Anthony McIntyre pours scorn on an archbishop's call for RTE to ban a drama not approved by him. 

Some crusty Independent Catholic archbishop has got his knickers in a twist over the Normal People RTE production drama. Given the lifestyles they lead and the crap they spew, archbishops aren’t for the most part normal people so it comes as no great upheaval to discover that the Christian gentleman is unable to reconcile himself to how normal people actually go about their lives. He might long for the "dreary Eden" days of Archbishop John Charles McQuade, but this society is having none of it. 

Bishop Michael Cox is reported to have told some red top rag:


If will be an outrage if RTE go ahead and transmit this … Morally, it’s wrong. Showing a grown man fully naked on TV. It would offend any right-minded human being. Young teenagers will be watching this, even married couples in their own homes.

Heaven forbid – any wonder God has sent Covid-19. Just watch for the spike every time the series goes out. Social distancing nor masks will protect us from the wrath of the Heavenly Hitler if we as much as peek from below the covers at Normal People.

From the emergence of human beings over 200,000 years ago they have fucked - yes that is what normal people do. They fart too, even in church and at funerals. And no cleric of whatever rank has ever managed to stop them performing normal bodily functions or pursuing biological imperatives. Abnormal archbishops might pretend their god in some way helps them avoid or at least cope with those base acts that normal people get up to.

This is the huge problem with the Christian god. After listening to his devotees describe him and the interests they assure us he holds, the image emerges of a huge heavenly willy watcher. In the midst of hunger, poverty, homelessness, drought, war, monumental greed, pandemics, climate catastrophe that invariably stalk some part of the earth at any time, the God fella is primarily concerned with what people do with their dicks. 

What a horrible place Heaven must be: filled with saints who talk all day as if they are leading actors in Reservoir Dogs:

Mr Brown: I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.
Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that?
Mr. White: A lot.

It is the male sexual organ because being a godly sort of guy the big fella doesn’t have an eye for the women. Which might help explain why so many priests are gay. Good for them. They should simply stop telling others that it is a sin to be such.

If Normal People so offends the good archbishop, he doesn’t have to watch it. It is not compulsory. He is not going to be excommunicated by his fellow brethren if he turns his television off, nor will secular society jail him. But that isn’t enough for him. He has to go around telling us that we can’t watch it either. It is a religious imperative that he sticks his nose in where for a host of good reasons it is not wanted. He rarely will be found sticking it in places where it might make some useful change, like challenging injustice against gay people or women seeking autonomy over their own bodies.



Few are gonna listen to clerics pontificate on what is morally right or wrong. They have been found so wanting on issues of morality that any claim they might make to be in a position to provide moral leadership is derisory. An archbishop can no more tell us what to watch based on his bible than I can tell them based on my Stephen King book.

So, the good man of god can go off, find a secluded spot, and flog the bishop to his heart’s content. I don’t mind so long as he is not blocking my view of the TV screen where I shall watch what he insists I should not watch. The only reason in fact that I will watch it.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre

Go Flog The Bishop

Anthony McIntyre pours scorn on an archbishop's call for RTE to ban a drama not approved by him. 

Some crusty Independent Catholic archbishop has got his knickers in a twist over the Normal People RTE production drama. Given the lifestyles they lead and the crap they spew, archbishops aren’t for the most part normal people so it comes as no great upheaval to discover that the Christian gentleman is unable to reconcile himself to how normal people actually go about their lives. He might long for the "dreary Eden" days of Archbishop John Charles McQuade, but this society is having none of it. 

Bishop Michael Cox is reported to have told some red top rag:


If will be an outrage if RTE go ahead and transmit this … Morally, it’s wrong. Showing a grown man fully naked on TV. It would offend any right-minded human being. Young teenagers will be watching this, even married couples in their own homes.

Heaven forbid – any wonder God has sent Covid-19. Just watch for the spike every time the series goes out. Social distancing nor masks will protect us from the wrath of the Heavenly Hitler if we as much as peek from below the covers at Normal People.

From the emergence of human beings over 200,000 years ago they have fucked - yes that is what normal people do. They fart too, even in church and at funerals. And no cleric of whatever rank has ever managed to stop them performing normal bodily functions or pursuing biological imperatives. Abnormal archbishops might pretend their god in some way helps them avoid or at least cope with those base acts that normal people get up to.

This is the huge problem with the Christian god. After listening to his devotees describe him and the interests they assure us he holds, the image emerges of a huge heavenly willy watcher. In the midst of hunger, poverty, homelessness, drought, war, monumental greed, pandemics, climate catastrophe that invariably stalk some part of the earth at any time, the God fella is primarily concerned with what people do with their dicks. 

What a horrible place Heaven must be: filled with saints who talk all day as if they are leading actors in Reservoir Dogs:

Mr Brown: I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.
Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that?
Mr. White: A lot.

It is the male sexual organ because being a godly sort of guy the big fella doesn’t have an eye for the women. Which might help explain why so many priests are gay. Good for them. They should simply stop telling others that it is a sin to be such.

If Normal People so offends the good archbishop, he doesn’t have to watch it. It is not compulsory. He is not going to be excommunicated by his fellow brethren if he turns his television off, nor will secular society jail him. But that isn’t enough for him. He has to go around telling us that we can’t watch it either. It is a religious imperative that he sticks his nose in where for a host of good reasons it is not wanted. He rarely will be found sticking it in places where it might make some useful change, like challenging injustice against gay people or women seeking autonomy over their own bodies.



Few are gonna listen to clerics pontificate on what is morally right or wrong. They have been found so wanting on issues of morality that any claim they might make to be in a position to provide moral leadership is derisory. An archbishop can no more tell us what to watch based on his bible than I can tell them based on my Stephen King book.

So, the good man of god can go off, find a secluded spot, and flog the bishop to his heart’s content. I don’t mind so long as he is not blocking my view of the TV screen where I shall watch what he insists I should not watch. The only reason in fact that I will watch it.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre

6 comments:

  1. Anthony

    I cannot believe that such specimens still exist in Irish society. Had they a modicum of self-awarendess they would realise that the Abortion referendum of 2018 that such posturing falls on a society that is now totally tin-eared to their attempts to control what people do with their bodies.

    You may or may not agree, but I think Ordinary People is the best and most zeitgeist drama to come out of Ireland possibly ever. The backdrop of Ben Bulben of which I have happy memories is good enough reason to watch it.

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  2. The older clerics are quite clearly offended that their place in society as some sort of moral example, has been rightly curtailed due to their actions or inactions regarding the abuse of children.

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  3. Few listen to or heed the church these days. Sadly they have found a new church to tell them what to do and what to think I.e the church of govts.

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  4. Can archbishop farts cure Covid-19? Just askin'.

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  5. I know that this is a serious subject, and of course I agree with the whole argument presented here, but I found this absolutely hilarious - Very Mark Steel !

    Not having live TV I won't be able to watch the programme in question, but after reading this I'll make a point of looking it up on the net.

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  6. I went to a Madonna concert on the hallowed turf of Wembley simply because some functionary in the Vatican opined that in the age when that institution which in practice sets the age of consent at 9 (along with Saudia Arabia and Iran) had the literal power of life and death over us ordinary mortals that Madam Cicionne would have been burned at the stake as a switch.

    When will these self-appointed censors ever learn the law the BBC banned record. Ban it and it becomes this week's Number One in the charts. I rest my case.

    Great show, Mike but that's only my humble opinion.

    ReplyDelete