By Cormac MacConnell

THIS column is a fanfare of praise and support for one of our readers. His name is Kieran Steele, he lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and he writes as well as reads because I spotted his letter in the Irish Voice issue dated March 22-28 in relation to the screening of the dreadful Father Ted series on public service TV in New Jersey.

Well done Kieran Steele. Here is one reader (in this case) who agrees with every comma of what you wrote. And I’m sure there are many more.

Incidentally, to digress but slightly, the surname Steele over here, in my experience, is almost invariably attached to men and women of substance and principle. The most of the Steeles I have encountered were from the province of Leinster, often Dublin or Kildare.

They always seemed to be equipped with skilful hands, especially in relation to working wood and metals (steel?) and one of them, Johnny Steele from Maynooth, could craft fiddles nearly as good as Strads.

I’ve just had a quick scan, Kieran, of the North Munster telephone directory and see there are three Steeles listed, two in Kerry and one in Limerick. There’s good stuff in you.

There is a Steele’s Terrace in Galway City, as I remember, and one of the best known landmarks in the town of Ennis is Steele’s Rock, in the river near the Abbey. A lad of that name pined away to death sitting on the rock because the lady he loved was prevented from marrying him by her family as far as I know. It’s there anyway, a testimony to the spiritual quality and fidelity of the Steele clan.

Kieran, of course you are right in objecting to the screening of Father Ted on a taxpayer funded TV channel. You know, naturally, that you and I are in a minority of this one.

That does not make us wrong. We are right.

Father Ted was immensely popular here in Ireland when it was running and I got myself into trouble several times by raising my objecting voice (and laptop) against it.

At a shallow and vulgar level it may be humorous for some (and it clearly is) but in my view, coming from a slightly different stance than yourself, it is dreadful paddywhackery.

This is the kind of series that reinforces the often still very negative image of the Irish in other cultures. It is degrading to priests. It is degrading to rural Irish folk.

It is reductive right across the scale. You are 100% accurate in your view, Kieran.

I regret that the location for the series shoots were in Clare, in the Kilfenora area. I always switched it off, as a matter of principle, after seeing the first episode featuring idiots, crude humor, naked alcoholic priests and a totally thin and predictable storyline.

We are supposed to be a witty race. In many ways we are. It is remarkable, however, that this quality is never properly represented either on the stage or on screen.

Our “funny” series are poor with rare exceptions, and our standup comedians, again with rare exceptions, are not much better.

I exclude Brendan Grace from this criticism and the early work of the D’Unbelievables was also excellent. There is a Donegal comic called Conal Gallen who is also good but, typically, being from the provinces, Conal does not get much national exposure.

On the other hand the Dublin comic Brendan O’Carroll, who trades in blue material, is omnipresent on the box. And reductive paddywhackery like Father Ted and a show called Ballykissangel, which I believe has also aired in the U.S., become hits against this background.

I’m on a hobbyhorse now, Kieran, like you are. I believe that the comic that can be entertaining without being blue or vulgar, going down the gutter for the punchlines, is infinitely a better craftsman and entertainer than the man or woman who tells the kind of crude stories teenage boys tell each other. That’s my bottom line on this.

And sadly, like you most likely, I’m certainly in a minority here. Do you know that the big hit on national TV in Ireland at the moment is a puppet show called the Podge and Rodge Show?

It features two hideous rubber puppets, a young female co-presenter whose name I forget, and the most vulgar language and storylines you ever heard in your life. And it is going down a bomb. They are mad for it all over Ireland.

Were I an English journalist over here, writing a piece about Ireland and the Irish, I could not avoid either seeing or hearing about this Podge and Rodge and, beyond any doubt, would be quite likely shocked by the content and language. It is filthy, cheap stuff, abusive and low.

Almost certainly it will be marketed abroad. Possibly it will be running in New Jersey next winter and you, Kieran, will be moved to write to the Irish Voice again on this subject. And please do because it is worth standing up to be counted on this front.

I bet you are no prude, no more than I am. I bet that you can enjoy an earthy yarn, well told, as well as the next man.

I bet you probably have a few yourself and a natural sense of which ones can be told in which company — and which can not and should not. It is the disgusting plunge below that line of sensibility and good manners, both on TV and live on stage here, which is reflected by our export of TV tripe like Father Ted and, for certain, its even more objectionable successor.

It’s quite likely, Kieran, that our editor will have letters critical of your stand and mine in some upcoming issue. Let them be as water off a duck’s back. Good luck, well done, and thanks.