Eoghan Harris
Encyclopedia
Eoghan Harris is an Irish
journalist, fiction writer, director, columnist and politician. He currently writes for the Sunday Independent
. He was a member of Seanad Éireann
from 2007–11, having been nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern
.
Harris has held posts at various and diverse political parties throughout his career. He was a Marxist ideologue of the Workers' Party
and its predecessor, Official Sinn Féin; a short-lived adviser to former Taoiseach John Bruton
; an adviser to the Ulster Unionist Party
and most recently a supporter of the Fianna Fáil
-led government of Bertie Ahern. At one stage an Irish republican
, he is now a bitter critic of modern day Sinn Féin
, expressing his political views in the Sunday Independent. Harris's critics accuse him of demonstrating ideological malleability, hypocrisy
, neoconservatism
and inconsistency. Harris is also noted for his screenwriting work; he lectures at IADT
, the Irish national film school, and teaches a screenwriting workshop. Harris is also a judge on the Irish language
talent show Glas Vegas
, on TG4
.
in 1943. Harris was educated at University College Cork where he studied English & History. He later worked at RTÉ
, the Irish national television broadcaster, on current affairs programmes such as 7 Days
and Féach. He also made a documentary on mental illness called Darkness Visible.
In the Cork Mid
by-election in March 1965 he campaign for Sylvester Cotter standing for Poblacht Chríostúil
, at this time he met his future wife UCC Student, Anne O'Sullivan.
In 1975, Harris won a Jacob's Award for his 7 Days documentary on the Dublin Bay
petroleum
refinery
. He had refused a previous award in 1970 for his work on Féach, citing his objection to the involvement in the awards of a commercial sponsor.
As a writer, Harris is the author of Souper Sullivan which was performed at the Abbey Theatre
for the Dublin Theatre Festival
1987. He also wrote several of the scripts for the UK television series "Sharpe's Rifles" etc. He lectures on screenwriting in the National Film School. Harris is also a judge on the TG4
television series Glas Vegas
. He is involved with the Centre for Film Studies in UCD
, and with Moonstone Labs.
in the 1960s, and was an important influence in the party's move from Irish nationalism
to Marxism
, a political ideology which Harris currently claims to abhor. During the 1970 split in the movement into Provisional Sinn Féin and Official Sinn Féin, he was close to leading Official Sinn Féin members Eamonn Smullen and Cathal Goulding
, the latter of whom was at the time Chief of Staff of the paramilitary Official IRA
. With Smullen, who had spent many years in British prisons for Republican activities, he worked in the "Republican Industrial Development Division", an organisation set up in 1972 by Seamus Costello
to co-ordinate trade-union activities, along with John Caden
, Des Geraghty
and others.
According to Patterson in the Politics of Illusion, Harris's pamphlet the "Irish Industrial Revolution" (1975) was influential in shifting the party away from Republicanism. Harris continued to do media work for the Workers' Party of Ireland
. However in 1990 Harris published a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Social Democracy in which he surmised that socialism
would not survive events in Eastern Europe
. Harris called for a shift to social democracy
and that the party should seek a historic compromise
with the social democratic wing of Fine Gael
and the Labour Party
. The document was initially submitted by Eamonn Smullen on Harris's behalf for publication in the party's theoretical magazine "Making Sense" but when this was refused Harris and Smullen published it themselves as a publication of the party's Economic Affairs Department of which Smullen was head. When the pamphlet began to circulate it was banned by the Workers' Party and Smullen was suspended from his position on the committee. Harris resigned in protest and Smullen resigned subsequent with many of the members of the Research Section of the party, a move which was the prelude to a bigger split in the party in 1992, when senior members of the party alleged that the supposedly moribund Official IRA still existed and was implicated in criminality and sought to move to some extent in the direction proposed earlier by Harris.
. He pushed the organisation towards a perspective heavily critical of Sinn Féin
and the Provisional IRA
. It was stated in Magill
(November 1997) that he set up a branch of the Worker's Party called the "Ned Stapleton Cumann". This gave the party considerable influence within RTÉ. Michael O'Leary, then leader of the Irish Labour Party commented that RTÉ current affairs coverage was "Stickie orientated". (This was a reference to the Official IRA, from whom the Provisional IRA had split in the 1970s.) Those who supported Harris within RTÉ became known as "the brood of Harris". The tensions within the organisation between journalists such as Mary McAleese
and Alex White and Marxists led to major disagreements within the station, and criticism of what was perceived as the station's anti-republican political agenda. Harris recruited Charlie Bird
(then a member of Official Sinn Féin) and Marian Finucane
to RTÉ in the 1970s.
and the Workers' Party
jointly nominated former senator Mary Robinson
to be its candidate for President of Ireland
. While his strategy proposal is thought, by some, to have been significant in the rebranding of Robinson, just how influential Harris was remains a matter of much controversy, with her campaign team and Robinson herself blaming him for a crucial and fatal change in tactics - having previously been non-combative in dealing with the controversies that had engulfed dismissed Tánaiste
Brian Lenihan, Harris pressured Robinson into going on the offensive on a Today Tonight
(current affairs programme) live debate, an action which was generally seen to have backfired horribly. Harris made three election videos, and claims to have been responsible for the memorable line from Robinson's acceptance speech "the hand that rocked the cradle rocked the system." Robinson won the election, becoming Ireland's first female President.
