25 September 1997 Edition
Back issue: That RTÉ shocker
RTÉ screened a shocker last week about one of the most deprived parts of Dublin, an area just as deprived as Ballymurphy, the Shankill, or Turf Lodge, Belfast, or the Bogside of Derry.
There are similar areas in Sligo, Limerick, Cork and elsewhere in this island: high unemployment, broken families, illiteracy and the violence that goes with that social chaos.
The cancer is not confined to Ireland. Nor, it would appear, to the capitalist countries: Eastern Europe, we are told, has similar problems. It is a cancer that is spreading throughout the developed world. It would appear to be worst in highly developed capitalist countries but it may be just as bad in Eastern Europe. We do not know. We have not got enough material on which to base a judgement.
Perhaps we should be grateful to RTE and, in particular, to Cathal Og O'Shannon, for highlighting the cancer so effectively. It might be too much to hope that the medium, dedicated primarily to selling goods and conditioning people to buy them, in the slots between the advertisements, would provide an analysis in depth.
There are similar areas in Sligo, Limerick, Cork and elsewhere in this island: high unemployment, broken families, illiteracy and the violence that goes with that social chaos.
The cancer is not confined to Ireland. Nor, it would appear, to the capitalist countries: Eastern Europe, we are told, has similar problems. It is a cancer that is spreading throughout the developed world. It would appear to be worst in highly developed capitalist countries but it may be just as bad in Eastern Europe. We do not know. We have not got enough material on which to base a judgement.
Perhaps we should be grateful to RTE and, in particular, to Cathal Og O'Shannon, for highlighting the cancer so effectively. It might be too much to hope that the medium, dedicated primarily to selling goods and conditioning people to buy them, in the slots between the advertisements, would provide an analysis in depth.