Irish Examiner view: Act fast on toxic online culture when issues are raised
Irish influencer Ella Deasy said a group chat of 200 boys and men had been created which was focused on destroying her accommodation. Picture: Instagram/@elladeasyy
Politicians in Kerry are calling for the airport in the county to be named after Daniel O’Connell, with the 250th anniversary of his birth approaching this August.
Readers are doubtless familiar with the new Netflix series , unless they have been deliberately avoiding any interaction with other human beings in the last week or two.
The drama series examines the murder of a schoolgirl by a boy in her class, aged 13, and it has been widely praised for shedding light on the influence of toxic online culture on young boys.
Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, has praised the series, saying he watched it with his teenage children: “It’s a very, very good drama. This violence carried out by young men influenced by what they see online is a real problem. It’s abhorrent and we have to tackle it.”
The insights offered by the series are truly frightening, and if there were any doubts about the growth in misbehaviour driven by online culture, they were surely dispelled by a story in these pages this week.
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Manon Gilbart reports in today’s on the case of University of Limerick student Ella Deasy, who was targeted and harassed by male students. Ms Deasy said a group chat of 200 boys and men had been created which was focused on destroying her accommodation, and outlined frightening incidents in which her house was attacked in the middle of the night.
The University of Limerick authorities may have some questions to answer about this case to judge by Ms Deasy’s comments on its response to her appeals for help. She was only moved to different accommodation when she contacted the university president directly. In an email sent to students this week, the university committed to investigating the matter more closely, including its own response to the incidents.
However, that should not obscure the seriousness of the behaviour here on the part of men acting in gangs. Not only was a female student intimidated by those gangs, she was the focus of a a messaging group involving dozens of men — which is almost as frightening.
It is reasonable to presume that some, if not all, of the members of the group concerned are old enough to attend third-level education. It is thus all the more appalling that even though they are a good deal older than the protagonist of , they are clearly no wiser.
The Institute of Public Administration has been examining the existing oversight practices in the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media for its state agencies, and as reported here by Tadgh McNally, that body has made some interesting recommendations.
For instance, the institute suggests the department should consider engaging with the New Economy and Recovery Authority (NewERA) with a view to providing its agencies with “financial and advisory services”. NewERA is a division of the National Treasury Management Agency, providing financial and commercial advice to Government ministers, departments, and State agencies.
This is an appropriate time for the organisation in question to consider such services. We recently learned that the Arts Council, which is under the department’s remit, had spent €7m on an IT system not fit for purpose, a revelation which led in turn to a review of all activities at the council. Clearly this was a huge failure at different levels within the organisation and cannot possibly be excused.
Avoiding such errors in the future is non-negotiable, and such mistakes make it necessary for all expenditure to be examined.
The rationale for arts grants and awards is not always comparable to the reasoning for other funding allocations. Funding artistic endeavour does not always provide an immediate or obvious return, which is why schemes such as the basic income for the arts are so important. The benefit of such schemes is often reputational, bolstering Ireland’s image as a world leader in artistic practice, or long term in its dividends, attracting more and more creative people to this country.
But such schemes must also be subjected to appropriate levels of oversight. They allocate revenues which have been raised in taxation, and those paying their taxes are entitled to know — and to be shown — that those taxes are allocated correctly. All sectors must keep within appropriate financial parameters, and the arts sector has shown a worrying tendency in the past to stray outside those parameters.
Politicians in Kerry are calling for the airport in the county to be named after Daniel O’Connell, with the 250th anniversary of his birth approaching this August.
O’Connell, born near Cahirciveen, is one of the central figures in Irish history, given his support for Catholic emancipation, the great cause of his time, and the massive popular support he enjoyed across Ireland.
The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media, which is headquartered in Kerry, has plans in hand to celebrate O’Connell’s anniversary, but it is no surprise that others in the county are keen to remember him also.
Concerns have been expressed in the past that renaming Kerry Airport after an individual would have the effect of diluting the county’s brand, by removing its name as an air destination, but councillor John O’Donoghue argued: “The airport would still, most likely, be called Kerry Airport in much the same way that Liverpool Airport is rarely called John Lennon Airport.
"People also say they are flying into Belfast Airport as opposed to George Best Airport.”
Where else would politicians call for an airport to be renamed by arguing that the new name would not be used?
