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MIKE MCCORMACK’S MULTI-AWARD-WINNING novel Solar Bones gets a lot of attention for being, essentially, one long sentence.
But just as what could be a gimmick isn’t really a gimmick (the structure makes so much sense readers recoil at the thought of it being conventionally written), it’s also not what its author sees as the most radical part of this particular piece of fiction.
“Everyone talks about the experimental nature of the book, and they always talk about the lack of punctuation and the way the story unfolds, and they see that as the experimental nature of the book. I’m not so certain that that is the experimental part of the book,” Mayo-born McCormack tells TheJournal.ie, as we sit down to discuss the fact his novel has just won the prestigious €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award.
“What I think is the greatest experiment in the book is: Here’s a book about a happy family, a middle class engineer who has no worries and who loves his wife and his kids and who has no material want. Now, make a novel out of that.”
McCormack laughs a small laugh. It feels like he’s laughing at himself for having the audacity to attempt such a feat in the first place, but it’s a laugh of relief too. For Solar Bones is the little book that could, a book that was rejected again and again and again until two women behind a small Irish independent publishing house – Tramp Press – were so moved by it they told McCormack (by this stage no doubt presuming the book was a dud) they wanted to publish it themselves.
That was some decision. The latest award joins the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards’ Novel of the Year and Book of the Year awards on his award-stuffed mantelpiece, alongside his long-listing for the Man Booker Prize.
For those who have read and fallen for the marrow of Solar Bones, the fact Tramp Press (Lisa Coen and Sarah Davis-Goff) fell for it is a no-brainer. The book is so full of emotion, of life, of love, that it’s almost an overwhelming read. You even find yourself moved by descriptions of what mundane everyday work as a civil engineer is like. It’s the sheer ordinariness of the protagonist Marcus Conway’s life, and how he clutches every part of it so close to him, that punches you hardest in the gut.
Marcus is an everyman. But he’s no trope. He is so unique and so himself while also – in what feels like a contradiction – being so distinctly Irish, so distinctly from the West of Ireland that you realise you must know men like him.
“I think it’s just it sounds as dull as ditchwater - there’s no murder, there’s no drama,” says McCormack of the everyday elements to the book’s plot. “I thought that was the greater experiment at the heart of the book.”
Men and women
Mike McCormackSource: Chris Bellew/ Fennell PhotographyI put it to him the book is about masculinity, and a certain type of modern Irish man, one who isn't afraid of his emotions.
He agrees, saying that when the book was finished, he looked at it and thought "yeah, that's a portrait of various aspects of masculinity - the dad, the son, the father, the lover, the engineer".
"But you know... here's the thing, there was something about the book that continues to baffle me and that is that once the book was written, women became the hero of the book," he adds. His wife, artist Maeve Curtis, was the first reader, his agent Marianne Gunn O'Connor told him it was the best thing he'd ever given her, and the two women at Tramp Press gave the book new life.
Why McCormack finds this notable is because at first, men just didn't connect with the book at all. After his agent, it fell into the hands of male editors. "They baulk, they lose their nerve... two of them did bring it to acquisitions meetings at major publishers, failed to get it across the line, other men, accountants [didn't connect with it]," recalls McCormack.
And so: enter two Tramps. Enter two women, and they take up the book.
He worries it sounds patronising to say that women are the heroes of the book - "but it's just historical fact, that the people who got on side of the book immediately were four women. I can't explain that, all I can do is just point it out to you."
McCormack learned that "the publishing industry underestimates the willingness of readers to go on adventures".
McCormack is comfortable writing about the lives of men. His own father died when he was barely an adult, and so the topic of fathers is one that he has untangled with his pen. He became a dad himself the day he sent Solar Bones off to his agent.
"In an incident you wouldn't chance as a fiction writer, [my father] went out one night for a pint and a man had a heart attack beside him in a pub and died," says McCormack of his dad's untimely passing. "And he went to his funeral two nights later and came home and had a heart attack and died. He was in his mid forties."
The fathers he writes about are generally decent men, he says, "not sullen, aggressive/passive-aggressive that we're led to believe from a certain scheme of Irish fiction is the way the masculine father, the way the father figure is written".
