How much sympathy do I need to feel for the Lawlor family? How badly has the press mistreated them since Liam Lawlor's death? There are times when I really feel like I'll never belong here.
I cannot get over just HOW BIG A DEAL the radio stations (I haven't seen any t.v. reports) are making of the reports in some Sunday newspapers that Liam Lawlor died while accompanied by a prostitute. I already mentioned yesterday's luncthime program on Newstalk (& more today), but then yesterday evening on Today FM (Matt Cooper) and last night on RTE (Vincent Browne) it was more of the same (although, I have to say Cooper was less keen to do Independent newspapers down). Browne in particular used words like "disgraceful" when describing the reports over the weekend, although Browne is, perhaps, the most sanctimonious of Irish commentators. One of Cooper's guests said that the press reports were worse than anything Lawlor had done.
Am I missing something? Sure I feel sympathy for the Lawlors in so far as they have to deal with the death of their husband/father/brother, but that's about it. My sympathies don't extend to their having had to deal with the press's inaccurate reports about who was with Liam Lawlor at his death.
I have not paid a lot of attention to the planning tribunal, but I've picked up the general run of things and I don't think my sense that Liam Lawlor was up to his neck in corruption (a crime) is that far from the general view. So, why are so many people who believe Lawlor was corrupt so outraged about reports that he may have been with a prostitute?
If I die when I'm in my 60s and have to die amidst a scandal, I'd much rather it be that I was accompanied by a prostitute at my death rather than I had spent years accumulating vast wealth by corrupt means and left my family in the "morally confused" position of enjoying my ill-gotten money after I was gone. One sin can be excused as a temporary weakness or act of madness while the other is cold, calculated, devious, long-running and has the effect of corrupting the whole family.
