TDs respond? Or perhaps less than hall? Again, we were not informed. However, we were told that "over a third of Fine Gael backbenchers surveyed also said that the current TnaG proposals arc too costly, and many favoured a scaled down service provided by one of the existing RTE channels."
HOW many Fine Gael TDs favoured a scaled down service? How many of these favoured this being provided by RTE? Were these TDs included in the "majority" who "opposed" TnaG? Did none of those who favoured a scaled down service favour TNG in principle?
Were the FG TDs who thought the proposed service too costly also included in the total figure of those "opposed"? Perhaps some of these favoured some form of cost cutting exercise? In short, how could all this be twisted into the contention that "Most FG TDs" are opposed to Teilifis, or the assertion that there is "widespread opposition" to the proposal?
With regard to Fianna Fail, we were told that "only 35 per cent of Fianna Fail TDs said they favoured the project, as opposed to 30 per cent who said they were against."
Why "only" 35 per cent? Is not 35 per cent greater than 30 per cent? Surely a more straightforward way of presenting this information would be to say that "only 30 per cent of Fianna Fail TDs said they were against the project, as opposed to 35 per cent who said they were in favour"? It would appear that 65 per cent of the Fianna Fail TDs who responded said they were in favour of Teilifis na Gaeilge.
"Another 30 per cent the Tribune article informed us, "said that while they favoured the establishment of TnaG they were extremely worried about Government plans to cost it."
What does this mean? Surely it is the job of opposition TDs to worry about the Governments and its plans about everything? Does this amount to "widespread opposition" to Teilifis na Gaeilge? Why did the headline on the article not say "Two thirds of FF TDs favour Teilifis in principle"? Why did the sub headline inform us that the survey showed "little support for Teilifis na Gaeilge" when the survey showed no such thing?
And why when, in addition to the widespread public backing for TnaG, every political party in Dail Eireann has repeatedly expressed a commitment to the station, are we so relentlessly subjected to such efforts to suggest that the project has little support?
On Sunday last Paddy Harte was given another outing in the Sunday Tribune, to repeat his argument. The contents of a letter he wrote to the editor were given prominence in a news story on page two, while a detailed and devastating response to the Tribune survey by TnaG ceannasai, Cathal Goan, was confined to the letters page.
This is not about news or information. It is part of the war against the Irish language.
SOME powerful vested interests stand to lose by the establishment of Teilifis na Gaeilge. One such is the Independent group, which controls the Sunday Tribune. I hope and trust that it is too late for those interests to have any effect, too late for the Government to "think again". But, just in case, it is important to hear these sharkish interventions for what they are.
The factors to be considered in analysing the nature of this backlash have only a limited relationship to rationality or economics. Firstly, it will be useful for us to remember at all times who controls the organs of public comment in which the campaign against Teilifis na Gaeilge is conducted, and what kind of agenda such interests might wish to see pursued.
The other factors are the usual metaphysical problems of national self hatred and fear of the future. When we read that there is "widespread opposition" to Teilifis, our first reaction, as enslaved beings, is to agree that any attempt to restore or elevate the national language is, as Paddy Harte put it, "madness". It is not surprising that we should think such things, seeing that we have been soaking up such propaganda for hundreds of years.
Let us be clear. We have a right to speak and cherish our language, and to spend our own money on it. There are a lot of things which TDs could be persuaded to work up a head of steam about which represent much more glaringly obvious wastage of public money than Teilifis na Gaeilge. The £16 million set up costs and £10 million annual running costs are modest and justified.
Speaking at the commencement of work on the Teilifis na Gaeilge HQ last January, Michael D. Higgins said that one of the tasks of the new station will be to show up such bankrupt and negative journalism for what it is. At the end of the puppet strings are hands which tremble with a deep fear of the future. And with good reason.