Quote of the week #8: John Bruder on the Archaeology of Bremore

The sensitive archaeology of the Bremore area can be “worked around” according to John Bruder, Treasury Holdings’ managing director for Ireland.

There’s only a small pleasure to be had in being cynical about this type of announcement. Much greater are the feelings of despair, irritation, even anger, that it provokes. I’d really rather not have to think about or react to it, but things in Ireland are the way that they are.

Our quotes of the week have often tended to be in the form of these gob-smacked reactions, to the latest line of  blatant falsity or misrepresentation. The dripping grease on the burgers being shoved down the public throat, if you will. John Bruder’s reassurance, uttered back in March, follows one such formula. The ‘what are you getting all het up about? We’ll look after it’ approach. There are many others and I’m sure that we’ll all get well used to them before this is finished; ‘major job creation‘, ‘no other options for a deepwater port‘, ‘just the boost the country needs at this time’ and so on. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, or so they say.

Ok. Just in case you’re tempted to trust John’s intentions and think, “Well, that’s me off so. What the hell are we worried about at all? Stick a fence around the old lumps and bumps and everything’s sorted”, have a read of the excellent, funny and accurate article below. If I could fit the whole thing into a quote of the week I would, just to celebrate the truth for one week. It‘s a nice feeling now and again:

http://blather.net/blather/2009/09/what_do_the_bremore_passage_tomb_complex.html

“…Ah now, An Taisce, hold on there just a minute. Don’t you know that there’s no need for one of them things at all, at all. Sure everyone knows that the Irish government, or any of its tentacled organs, never publishes an actual, independent Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), at least not one that disagrees on its ‘preferred’ route, I mean, option. The portions of the original EIS it left out of the (2001) Halcrow Barry Report on the M3’s route picking selection, was nothing more then an attempt to save the environment. It was already fierce long altogether, so it was…”