Marcus Conway is no silent, brooding father. He's an expressive one.
"It doesn't present itself that way to me, it's probably because of a lot of wishful thinking on my own behalf - wishing for still, at the age of 50-something, wishing for a kindly dad."
Fortune favours the bold
McCormack was speechless when told he had won the Dublin Literary Award, to the point where he had to hang up on Lisa Coen of Tramp Press in order to let the news settle inside him.
"I'm surprised at how bowled over I was, I wasn't one bit blasé about it, I was completely stunned about it," he says.
It means a whole lot to me. It's two years since it was published and we're still talking about it. Usually books have a shelf life of three, four months or something - they say it's between bread and yogurt.
He considers himself fortunate, saying that it's all about "your book falling into the right hands at the right moment".
"It fell into the right people's hands, they went with it, they had great faith in it. They also had great faith in the public," he says of Tramp. He describes them as "fearless".
The book had gone through so many hands and people were moaning and griping and pissing about various aspects of it. Oh yeah. Marianne, my agent, still won't tell me how many people turned it down.
It's been a long and unevenly paved road to reach this point for McCormack, and there's still tarmac ahead of him. The beginning of his writing career was smooth: great reviews of his short stories. Then his long-awaited first novel came out, and the cobbles started tripping him up.
"Still to this day it's got the worst review of any book I've read," says McCormack of his debut novel Forensic Songs. "You take these things on the chin."
There were "years literally where I couldn't give a book away", he says. Years where the thought of winning €100k must have seemed like a fever dream. But he says that he wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's ok, we got through, it's fine."
He learned a few things, though, about how to survive when your career is at a point you really don't want it to be at.
"Nothing quite prepares you for that desert campaign that you need in which to soldier on and keep going and everything like that.
"When it's going well you think it will go forever but I'm now old enough to know that and I'm now [experienced] enough to know that these highs won't last forever, so you have to run with them and enjoy them when they're here."
'Our experimental instincts have been woken again'
Ask McCormack about the current condition of Irish fiction and he sits up straight in order to tell you exactly what he thinks. Chiefly, he is full of admiration for the generation just behind him.
"Our experimental instincts have been woken again," he says. "The generation behind me are writing things which are formally and thematically more interesting." He highlights the work of people like Lisa McInerney, Claire Louise Bennett, Rob Doyle, and Donal Ryan.
Why this new resurgence in experimentalism? "One of the reasons for that is they've grown up without the Celtic Tiger and there's something about that. And they look back and see that shambles and they say 'fuck it, the old ways didn't serve us very good'," says McCormack.
He believes, too, that being nurtured by Irish editors has served them well, as Irish writers don't have to feel like they're in translation.
"It shocked me to sit with Lisa Coen on Solar Bones and not have to translate myself and not have to explain myself as I would have to do: context, nuance, idiom, all that sort of thing," says McCormack. "It was a real shock to me to see just how readily we do translate ourselves."
He says that Tramp Press are a generation younger than him, so he benefited from their access to writers like McInerney, Louise O'Neill, and Rob Doyle, who championed Solar Bones online. "I'm so amazed by it and really grateful."
The book has sold steadily - "it's never gotten anywhere near the bestelling list or anything like that", says McCormack. He's grateful to Tramp, but he's also grateful to Marcus Conway.
"There's been a sign out in my imagination for a long, long time and it says 'engineer wanted'. An engineer shows up here, there's work for them. So Marcus came forward," says McCormack.
Now that he's won this latest prize, the author - who has long taught creative writing - is able to work on his next project. "It frees up time to write other books because that's what writers do when they get money. They go away and write another book," he says of the €100k prize.
"That's our livelihood and that's our condition and that's what we do and this prize... actually, people should take note of how imaginative this prize is, there's nothing like it in the world. That's why I'm so proud to win it."
It's unsullied by any corporate involvement. Our civil society doesn't always get it right but it's important to recognise it when it does get it right.
Right place, right time, right writer, right prize. Now to await what McCormack brings to us next.
