Monday, October 02, 2006

Accent issue runs and runs

What can I say? You say something that you've felt for years and because you're the Deputy Lord Mayor; Morning Ireland want you, Newstalk want you, 98fm want you, Spin103.8 want you, the Irish Independent want you, the Evening Herald and the Irish Sun write full pages about you and even Podge and Rodge are tickled...... all over the misuse of Dublin accents in advertisements.
I hope I handled the issue carefully because I feel very strongly about it. I cannot stand the way that the Dublin accent is associated with criminal behaviour by advertisers for security systems and other products. Alarm companies feed off fear and when they advertise they have to humanise that fear so they use the accent that they know they'll get away with - a working class Dublin one.
Either way I got massive reaction from the public - only one nasty e-mail which I responded to comprehensively and got no further comment. Enough said. Back to real politics - housing, poverty, drugs, educational disadvantage......