. However, he received criticism from both within and outside the party in April 1991 when he wrote the script for a sketch for the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in which a cleaner (played by the comedy actress Twink
), interrupted the leader's speech by Bruton. The sketch was criticised as being in bad taste and tacky, particularly in its references to a controversial incident that had made the news, whereby a female reporter from RTÉ had allegedly been groped by an inebriated Fianna Fáil TD. The catchphrase "Úna gan gúna" (Úna without her dress, in Irish
) was deemed sexist and demeaning of a victim of alleged improper conduct.
Presidential candidate Mary McAleese
, calling her a "tribal
time bomb" and writing "if she wins not on a technicality but because so many people gave her their number one, then I am living in a country I no longer understand." She won. Harris has since expressed regret for these sentiments and has praised McAleese's Presidency.
, became an outspoken critic of Social Democratic and Labour Party
leader John Hume
over Hume's decision to hold talks with Sinn Féin prior to an IRA ceasefire. Harris urged the Irish
Government, then led by his friend John Bruton
to end all support for Hume's peace efforts. He wrote, "If we persist with the peace process it will end with sectarian slaughter in the North, with bombs in Dublin, Cork
and Galway
, and with the ruthless reign by provisional gangs over the ghettos of Dublin. The only way to avoid this abyss is to cut the cord to John Hume". Hume argued that he was seeking to convince republicans to abandon violence. The resulting Belfast Agreement
was strongly praised by Harris. Hume won the Nobel Peace Prize
, along with David Trimble
, in 1998 for his efforts. In the late 1990s he became the first Roman Catholic political advisor (and the first ex-Marxist advisor), to David Trimble
, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
. He wrote some of his speeches, one of which included the line that Northern Ireland had been "a cold house for Catholics." He was invited to address the UUP annual conference in 1999 where he described the Belfast Agreement as "an Amazing Grace" and urged the UUP to make a leap of faith in Sinn Féin. They eventually did so, forming a power-sharing executive, although it was later suspended on the issue of the lack of IRA arms decommissioning.
, and is unrepentant about the morality of removing Saddam Hussein, declaring in the Sunday Independent that "hindsight history has no moral status." In May 2003 he wrote "Already, as I predicted in the lead up to the war, the neoconservative hawks have done much better than the liberals in getting down to the dynamics of opening up the gulf to democracy. Already, and this I predicted too, there is substantial hope for an Israel
i-Palestinian settlement now that Saddam
no longer scowls at Israel". He has been bitterly critical of Middle East journalist Robert Fisk
. In November 2003 Harris wrote, "Far from wanting to pour venom on Fisk, I think he does us a favour by being so forthright. For my money his analysis of Middle East politics is a first cousin to believing that aliens take away people in flying saucers."
Harris gave media training to Ahmed Chalabi
in advance of the invasion of Iraq, and wrote in the Irish Independent that:
. Harris was one of a minority of journalists to support Bertie Ahern
during the "Bertiegate I" crisis, during which questions were raised over Ahern's financial propriety. Harris heavily supported Ahern and Fianna Fáil in the 2007 general election. Some alleged that the Sunday Independent's editorial stance prior to the election amounted to a u-turn from previous criticism of the government, but Harris explicitly denied there had been any u-turn or that the attitude of journalists at the paper was influenced by an alleged meeting between the deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, Brian Cowen
and the owner of Independent News & Media
, Tony O'Reilly
.
Shortly before the election, Harris appeared on The Late Late Show
on RTÉ, in which he praised Ahern and poured scorn on those criticising him over his personal finances. Harris's Late Late Show appearance coincided with a rise in support for the Government. Harris also claimed that other newspapers, namely The Irish Times
and The Irish Daily Mail
waged an anti-Ahern campaign. All other news outlets dismissed the claim, with most accusing Harris and the Sunday Independent of doing its own u-turn following a Cowen-O'Reilly meeting. (The paper had previously been highly critical of Ahern's failure to reform stamp duty, but after the meeting this criticism stopped. Soon thereafter Fianna Fáil promised to carry such reform, if re-elected. This is what later transpired.)
In February 2008, Director-General of RTÉ
Cathal Goan and RTÉ director of news Ed Mulhall appeared before the Oireachtas
Committee on Communications. Both men admitted that they were "uncomfortable" at Harris's appearance on the Late Late Show because it took place so soon before the election.