Solar Bones is out now.
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He’d be damned either way. I think changing your mind based on the best available medical/ professional evidence is a good thing. Opinions based around religious/ moral arguments are very different.
@Honeybadger197: that is if you are a Fine Gael loyalist who don’t like politicans with the courage of their convictions. Lots of people will have voted for Coveney to represent them because of his seemingly strong pro-life views in the last general election…he betrayed those voters.
@Honeybadger197: whilst I agree wholeheartedly with you, opinions based on religious /moral arguments are no different in the eyes of those that hold them….. There’s the problem.
@Oliver Klozov: We will all get a chance to express our own views at the referendum ballot. If his supporters feel he has betrayed them then they will act accordingly at the next ballot too.
@Oliver Klozov: are you sure that ‘lots of people’ voted for him on that issue ? Nah.I doubt it.
Maybe someday you’l get over it
@Oliver Klozov: Sorry, but are you serious? We are all entitled to change our minds on something, this isn’t to do with politics.
@Nathan Hayes: the problem is – has he changed his mind? Did Simon Harris “change his mind” ? Or were they just lying to pro life voters in the first place?
Changing ones mind is perfectly acceptable. But a 28/29 year old (Harris) swearing blind he is staunchly pro life to pro life voters then doing a total 180 and becoming the voice of repeal and legislate – we’ll that’s conversion on the road to Damascus territory. I simply don’t believe it. Lying for votes and he should be answerable for that.
I don’t believe Coveney either.
Hopefully both will get punished for it in the next election. Though I doubt it.
He is a loon. End of. His u-turns and ineffectiveness in every portfolio he has held makes one wonder how on Earth he is where he is. I think he is way out of his depth and simply not good enough. I watch his actions and squirm for him. Not got the nous to be a politician despite his DNA.
@Oliver Klozov: agree and he knew the answer before he put the two thirds majority questions, trying to make it look like he tried all he could. One last thing he only got in the last time by the skin of his teeth. He better hope there’s not an election soon.
@Honeybadger197: If his supporters feel he has betrayed them then they will act accordingly at the next ballot too.
Of that you can be sure of.
@Honeybadger197: don’t agree. How can we believe that Covney did not know that what he proposed was unconstitutional ? It’s obviously some sort of political move and stinks to high heaven
@Nathan Hayes: it has everything to do with politics
@David Clarke: Thankfully he won’t be able to ‘kick the can’ when it comes to the next GE. Transfers got him in by the skin of his teeth at the last GE.
@Oliver Klozov: If people are voting for politicians purely because of their opinion on abortion then they are doing it wrong.
@Honeybadger197: he’s has years to make up his mind and know which side of the fence he was going sit on
That photo of him at the top of the article scratching his head says a thousand words.
@Oliver Klozov: Never saw “The Catholic Vote” actually show significance in a GE here “Oliver”, but dream on. You seem well disposed to fantasies.
Spineless Simon has proven that his position on this life and death issue cannot be trusted. He could be one more journey away from a more extreme position than Ruth Coppinger for all we know.
@Oliver Klozov:
The longer the explanation the bigger the lie.
@Oliver Klozov: I suspect Mr Coveney has trouble tying his laces in the morning. Not exactly the brightest of his family, and would never be in politics only for being gifted a seat from his late father. Only in Ireland could such a cerebrally-misfortune become the second most powerful politician in the country.
@Dr Richard DeWitt: Really? “Only” in Ireland.
I raise you George W. Bush.
@Christy Nolan: so what?
@Christy Nolan: It’s good to lie about people isn’t it Christy? By “persistent d&d” you mean ‘caught drinking once’ and “going Awol” you meant to say he organised a beach party in Sutton, nobody showed up and they slept in a church doorway. http://www.rte.ie/radio1/miriam-meets/programmes/2010/0228/346759-280210/
@Honeybadger197:
He was given more than one warning about being drunk and disorderly (D&D)
Read his brother’s account of Simon’s antics.
@Christy Nolan: Why don’t you share that account here then? You seem a bit hard on a young teenager, no? Maybe after that you can explain what relevance it has to the article. Thanks in advance.
