27 August 1998 Edition
Editor's desk
We are facing into a stomach-turning period of remembering Princess Diana as the anniversary of her death in a car crash last year approaches. It would be a good idea to turn off all British television channels and leave British papers in the shops. But even that won't save you. Because we have our own gushing Dianaphiles in Ireland.
You'd expect a paper like The Examiner to be free of all that. Hailing as it does from Cork, the Rebel County, it surely must have a rational, republican view of a super-privileged rich woman who lived fast and craved the spotlight. But no, on Tuesday the Examiner had a piece on Di that wouldn't have been at all out of place in a British tabloid.
In a lengthy article on the Opinion/Analysis page TP O'Mahony told us that ``Diana, Princess of Wales, has become part of what we are.''
He began by giving us the details of Princess Margaret's life of ``tragedy and sadness''. She was the ``Diana-figure of the 1950s and 1960s,'' in case we weren't sure. Unlike Diana ``she would never become the shining and mysterious light of the Monarchy'', TP said and I could imagine the tears rolling down his tender cheeks. Of course, he didn't mention that Margaret once called the Irish ``pigs''.
But don't let that detain us. TP quickly fingered the villain of the piece. ``Prince Phillip... I am told by well-connected people in London, has a dark and sinister side to him.'' Good old TP has all the inside info and talks to the right people in London. He wondered did Phillip ``sanction extreme measures to protect his investment?'' No evidence is offered, of course, and we're soon back in adoration at the feet of Diana.
``Ordinary people, and especially women, could see in her aspects of their own lives. Just as they were transfixed by her glamour, so they were devastated by her tragic end. What they felt was real, and who are we to be dismissive of the feelings of ordinary people?''
Of course, that's because TP is not an ordinary person. He's an extraordinary person who patronises his readers like no-one else in the business.
And who exactly are these people who are dismissive of the feelings of ordinary people? TP told us that too.
They are ``a small coterie of academics and commentators: ego-driven people who arrogantly assume that the sentiments and sensibilities of what they regard as the man or women (sic) in the street are somehow false, facile, cheap, ersatz or superficial.''
Or maybe they are people who just don't buy into the tabloid-inspired nonsense surrounding a dead member of the British Royal Family.
You'd expect a paper like The Examiner to be free of all that. Hailing as it does from Cork, the Rebel County, it surely must have a rational, republican view of a super-privileged rich woman who lived fast and craved the spotlight. But no, on Tuesday the Examiner had a piece on Di that wouldn't have been at all out of place in a British tabloid.
In a lengthy article on the Opinion/Analysis page TP O'Mahony told us that ``Diana, Princess of Wales, has become part of what we are.''
He began by giving us the details of Princess Margaret's life of ``tragedy and sadness''. She was the ``Diana-figure of the 1950s and 1960s,'' in case we weren't sure. Unlike Diana ``she would never become the shining and mysterious light of the Monarchy'', TP said and I could imagine the tears rolling down his tender cheeks. Of course, he didn't mention that Margaret once called the Irish ``pigs''.
But don't let that detain us. TP quickly fingered the villain of the piece. ``Prince Phillip... I am told by well-connected people in London, has a dark and sinister side to him.'' Good old TP has all the inside info and talks to the right people in London. He wondered did Phillip ``sanction extreme measures to protect his investment?'' No evidence is offered, of course, and we're soon back in adoration at the feet of Diana.
``Ordinary people, and especially women, could see in her aspects of their own lives. Just as they were transfixed by her glamour, so they were devastated by her tragic end. What they felt was real, and who are we to be dismissive of the feelings of ordinary people?''
Of course, that's because TP is not an ordinary person. He's an extraordinary person who patronises his readers like no-one else in the business.
And who exactly are these people who are dismissive of the feelings of ordinary people? TP told us that too.
They are ``a small coterie of academics and commentators: ego-driven people who arrogantly assume that the sentiments and sensibilities of what they regard as the man or women (sic) in the street are somehow false, facile, cheap, ersatz or superficial.''
Or maybe they are people who just don't buy into the tabloid-inspired nonsense surrounding a dead member of the British Royal Family.