A binge of prurience

The country is on the brink of economic and social collapse and yet the obsessive topic of conversation over the past few weeks has been an issue far removed from the country's primary interest and often exaggerated beyond all proportion or relationship with reality.

The rumour machine seemed to get going in earnest almost the second the Pope left Ireland nearly three years ago. Then, as the Pontiff's plane disappeared into the clouds, the nation's attention swung on to the President, on whose head descended the most fantastic tales for well over a week,

The election of Charles Haughey as Taoiseach some two months later was a Godsend to the gossip mongers. There has hardly been a parcel of land in the country in which Haughey has not been said to have an interest. Stories of his sexual goings-on have apparently riveted the nation's attention, although entirely unfounded on any established fact. Allegations that he has maintained connections with the IRA, that he has been personally tapping people's teleephones, that he has been involved in brawls from Kenmare to Killybegs, are legion.

Now a new subject for national titillation has broken upon us: the Connolly Affair. The spate of rumours which it has givenrise to has been truly fantastic. No matter if there isn't a titter of evidence to support a single one of them, they are still given a currency and, inexplicably, a credence which swiftly established them as "well known facts" .

Of course there are some serious issues arising from the affair which need public explanation. The first of these concerns the Gardai themselves: why did they not keep the Taoiseach and acting Minister for Justice fully informed both before and after the arrest, given the sensitive nature of the incident? The Taoiseach needs to explain why he didn't insist on Mr. Connolly returning from London on the Saturday afternoon, instead of allowing him continue on to the United States. But that's about the height of the matter. Even if Haughey was guilty of a grave missjudgement in the affair, it is still, on its own, hardly an issue of major importance - although the conduct of the Gardai in the affair may well be.

Far more serious and pressing issues beset us -r- issues which may prove and possibly should prove far more emmbarrassing to Mr. Haughey. For anybody to be talking in terms of the Taoiseach's resignation because of his handling of the Connolly Affair when, whatever his conduct nobody was any the worse off after it and the error was corrected fairly quickly, is ludicrous.

There are real resignation issues around - notably the handling by various politicians of the economy over the last five to six years which has landed us in such serious economic difficulties. People have suffered greviously because of this mismanagement - suffered in terms of lost

jobs, of cuts in the health service etc. Nobody seems to think these issues are of great import but national prurience dictates that issues such as the Connolly Affair be treated centre stage, even when clearly they don't impinge on the public good, one way or another to any significant degree.

At the press conference given by the Taoiseach on Tuessday, August 17, one would hardly think that the issue of the public sector pay deal was perhaps the most crucial issue to face the country in a long while. It represents the heart of the attempt to curb public expenditure - an exerrcise which must be carried out clinically but humanely, if this country is to survive economically.

One can only hope that the recent outbreak in fantasy is a mere symptom of the silly season and not a foretaste of the senility which may overtake the country if the drift continues any longer.