@Honeybadger197:
I see you have chosen to use the RTE report. Do your homework and read all the other reports.
It’s amazing that Ansbacher, Moriarty Tribunal, Clongowes, Probate, Sudden loss of life and Financial problems, etc, etc, crop up when investigating the family name of Coveney. It’s all there in Black and White.and not a lie in it.
‘On Monday night, Coveney called for the inclusion of a two-thirds majority lock that would be enacted if the Eighth Amendment is repealed.
Yesterday Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the proposal as “unconstitutional”.
It’s understood that the Tánaiste did not brief the Taoiseach about his proposal before floating the idea.’
How could you trust this man when he lost the run of himself and proceeded with trying to go against his leader [sic] with the above ludicrous idea of altering the percentage required to pass a referendum?
@Christy Nolan: I used the RTE report because they specifically showed you were exaggerating your attack on a then teenager, for no appreciable reason.
@Dr Richard DeWitt: It’s very easy to be downright nasty, isn’t it? You should withdraw and apologise for those disgusting comments, but I doubt you’re man enough to do it -,whoever you are.
“we have got yesterday now from the Minister of Heath – which is a very strict and detailed protocol”
Does he realise they have just copied the extreme British system where upwards of 205,000 babies are aborted every year?
@Oliver Klozov: do you even know what The Abortion Act 1967 and The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 & The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 state? What’s being proposed here is nowhere near what’s available in Britain.
Some are the burned, I’m sure Spineless Simon can’t be too far from “evolving” to this position.
“Aborted babies incinerated to heat UK hospitals”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/15/aborted-babies-incinerated-to-heat-uk-hospitals/
This is the society Varadkar and Coveney want for us.
@Oliver Klozov:80% of abortions are carried out before and during the 9th week of pregnancy.What is removed from the woman’s womb is a pea sized,non sentient & non viable embryo..How is that a “baby” ?
@Oliver Klozov: old link.What is happening there now?
@Oliver Klozov: so that’s a no. You decided that rather than inform yourself it would be more effective to repeat sensationalist lie and ridiculous horror stories….?
@Oliver Klozov: that link is absolutely shocking
@Pat Bateman: that is what happens when societies embrace abortion which devalues life and dehumanises babies.
@Oliver Klozov: to be honest, il be voting yes myself, reluctantly, but that link is disgusting. The development of a baby at 12 weeks is too much in my opinion which is the only part I have doubts about. It would have my full support if it was in cases of rape, potential harm to the mother, or fatal foetal abnormalities. But unfortunately they can’t be seperated so to vote to help women in those three extremes, a yes vote is the only way.
@yes to repeal the 8th: How is it heating a hospital??
Tanaiste I would say has trouble every morning deciding which shoe he should put on first! Not exactly leadership potential.
@Adrian: He chooses then the Indo to write in, and Newstalk for his interview with fellow FG fan, Pat Kenny. Oh, and who owns shares in both media outlets?
He said he changed his mind after talking to the health minister Simon Harris.. I got that far and nearly spat out my cornflakes.. So journalists are the experts now on whether its OK to kill a baby before 12 weeks.. Let’s face it, FG changed their opinions when the opinion polls changed. Not one of them has a backbone. They can’t think for themselves
@David Garland: So NOW you care what the experts say?
All the actual medical experts that spoke in the Committee that quite firmly came down on the side of repealing the 8th Amendment.
The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said it supports the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution that article 40.3.3 be removed from the Constitution.
But you have no interest in what those ACTUAL experts say, instead you throw in BS claims about “journalists” and the Health Minister.
Your utter hypocrisy is showing.
@David Garland: you missed out the bit about consulting with clinicians, he got the facts and made his decision from professionals in the field.
@Brian Madden: that’s rubbish Brian. For that to be true he would have had to ignore his issue his whole adult and political life as well as all the deliberations in the citizens assemble and the committee and at cabinet.
It’s simply not credible that he suddenly woke up in the last two days and went “Oh! I see! Wow – I never knew that…well in that case…”
Politicians lying to win votes and approval is a far more serious and wider reaching problem than whether someone supports abortion or not.
