It's not, admittedly, along Headless Body in Topless Bar in the pantheon of great headline writing, but our recent 'Culture Of Entitlement Senator Feels Entitled To All-Ireland Tickets' was among our favourite headers to write recently.
In case you've been out of the loop, or took the pragmatic approach of avoiding stories of politicians talking about sport because they usually find a way of ruining it, Mayo Senator Michelle Mulherin has complained of the fact she has not been granted a pair of All-Ireland tickets, and even took the step of writing a letter to Pauric Duffy. Mulherin has previously complained of the "culture of entitlement" created by the Irish social welfare system.
Mulherin then tried to defend her stance by dressing it up as a kind of political and social crusade, using the third person to tell Mary Wilson on Drivetime that "this isn't about Michelle Mulherin. This is about a change of policy of the GAA at Croke Park which is discriminating against senators in the houses of the Oireachtas".
We have no idea if the GAA discriminate against members of the Seanad, an organisation once memorably described as having the same level of social impact and rhetoric as the Irish Times Letters' Page.
Improbably, Ms. Mulherin has found some support for her activism, with fellow Fine Gael senator and Mayo native Catherine Noone also writing to Pauric Duffy to complain about her not being given tickets.
Like Mulherin, Noone has faced criticism since her stance was made public, so she took to a Fine Gael WhatsApp group (heavens above) to justify her position, per today's Irish Independent:
The fact is they [the GAA] provided two tickets any other time I asked and I think it's fair enough to question that.
I was a bit taken aback and wrote a short email, that's the extent of it. I just looked for a ticket some place else. This kind of publicity is embarrassing and I didn't seek it.
The best part of this is the next line. Here is the direct quote from Niall O'Connor's piece:
Ms Noone said she "did not seek to be in the papers" - despite contacting this newspaper directly to express her annoyance at the GAA.
Magnificent. The report also includes a few lines on Ms Noone's previous acts of social activism;. These include an attempt to outlaw Mixed Martial Arts as she believed it to be a "vile so-called sport", and - briefly stepping away from the sporting arena - has in the past described the tinkling music of ice-cream vans as "aggressive".
Read the full article on the Indo's website here.