During a live radio debate on Today FM
's The Last Word with Matt Cooper
(Election special 26 May 2007), when an Irish Times columnist, Fintan O'Toole
denied Harris's claims of an Irish Times campaign against Ahern, and accused the Sunday Independent of having its own political agenda, Harris stormed out of the studio mid-debate. During the debate Harris had admitted that the decision to support the Government was taken because "we got what we wanted on stamp duty".
Eoghan Harris's ex-wife, Anne Harris, is deputy editor of the Sunday Independent. In December 2007, Harris married Gwendoline Halley, from Waterford
, Ireland
.
Harris has written about Wikipedia in the Sunday Independent.
, to Seanad Éireann
on 3 August 2007, serving until April 2011.
Television debate Harris stated that the leaders of the Easter Rising
were "suicide bombers, I mean suicide terrorists".
Harris was featured on the front cover of the August 2007 edition of Village
. Inside, Harris was the subject of a number of critical articles written by Vincent Browne
.
It was reported in The Sunday Times
(Irish edition) that Harris is at the centre of an internal investigation at the National Film School in Dún Laoghaire
, where he lectures. Harris has also incorrectly but accidentally claimed to have received a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival
in his entry in 'Who's Who
' in Ireland
, for his documentary Darkness Visible. Harris insisted that he did win the award, saying that the Berlin Film Festival "mustn't keep proper records". The award he actually received is the Prix Futura, awarded at the Berlin Television Festival. He has since corrected the mistake.
On the RTÉ Radio One programme News At One on 3 December 2007, Harris strongly defended Bertie Ahern, saying that the Irish Daily Mail
was a 'lying newspaper', which practised 'sensationalist, sick journalism' and which had a 'record of fascist appeasement in the 1930s'. He also said that the Mahon Tribunal should be shut down because "there is no natural justice available", and that in ten years time "people will look back and say that the Tribunal time was scoundrel time". The Irish Daily Mail denied his allegations. In a debate with Fintan O'Toole
on the RTÉ TV Primetime programme on 4 December 2007, Harris further alleged that "the entire (Mahon) Tribunal is a fantasy of (Tom) Gilmartin".
In another RTÉ related controversy in 2004, Harris was confronted aggressively by an angry viewer, Kilmacud Crokes star Hugh Gannon, regarding the Sunday Independents editorial. This happened after an episode of Questions & Answers, with Gannon implying Harris was a lackey for Tony O'Reilly. Harris reacted angrily to this, dismissed Gannon as a "Shinner" and presenter John Bowman had to step in to separate the two men. Bowman suggested that the men agree to disagree, but Gannon, a former 1998 Leinster minor hurling medallist and staunch Fine Gael supporter, suggested "No. Let's agree that you agree with me."
During a heated interview on the TV3
programme The Political Party with Ursula Halligan
broadcast on 9 December 2007, Harris threatened to walk out because he didn't wish to discuss Bertie Ahern
's appearances at the Mahon Tribunal any further. He then changed his mind and demanded that the programme be re-recorded, but Halligan informed him that this was impossible. The show was recorded live and therefore could not have been stopped.
Harris has defended the Gaelic Poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh
, who admitted buying lavish gifts for and having sex with 16 to 18 year old boys while on charitable visits to Nepal
. Harris pointed out that Ó Searcaigh was not a paedophile but rather a paederast, a sexual preference which was common among the great philosophers of Ancient Greece
, and that the age of consent in Nepal is 16. He also wrote that Nepal is a notoriously homophobic society, and that some of the accusers may have their own agendas.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
journalist, fiction writer, director, columnist and politician. He currently writes for the Sunday Independent
Sunday Independent
The Sunday Independent is a broadsheet Sunday newspaper published in Ireland by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning, and is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin ; average circulation of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005,...
. He was a member of Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas , which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann . It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members Senators or Seanadóirí . Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by...
from 2007–11, having been nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern
Bertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008....
.
Harris has held posts at various and diverse political parties throughout his career. He was a Marxist ideologue of the Workers' Party
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
and its predecessor, Official Sinn Féin; a short-lived adviser to former Taoiseach John Bruton
John Bruton
John Gerard Bruton is an Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 1994 to 1997. A minister under two taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald, Bruton held a number of the top posts in Irish government, including Minister for Finance , and Minister for Industry, Trade,...
; an adviser to the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
and most recently a supporter of the Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
-led government of Bertie Ahern. At one stage an Irish republican
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, he is now a bitter critic of modern day Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
, expressing his political views in the Sunday Independent. Harris's critics accuse him of demonstrating ideological malleability, hypocrisy
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
, neoconservatism
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
and inconsistency. Harris is also noted for his screenwriting work; he lectures at IADT
Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology
IADT - Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology is located at Dún Laoghaire, Ireland was established in 1997 and incorporated the former Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design as its School of Creative Arts.-Campus:...
