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Myers, Kevin
Kevin Myers is an English born journalist and commentator based in Ireland. He writes for the Irish Independent, and is a former contributor to The Irish Times newspaper, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" column several times weekly.
5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Kevin Myers on the Irish lack of morals
Ireland's difficult situation has above all two causes, writes publicist Kevin Myers in the daily Irish Independent. On the one hand the Irish have been torn between self-hatred and self-love since time immemorial; on the other hand they have no real morals: "Our society's pathological inability to grasp a single, settled, all-embracing morality is perhaps a direct consequence of this moral bipolarity. If two internal moral orders regularly contradict and therefore neutralise one another, is some middling and perhaps personally rewarding fudging not somewhat easier? The mental mechanism that usually judges and guides behaviour - the conscience - is nullified in the unholy war between self-esteem and self-loathing. Indeed, a binding and common morality seems not to be remotely understood within the mind of Official Ireland. So, if we as a people are seemingly incapable of telling right from wrong; if tardiness is still regarded as an endearing eccentricity rather than what it actually is, a studied insult to the person kept waiting ... are we not doomed to failure? Well, maybe. On the other hand, Alcoholics Anonymous has shown us the meaning of true liberation resulting from self-knowledge."
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Public Culture, » Weltanschauung, » Ethics, » Society, » Ireland
The Irish need a new flag
The launch of the rugby season has revived all the Irish discontent with their national flag. It is high time the nation said goodbye to its unspecific tricolour and switches to a flag which is clearly identifiable as Irish and unites the island, the conservative daily the Irish Independent writes: "The embrace of the tricolour in preference to the great heraldic image of Ireland, the harp, is truly a triumph of illogic. ... Britain's union jack is one of the most brilliant pieces of flag-branding ever devised - and is all the more reason for giving an Irish flag a dramatic quality which is both instantly recognisable and instantly appealing to unionists. We had it all along and still have it: the harp. ... It is surely time to reclaim that green - and to lay our hands once and for all on the harp, before the itchy-fingered Welsh collar it for their flag. Such a move would require imagination and courage: but how much of those do we really have?"
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Public Culture, » Cultural Policy, » Ireland
Ireland can halt the 'euro-lunacy'
"I have not read the Lisbon Treaty. I tried. The Lisbon phonebook is more fun," writes Kevin Myers. He condemns the Europhile position in Irish political debate on the Lisbon treaty, "which warns we'll start chucking one another into gas chambers unless we obey the latest EU directive on bagpipe-noise, or the colour of our lawns, why, that encompasses almost our entire political class. And I'm not exaggerating: Mary Hanafin [the Education minister] actually said that unless the European project was fully realised, the alternative was another Auschwitz: an echo of the same idiocy that was uttered across the chancelleries of Europe after the French people voted down the proposed European constitution. ... We alone can halt the Euro-lunacy in its tracks. ... To burden ourselves with the Lisbon Treaty is to hand our future over to euro-lawyers, and place a curse on our grandchildren for which they will never forgive us."
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Constitution, » Ireland
Irish Prime Minister announces his resignation
"Bertie Ahern truly embodies the characteristics of Irishness. That is why people liked him: they saw in him a reflection of their own flawed selves," writes Kevin Myers in the Irish daily. "This culture of selective moral myopia has its uses. Most spectacularly, it enabled the peace process to come it its current status: and central to that has been Bertie Ahern's moral fluidity. Indeed, he was in the forefront in the creation of a political contract which has chosen to exclude terrorists from the consequences of their deeds. ... Yet we need not another second to say that the media class which has spent so much time seeking to destroy Ahern actually embodies the very same moral inconsistency of which it accuses him. But assuredly, it does not embody his virtues. For Bertie Ahern joined no lynch-mob, spoke ill of no one, thought himself superior to no man, and dedicated his entire life to public service."
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Ireland
What makes a good national flag?
The journalist Kevin Myers contemplates national flags: "The most distinctive and probably best flags in the world are the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack, the Japanese sun, and the Canadian maple leaf. The worst and the dreariest are probably the family of tricolours, which characterise most European countries, save for Scandinavian countries, which have variations on the crosses and psalter which go into the Union Jack. There is a simple lesson here. A flag has to have a strong symbol, or has to consist of at least one strong primary colour: black/red/blue. ... Alas, the Irish tricolour has none of the visual qualities which make a great flag. Its green is tepid ... the Irish tricolour is bland, bland, bland, amongst an entire continent of tricolours. Moreover, which one of us can instantly identify the German flag from the Belgian, the Dutch from the Italian, the Luxemburgese from the Portuguese? A medley of stripes: meaningless."
» full article (external link, English)
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