Defend, Protect, Support.

I haven’t done a newsletter since September of last year, and I was so disgusted by the verdict of a suspended sentence given to Cathal Crotty after his brutal and animalistic attack on Natasha O’Brien in Limerick two years ago, that I sat down and tried to write one late last night. Instead I did this.

The starting point was Sir John Lavery’s portrait of his wife Hazel as Caitlín ní Houlihan; the mythological personification of Ireland and a symbol of Irish nationalism, who would regularly call upon the young men and soldiers of Ireland to protect her and to fight against British colonial rule in Ireland. Stating the obvious I know, but Cathal Crotty was one of these very men.
The whole incident is disgraceful, but what made me particularly furious was that Natasha O’Brien was calling out Crotty for the homophobic abuse he was hurling at a man walking on the other side of the street, which resulted in his vicious attack on her.

Irish men don’t come off well in this whole sorry mess; between Crotty himself, his friends who stood by and watched it happen, and Justice Tom O’Donnell, who didn’t want to ‘destroy Crotty’s career’. I also had a look at the Irish Defence Forces website this evening and their motto is apparently ‘Defend, Protect,Support. However all I could think about was the famous quote from Margaret Atwood: ‘Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.’