, the Irish national film school, and teaches a screenwriting workshop. Harris is also a judge on the Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
talent show Glas Vegas
Glas Vegas
Glas Vegas is an Irish language talent show. The series is produced by TG4. It is broadcast on Sunday evenings at 8.30pm. The series has a panel of judges to assess the quality of each act, the judges are Senator Eoghan Harris, Tom Ó Brannagáin and Molly Bhreathnach.The first series was a solely...
, on TG4
TG4
TG4 is a public service broadcaster for Irish language speakers. The channel has been on-air since 31 October 1996 in the Republic of Ireland and since April 2005 in Northern Ireland....
.
Early career
Eoghan Harris was born in Douglas village on the outskirts of Cork cityCork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
in 1943. Harris was educated at University College Cork where he studied English & History. He later worked at RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
, the Irish national television broadcaster, on current affairs programmes such as 7 Days
7 Days (Ireland)
7 Days was a Radio Telefís Éireann current affairs programme presented by Brian Farrell, Brian Cleeve and John O'Donoghue and broadcast in Ireland from 1966 until 1976.-Background:...
and Féach. He also made a documentary on mental illness called Darkness Visible.
In the Cork Mid
Cork Mid (Dáil Éireann constituency)
Cork Mid was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1961 to 1981. The constituency was served by 4 deputies from 1961 to 1977, and then 5 from 1977 until its abolition in 1981...
by-election in March 1965 he campaign for Sylvester Cotter standing for Poblacht Chríostúil
Poblacht Chríostúil
Poblacht Chríostúil was a small political party in Cork, in the mid 1960's. The party stood Sylvester Cotter, in the 1965 Mid-Cork Dáil by election, they also stood Cotter in Mid-Cork and Alexander Miller in the Cork Borough in the 1966 general election, but they were not elected. Spin doctor,...
, at this time he met his future wife UCC Student, Anne O'Sullivan.
In 1975, Harris won a Jacob's Award for his 7 Days documentary on the Dublin Bay
Dublin Bay
Dublin Bay is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north-south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of Dublin; stretching from Howth Head in the north to Dalkey Point in the south...
petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
refinery
Refinery
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.-Types of refineries:Different types of refineries are as follows:...
. He had refused a previous award in 1970 for his work on Féach, citing his objection to the involvement in the awards of a commercial sponsor.
As a writer, Harris is the author of Souper Sullivan which was performed at the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
for the Dublin Theatre Festival
Dublin Theatre Festival
The Dublin Theatre Festival is Europe's oldest specialized theatre festival. It was founded by theatre impresario Brendan Smith in 1957 and has, with the exception of two years, produced a season of international and Irish theatre each autumn. It is one of a number of key post-World War II events...
1987. He also wrote several of the scripts for the UK television series "Sharpe's Rifles" etc. He lectures on screenwriting in the National Film School. Harris is also a judge on the TG4
TG4
TG4 is a public service broadcaster for Irish language speakers. The channel has been on-air since 31 October 1996 in the Republic of Ireland and since April 2005 in Northern Ireland....
television series Glas Vegas
Glas Vegas
Glas Vegas is an Irish language talent show. The series is produced by TG4. It is broadcast on Sunday evenings at 8.30pm. The series has a panel of judges to assess the quality of each act, the judges are Senator Eoghan Harris, Tom Ó Brannagáin and Molly Bhreathnach.The first series was a solely...
. He is involved with the Centre for Film Studies in UCD
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
, and with Moonstone Labs.
Marxist republican
Harris was a leading Irish republican in Sinn FéinSinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
in the 1960s, and was an important influence in the party's move from Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
to Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, a political ideology which Harris currently claims to abhor. During the 1970 split in the movement into Provisional Sinn Féin and Official Sinn Féin, he was close to leading Official Sinn Féin members Eamonn Smullen and Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
, the latter of whom was at the time Chief of Staff of the paramilitary Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
. With Smullen, who had spent many years in British prisons for Republican activities, he worked in the "Republican Industrial Development Division", an organisation set up in 1972 by Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello was a leader of Official Sinn Féin and the Official Irish Republican Army and latterly of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army ....
to co-ordinate trade-union activities, along with John Caden
John Caden
John Caden is an Irish independent television producer. He began his media career in RTÉ in the 1970s. In 1985 he won a Jacob's Award for producing The Gay Byrne Show.For most of his time in RTÉ, Caden was a member of the Workers' Party of Ireland...
, Des Geraghty
Des Geraghty
Desmond "Des" Geraghty is a former Irish politician and trade union leader. He was president of SIPTU from 1999 to 2004. He stood unsuccessfully at the 1984 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency as a Workers' Party candidate...
and others.
