Nábídána was pretty strident on the old Libertas hatred in the past, and we’re sure as hell pleased as punch to state for the record that the party has begun to fall apart in just the way we’d hoped. And, in our heart of hearts we know, if we had written down the obvious single point of failure in a little heart-shaped card and popped it into an envelope a few months ago, opening it today, the words written in crayon would be ‘John McGuirk’.
Let’s face it; when we heard that he had got the gopher job for Ireland’s newest force in politics, many of us paused for a moment, sniggered a little bit and continued on with our respective conversations. A few people looked a little envious, thinking that, with the result in the Lisbon referendum, whoever landed that job was about to become pretty important. And so it turned out.
Never has there been a more confused and outrageously smug, self-concerned and out-of-touch election campaign fought in history, ever since I attempted to run a non-existent purple translucent cartoon character for President of Queen’s Students’ Union. (This actually did happen) The record will show I got a higher percentage of the total valid poll. (So did this).
There is a fine line between groupthink and clusterfuck, and it’s very rare that one political figure is capable of walking with a foot in each camp. It’s also gratifying and extremely impressive to find someone two-faced manage to put a foot in each mouth simultaneously. Well done, John. Well fucking done.
I’m a relatively recent signup to the world of Public Relations, but I’ve been a political adviser of sorts for a long time now; I doubt very much whether, in receipt of a quote from the Wiesenthal centre suggesting, shall we say, that not all my candidates were kosher, the political advice I would give anyone would include ‘put out a press release calling the Simon Wiesenthal Centre beneath contempt’. Much less would I write the bugger and publish it without running it by the candidate.
In a stroke, John McGuirk has written himself into the textbooks of political communications courses around the world. A series of godawful and misjudged ‘comedy’ blog posts made Libertas appear as well organised as the defence of the Reichstag, and the vicously offensive-aggressive responses to any criticism backed even potential supporters to the wall. He always seemed to be someone aiming for the stars, but this was not necessarily the way we thought it might happen.
