Barrtalk: Women remain woefully excluded from politics here

Now that Catherine Connolly has officially been sworn into office at the Aras an Uachtarain, we can say that Ireland welcomes its third woman President, after the two Marys: Robinson and McAleese.

A total of three mightn’t seem like all that many, but when you consider that we’ve only had ten Presidents ever [Connolly is the tenth], it’s not too bad in terms of female representation in politics.

It’s certainly a hell of a lot better than Donegal County Council, which continues to very much be the Old Boys’ Network, at least in terms of its County Councillors.

Currently, only three of the 37 County Councillors in Donegal are women: Cllr Niamh Kennedy (Independent), Cllr Joy Beard (100% Redress), and Cllr Dakota Nic Mheanman (Sinn Féin) – that’s the lowest female representation of any Council in Ireland.

And if you think that’s bad [which it absolutely is], it’s nothing compared to the longer-term picture looking back. Only 14 women have ever been elected to serve on Donegal County Council over the last 100 years, while, during the same period, approximately 255 men have been County Councillors.

My Mickey O’Kane honours maths from Carn Community School tells me how all means that a whopping 95 per cent of Donegal’s County Councillors have been men – and it aint changing any time soon.

Talk about bleak statistics and reading for feminists and women in general in the ‘progressive’ year of 2025, not 1925.

Maybe all women in Donegal should refuse to vote in any future Council elections until the imbalance is properly addressed and they are properly represented?

It certainly needs something radical. Change always does.

Stop the press! Trump threatens to sue [again]

I hear Trump is now threatening to add the BBC to the growing list of media organisations he has sued.

The crybaby wannabe-dictator has now taken legal action against more than 4,100 individuals and companies – and counting – over the last five decades.

He has a particular penchant for suing media companies [but thankfully, he hasn’t discovered Barrtalk yet].

He sued the New York Times for a staggering $15 billion dollars a few months ago, while in July, he sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion. Yes, that’s ‘billion’ in both cases.

He has also initiated legal actions against ABC, CBS and the Board of the Pulitzer Prize, after it awarded stories written by journalists he didn’t like.

Of course, he has sued CNN too for hundreds of millions too, as well as the Chicago Tribune newspaper and the Miss America pageant after claiming its results were ‘rigged’.

Basically, anyone he doesn’t agree with is in the firing line – and listing them all would take up the entire 40 pages of the Inishowen Independent.

You just know, Trump would be THAT kid running home with the ball in tears because he’s losing heavily in the football. Pathetic.

An Irish Thanksgiving, y'all

The Yanks will celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27, next. It traditionally used to be their annual day of rest, turkey and American Football [which I love], but increasingly for me, Thanksgiving is becoming known as the day before the Black Friday sales.

Anyway, apparently, there are moves afoot in this country for a similar day of thanks. Why do we have to ape everything they do across the Pond?

Maybe we could call our Thanksgiving 'Féile an Altaithe' [which is the correct Irish translation, according to our foes over at A.I.]?

We probably have a ways to go yet though. A recent iReach survey found that only 29 per cent of respondents feel that Ireland should have its own version of Thanksgiving, a day to give thanks or celebrate togetherness.

Togetherness? That’s even more pukey than ‘Thanksgiving’.

When it comes to ‘Millennials’ [those aged 25-34] in the survey however, some 48 per cent were in favour of Ireland celebrating its own version of Thanksgiving.

And, since they’re the future, maybe our own Thanksgiving Day could well be looming on the horizon after all. If I were a turkey, I’d be very afraid!

Although, as a worker-bee human, I’d absolutely take another bank holiday on the calendar. The more the merrier on that score, whatever the celebration, I say.

A literary who’s who

And finally this week, I walked into the kitchen the other day to find Her Indoors using a book to help with her lower leg stretching exercises following a recent injury [these things happen as you get older!].

When I say ‘using a book’, I don’t mean she was seeking out advice or information within its pages; I mean she was balancing on it with one foot.

And the book in question? None other than the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction: 'The Goldfinch' by Donna Tartt. It’s actually Tartt’s third-best book, but that’s a whole other column.

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Anyway, I immediately recognised that there must be a Barrtalk article in the kitchen scenario in front of me, and relayed the same thought to Her Indoors.

However, now, a few days later, I can’t quite think of an angle [apart from 60 degrees for stretching?].

Except to say that perhaps Nobel Prize winners or the Booker could be next on the hitlist.

How about Bob Dylan’s massive ‘Lyrics 1961-2020’ book for a boost up to reach the roofspace? Or Seamus Heaney helping to dust above the fridge? Paul Lynch’s hardback ‘Prophet Song’ could be perfect for a doorstop too!

It’s a literary who’s who in our house, don’t ya know!