According to Patterson in the Politics of Illusion, Harris's pamphlet the "Irish Industrial Revolution" (1975) was influential in shifting the party away from Republicanism. Harris continued to do media work for the Workers' Party of Ireland
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
. However in 1990 Harris published a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Social Democracy in which he surmised that socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
would not survive events in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Harris called for a shift to social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
and that the party should seek a historic compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
with the social democratic wing of Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
and the Labour Party
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...
. The document was initially submitted by Eamonn Smullen on Harris's behalf for publication in the party's theoretical magazine "Making Sense" but when this was refused Harris and Smullen published it themselves as a publication of the party's Economic Affairs Department of which Smullen was head. When the pamphlet began to circulate it was banned by the Workers' Party and Smullen was suspended from his position on the committee. Harris resigned in protest and Smullen resigned subsequent with many of the members of the Research Section of the party, a move which was the prelude to a bigger split in the party in 1992, when senior members of the party alleged that the supposedly moribund Official IRA still existed and was implicated in criminality and sought to move to some extent in the direction proposed earlier by Harris.
RTÉ
Harris was for a time a central figure in shaping the current affairs output of RTÉRaidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
. He pushed the organisation towards a perspective heavily critical of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
and the Provisional IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
. It was stated in Magill
Magill
Magill was an Irish politics and current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne and others in 1977. Magill was widely perceived as groundbreaking, specialising in in-depth investigative articles and colourful reportage by journalists such as Eamonn McCann and Gene Kerrigan...
(November 1997) that he set up a branch of the Worker's Party called the "Ned Stapleton Cumann". This gave the party considerable influence within RTÉ. Michael O'Leary, then leader of the Irish Labour Party commented that RTÉ current affairs coverage was "Stickie orientated". (This was a reference to the Official IRA, from whom the Provisional IRA had split in the 1970s.) Those who supported Harris within RTÉ became known as "the brood of Harris". The tensions within the organisation between journalists such as Mary McAleese
Mary McAleese
Mary Patricia McAleese served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in...
and Alex White and Marxists led to major disagreements within the station, and criticism of what was perceived as the station's anti-republican political agenda. Harris recruited Charlie Bird
Charlie Bird
Charles "Charlie" Bird is an Irish journalist and broadcaster. He was Chief News Correspondent with RTÉ News and Current Affairs until January 2009. He took up the role of Washington Correspondent, but prematurely returned to his earlier post in Ireland in June 2010.-Early life:Bird was born in...
(then a member of Official Sinn Féin) and Marian Finucane
Marian Finucane
Marian Finucane is an Irish broadcaster with Raidió Teilifís Éireann . She has worked with the national broadcaster since in 1976, starting as a continuity announcer. She was the first presenter of Liveline...
to RTÉ in the 1970s.
Working with Mary Robinson
In 1990, the Labour PartyLabour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...
and the Workers' Party
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
jointly nominated former senator Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...
to be its candidate for President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
. While his strategy proposal is thought, by some, to have been significant in the rebranding of Robinson, just how influential Harris was remains a matter of much controversy, with her campaign team and Robinson herself blaming him for a crucial and fatal change in tactics - having previously been non-combative in dealing with the controversies that had engulfed dismissed Tánaiste
Tánaiste
The Tánaiste is the deputy prime minister of Ireland. The current Tánaiste is Eamon Gilmore, TD who was appointed on 9 March 2011.- Origins and etymology :...
Brian Lenihan, Harris pressured Robinson into going on the offensive on a Today Tonight
Today Tonight
Today Tonight is a controversial Australian News and Current Affairs program, produced by the Seven Network and shown weeknightly at in direct competition with rival Nine Network program A Current Affair....
(current affairs programme) live debate, an action which was generally seen to have backfired horribly. Harris made three election videos, and claims to have been responsible for the memorable line from Robinson's acceptance speech "the hand that rocked the cradle rocked the system." Robinson won the election, becoming Ireland's first female President.
Working with John Bruton
After the Robinson campaign, Harris was asked to work for Fine Gael by its leader John BrutonJohn Bruton
John Gerard Bruton is an Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 1994 to 1997. A minister under two taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald, Bruton held a number of the top posts in Irish government, including Minister for Finance , and Minister for Industry, Trade,...
. However, he received criticism from both within and outside the party in April 1991 when he wrote the script for a sketch for the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in which a cleaner (played by the comedy actress Twink
Adele King
Adele King is an Irish entertainer better known as Twink from her time as a member of a group called Maxi, Dick and Twink which was a girl band in Ireland in the late 1960s and 1970s. She is Chloë Agnew's mother....
), interrupted the leader's speech by Bruton. The sketch was criticised as being in bad taste and tacky, particularly in its references to a controversial incident that had made the news, whereby a female reporter from RTÉ had allegedly been groped by an inebriated Fianna Fáil TD. The catchphrase "Úna gan gúna" (Úna without her dress, in Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
) was deemed sexist and demeaning of a victim of alleged improper conduct.
