Thursday, February 13, 2014

Barry Clifford: Batty O Keeffe

Don’t you just love or hate, Batty o Keeffe, former Fianna Fail Minister Of  Education?  Yet it seems that Batty knows very little about education. He said about the former Magdalene Laundries victims this: “The Magdalene laundries were privately –owned and operated establishments which did not come within the responsibility of the State. The State did not refer individuals to the Magdalen laundries nor was it complicit in referring individuals to them.”

Of course today we know that was untrue, and a lie that may damn Batty to hell if he did know then, which I suspect he very much did. All of this posturing by the Magdalene victim bashing Batty was way back in 2009.

Of course I would guess if you were to ask him today has his position altered on the matter and manner of how those poor victims were treated and about their rights as citizens, I guess he would answer: ‘Based on the information we had at the time…..’  Politicians normally learn from each other rather rarely given to original thought in this country and Batty is little different and has come a long way since in not redeeming himself.

Out of a job and politics he ended up being president and chairman of the board of Eden College in Dublin, whose parent company, Eden College International London, is in a right little pickle presently. 

England’s BBC’s Panorma expose has shown fake candidates sitting tests in English and a multiple choice exam where the answers were read out.  The Department of Education here, the one which Batt was once lord and master of, has decided to withdraw recognition of  Batty's new fieldom. Not in compliance and all that stuff I suppose or so they said, but in true batting style, Batty is challenging that decision and believes that his challenge is very strong. Ah, bless him.

Where will Batty go from here is anybody’s guess; when we do know it will be based on the information we had at the time. Until then, good riddance.


By Barry Clifford

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