Attacking Mary McAleese
In 1997, Harris denounced Fianna FáilFianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
Presidential candidate Mary McAleese
Mary McAleese
Mary Patricia McAleese served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in...
, calling her a "tribal
Tribalism
The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but, due to the small size of tribes, it is always a relatively simple role structure, with few significant social distinctions between individuals....
time bomb" and writing "if she wins not on a technicality but because so many people gave her their number one, then I am living in a country I no longer understand." She won. Harris has since expressed regret for these sentiments and has praised McAleese's Presidency.
Attacking John Hume
Harris, along with fellow Sunday Independent columnist Eamon DunphyEamon Dunphy
Eamon Martin Dunphy is an Irish media personality, radio and television presenter, author, sports pundit, as well as a former professional football player. He is best known as a soccer analyst on Raidió Teilifís Éireann 's coverage of the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. He was paid...
, became an outspoken critic of Social Democratic and Labour Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...
leader John Hume
John Hume
John Hume is a former Irish politician from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble....
over Hume's decision to hold talks with Sinn Féin prior to an IRA ceasefire. Harris urged the Irish
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
Government, then led by his friend John Bruton
John Bruton
John Gerard Bruton is an Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 1994 to 1997. A minister under two taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald, Bruton held a number of the top posts in Irish government, including Minister for Finance , and Minister for Industry, Trade,...
to end all support for Hume's peace efforts. He wrote, "If we persist with the peace process it will end with sectarian slaughter in the North, with bombs in Dublin, Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
and Galway
Galway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...
, and with the ruthless reign by provisional gangs over the ghettos of Dublin. The only way to avoid this abyss is to cut the cord to John Hume". Hume argued that he was seeking to convince republicans to abandon violence. The resulting Belfast Agreement
Belfast Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement , sometimes called the Stormont Agreement, was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process...
was strongly praised by Harris. Hume won the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
, along with David Trimble
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC , is a politician from Northern Ireland. He served as Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party , was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland , and was a Member of the British Parliament . He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party...
, in 1998 for his efforts. In the late 1990s he became the first Roman Catholic political advisor (and the first ex-Marxist advisor), to David Trimble
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC , is a politician from Northern Ireland. He served as Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party , was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland , and was a Member of the British Parliament . He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party...
, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
. He wrote some of his speeches, one of which included the line that Northern Ireland had been "a cold house for Catholics." He was invited to address the UUP annual conference in 1999 where he described the Belfast Agreement as "an Amazing Grace" and urged the UUP to make a leap of faith in Sinn Féin. They eventually did so, forming a power-sharing executive, although it was later suspended on the issue of the lack of IRA arms decommissioning.
Support for the Iraq War
Harris strongly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, and is unrepentant about the morality of removing Saddam Hussein, declaring in the Sunday Independent that "hindsight history has no moral status." In May 2003 he wrote "Already, as I predicted in the lead up to the war, the neoconservative hawks have done much better than the liberals in getting down to the dynamics of opening up the gulf to democracy. Already, and this I predicted too, there is substantial hope for an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i-Palestinian settlement now that Saddam
Saddam
–Saddam is an Arabic name which means "One who confronts", other meanings include: "One who frequently causes collisions", "Powerful collider", "One who causes a collision that had bad results", "Powerful confronter", "One who frequently crashes", or "Powerful commander"...
no longer scowls at Israel". He has been bitterly critical of Middle East journalist Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of The Independent, he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and the same country's...
. In November 2003 Harris wrote, "Far from wanting to pour venom on Fisk, I think he does us a favour by being so forthright. For my money his analysis of Middle East politics is a first cousin to believing that aliens take away people in flying saucers."
Harris gave media training to Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi is an Iraqi politician. He was interim oil minister in Iraq in April-May 2005 and December-January 2006 and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006. Chalabi failed to win a seat in parliament in the December 2005 elections, and when the new Iraqi cabinet was...
in advance of the invasion of Iraq, and wrote in the Irish Independent that:
I first met Chalabi in Washington in March 2001, in the company of Richard Perle, a few months after George W Bush had been elected, and met later in London where I gave him some media training. We bonded from the start, and the basis of the bond was his instinctive feel for Ireland.
Endorsing Fianna Fáil
Harris in the mid 2000s began endorsing the centrist, populist Fianna Fáil, which was in a coalition government with the neo-liberal Progressive DemocratsProgressive Democrats
The Progressive Democrats , commonly known as the PDs, was a pro-free market liberal political party in the Republic of Ireland.Launched on 21 December 1985 by Desmond O'Malley and other politicians who had split from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the Progressive Democrats took liberal positions on...
. Harris was one of a minority of journalists to support Bertie Ahern
Bertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008....
during the "Bertiegate I" crisis, during which questions were raised over Ahern's financial propriety. Harris heavily supported Ahern and Fianna Fáil in the 2007 general election. Some alleged that the Sunday Independent's editorial stance prior to the election amounted to a u-turn from previous criticism of the government, but Harris explicitly denied there had been any u-turn or that the attitude of journalists at the paper was influenced by an alleged meeting between the deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, Brian Cowen
Brian Cowen
Brian Cowen is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 7 May 2008 to 9 March 2011. He was head of a coalition government led by Fianna Fáil which until 23 January 2011 had the support of the Green Party and independent TDs.Cowen was also leader of Fianna Fáil from 7 May...
and the owner of Independent News & Media
Independent News & Media
Independent News & Media plc , is a media organisation based in Dublin, Ireland, with interests in 22 countries on 4 continents worldwide. The company owns over 200 print titles, more than 130 radio stations, over 100 commercial websites and many billboard locations, and is a leading press player...
, Tony O'Reilly
Tony O'Reilly
Sir Anthony Joseph Francis O'Reilly is an Irish businessman and former international rugby union player. He is known for his involvement the Independent News & Media Group, which he led from 1973 to 2009, and as former CEO and Chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company. He was the leading shareholder of...
.
Shortly before the election, Harris appeared on The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...
on RTÉ, in which he praised Ahern and poured scorn on those criticising him over his personal finances. Harris's Late Late Show appearance coincided with a rise in support for the Government. Harris also claimed that other newspapers, namely The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
and The Irish Daily Mail
Irish Daily Mail
The Irish Daily Mail is a newspaper published in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by Associated Newspapers. The paper was launched in February 2006 with a launch strategy that included giving away free copies on the first day of circulation and low pricing subsequently....
waged an anti-Ahern campaign. All other news outlets dismissed the claim, with most accusing Harris and the Sunday Independent of doing its own u-turn following a Cowen-O'Reilly meeting. (The paper had previously been highly critical of Ahern's failure to reform stamp duty, but after the meeting this criticism stopped. Soon thereafter Fianna Fáil promised to carry such reform, if re-elected. This is what later transpired.)
In February 2008, Director-General of RTÉ
Director-General of RTÉ
The Director-General of Raidió Teilifís Éireann is chief executive and editor in chief of RTÉ. The current Director-General is Noel Curran, and is the most senior person in the Public Service Broadcaster, Noel Curran replaced Cathal Goan in the role in February 2011.The RTÉ Board appoints the...
Cathal Goan and RTÉ director of news Ed Mulhall appeared before the Oireachtas
Oireachtas
The Oireachtas , sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...
Committee on Communications. Both men admitted that they were "uncomfortable" at Harris's appearance on the Late Late Show because it took place so soon before the election.
During a live radio debate on Today FM
Today FM
Radio Ireland Ltd, trading as 100-102 Today FM is an Irish commercial FM radio station which is available nationally. The station, which commenced broadcasting on Saint Patrick's Day in 1997, can be received nationally and carries a mix of music and talk...
's The Last Word with Matt Cooper
Matt Cooper (Irish journalist)
Matt Cooper is an Irish journalist and presenter of The Last Word on Today FM.Cooper was educated at the North Monastery school and University College Cork. He is a former editor of the Sunday Tribune, appointed in September 1996, as well as a former business editor of the Irish Independent...
(Election special 26 May 2007), when an Irish Times columnist, Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole is a columnist, assistant editor and drama critic for The Irish Times. He has written for The Irish Times since 1988 and was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001. He is a literary critic, historical writer and political commentator, with generally left-wing views...
denied Harris's claims of an Irish Times campaign against Ahern, and accused the Sunday Independent of having its own political agenda, Harris stormed out of the studio mid-debate. During the debate Harris had admitted that the decision to support the Government was taken because "we got what we wanted on stamp duty".
Eoghan Harris's ex-wife, Anne Harris, is deputy editor of the Sunday Independent. In December 2007, Harris married Gwendoline Halley, from Waterford
Waterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
Harris has written about Wikipedia in the Sunday Independent.
Senator
He was nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie AhernBertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008....
, to Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas , which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann . It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members Senators or Seanadóirí . Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by...
on 3 August 2007, serving until April 2011.
Controversies
In 2006, during an RTÉRaidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
Television debate Harris stated that the leaders of the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
were "suicide bombers, I mean suicide terrorists".
Harris was featured on the front cover of the August 2007 edition of Village
Village (magazine)
Village is an Irish current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne. It was launched in October 2004 and was published weekly. In January 2007, it was announced that Village Magazine would be published monthly...
. Inside, Harris was the subject of a number of critical articles written by Vincent Browne
Vincent Browne
Vincent Browne is an Irish print and broadcast journalist. He is a columnist with The Irish Times and The Sunday Business Post and a part time barrister....
.
It was reported in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
(Irish edition) that Harris is at the centre of an internal investigation at the National Film School in Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
, where he lectures. Harris has also incorrectly but accidentally claimed to have received a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
in his entry in 'Who's Who
Who's Who
Who's Who is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on a particular group of people...
' in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, for his documentary Darkness Visible. Harris insisted that he did win the award, saying that the Berlin Film Festival "mustn't keep proper records". The award he actually received is the Prix Futura, awarded at the Berlin Television Festival. He has since corrected the mistake.
On the RTÉ Radio One programme News At One on 3 December 2007, Harris strongly defended Bertie Ahern, saying that the Irish Daily Mail
Irish Daily Mail
The Irish Daily Mail is a newspaper published in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by Associated Newspapers. The paper was launched in February 2006 with a launch strategy that included giving away free copies on the first day of circulation and low pricing subsequently....
was a 'lying newspaper', which practised 'sensationalist, sick journalism' and which had a 'record of fascist appeasement in the 1930s'. He also said that the Mahon Tribunal should be shut down because "there is no natural justice available", and that in ten years time "people will look back and say that the Tribunal time was scoundrel time". The Irish Daily Mail denied his allegations. In a debate with Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole is a columnist, assistant editor and drama critic for The Irish Times. He has written for The Irish Times since 1988 and was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001. He is a literary critic, historical writer and political commentator, with generally left-wing views...
on the RTÉ TV Primetime programme on 4 December 2007, Harris further alleged that "the entire (Mahon) Tribunal is a fantasy of (Tom) Gilmartin".
In another RTÉ related controversy in 2004, Harris was confronted aggressively by an angry viewer, Kilmacud Crokes star Hugh Gannon, regarding the Sunday Independents editorial. This happened after an episode of Questions & Answers, with Gannon implying Harris was a lackey for Tony O'Reilly. Harris reacted angrily to this, dismissed Gannon as a "Shinner" and presenter John Bowman had to step in to separate the two men. Bowman suggested that the men agree to disagree, but Gannon, a former 1998 Leinster minor hurling medallist and staunch Fine Gael supporter, suggested "No. Let's agree that you agree with me."
During a heated interview on the TV3
TV3 Ireland
TV3 is a free-to-air commercial television network in the Republic of Ireland. Launched on 20 September 1998 it was Ireland's first commercial broadcaster. The channel is owned by TV3 Group a subsidiary of Doughty Hanson & Co.-The TV3 Group:...
programme The Political Party with Ursula Halligan
Ursula Halligan
Ursula Halligan is the political editor of Ireland's main independent television station, TV3.A former journalist with RTÉ News and Current Affairs, she joined TV3 at its inception. She previously worked at the Sunday Tribune and Vincent Browne's Magill magazine...
broadcast on 9 December 2007, Harris threatened to walk out because he didn't wish to discuss Bertie Ahern
Bertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008....
's appearances at the Mahon Tribunal any further. He then changed his mind and demanded that the programme be re-recorded, but Halligan informed him that this was impossible. The show was recorded live and therefore could not have been stopped.
Harris has defended the Gaelic Poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh
Cathal Ó Searcaigh
Cathal Ó Searcaigh is an Irish poet who writes in the Irish language .Ó Searcaigh was born in Gort a' Choirce, a town in the Gaeltacht region of Donegal, and lives at the foot of Mount Errigal...
, who admitted buying lavish gifts for and having sex with 16 to 18 year old boys while on charitable visits to Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
. Harris pointed out that Ó Searcaigh was not a paedophile but rather a paederast, a sexual preference which was common among the great philosophers of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, and that the age of consent in Nepal is 16. He also wrote that Nepal is a notoriously homophobic society, and that some of the accusers may have their own agendas.
Sources
- Irish Daily MailIrish Daily MailThe Irish Daily Mail is a newspaper published in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by Associated Newspapers. The paper was launched in February 2006 with a launch strategy that included giving away free copies on the first day of circulation and low pricing subsequently....
– 7 May 2007 - MagillMagillMagill was an Irish politics and current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne and others in 1977. Magill was widely perceived as groundbreaking, specialising in in-depth investigative articles and colourful reportage by journalists such as Eamonn McCann and Gene Kerrigan...
– November 1997 - Sunday IndependentSunday IndependentThe Sunday Independent is a broadsheet Sunday newspaper published in Ireland by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning, and is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin ; average circulation of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005,...
– 11 May 2003 - Sunday IndependentSunday IndependentThe Sunday Independent is a broadsheet Sunday newspaper published in Ireland by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning, and is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin ; average circulation of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005,...
– 23 November 2003 - Sunday Times (Irish edition) – 26 August 2007
External links
- Eoghan Harris at the Sunday Independent