I’m staunchly in favour of repeal but firmly believe both Harris and Coveney (and Martin) should be punished for basically flip flopping and lying to their constituents to win votes.
@Brian Madden:
So why didn’t he ‘consult with clinitians’ before he made his moral stand a few weeks ago?
There were always questions regarding Coveney’s intelligence; after yesterday’s performance regarding his lack of constitutional understanding, we are left in no doubt: the guy is an intellectual lightweight.
@Stephen Adam: will you be voting yes Stephen?
@Brian Madden: No you missed the bit where I said I got as far as when consulted with Simon Harris. That said enough for me..
@Brian Madden: I will indeed be voting yes and have thought the 8th was a disgrace for a very very long time. If I could be informed on it from my early 20s how is it that Harris and Varadkar and Coveney all mature men in government – not to mention Martin – have all had sudden changes of heart?
The facts haven’t changed in 40 years. Not really. This issue has been debated to death for a generation.
The 8th needs to go but it’s only one issue plaguing the country. Lying flip/flopping politicians affect every single issue from housing to the health service to the economy and it simply shouldn’t be tolerated.
@Tricia G: I never said I cared what the experts said, did you even read my comment before you got up on your high horse? I said its laughable that he changed his mind based on what a journalist said to him. You do know before Simon Harris became a TD he was a journalist? Try and keep up..
@Stephen Adam:Hear hear Stephen a lot of people just ignoring their lies.
Time to let Irish women have safe,legal medical abortions in their own country.
He was anti-abortion when he thought it would be popular among his constituents.
He is now pro-choice because thanks to his barely scraping through at the last election he cannot alienate young voters who are predominantly pro-choice.
Simon Coveney is a man entirely without integrity.
As minister for housing he told a barefaced lie that he would end homeless families in B&Bs by June 30th 2017. He made a specific promise that he would do this.
A week before his dismal failure to achieve his promise he was promoted to Minister for Foreign Affairs which just shows how Fine Gael rewards lying and failure.
Hardly surprising – he is after all a man who has never held a proper job before inheriting his Daddy’s job through nepotism. He was sailing in his yacht in the Galapagos Islands when news reached him that he needed to go home.
Has Simon Coveney ever benefited from the monies that were ‘resting’ in his Dad’s Ansbacher accounts?
Denies doing U turn?? Is he for real. Advocating zero protection for the unborn baby is a position that will certainly come back to haunt him once the referendum is rejected.
The proposed legislation which would be subject to further liberalization gives the go ahead for abortion up to full term if there is any risk or any small genetic anomaly present. That is just so wrong. A cleft pallet, will that show up in a scan as grounds for terminating a baby?
Also they say the proposal is 12 weeks and GP will decide. How does the GP decide given they don’t have the scanning equipment. That question was put to Coveney on radio this morning and he said that it would be up to the discretion of the GP. So really babies could be aborted 13,14,15,16,17,18,19 weeks aswell is it Simon.
Vote NO for me.
@Pconor: The size of the uterus can be assessed by pelvic examination or by abdominal palpation (without ultrasound equipment). Out of interest; how did you image doctor used to date pregnancies before the invention of ultrasounds etc?
@Karen Wellington: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/expert-answers/fundal-height/faq-20057962
Please read the article above. What you state is by no means an exact science as stated in the article.
What you suggest proves my point that a GP could give the go ahead to abort a baby well past the 12 weeks. 15,16,18 weeks?
@Pconor: did you read that link? Did you understand it? The possible inaccuracies you’re referring to would result in a foetus being assessed as older than it is, not younger. This would mean that women still within the first 12 weeks of their pregnancy could be denied access to abortion services, and not as you are suggesting that she could claim the foetus is at 10 weeks development when it’s actually at 15,16,17,etc.
@Karen Wellington: I think you need to ‘re read it again and focus on the ‘it’s by no means an exact science’ part.
2 or 3 weeks either way the GP won’t know, hence this measurement you are advocating is not accurate.
Let me give you a scenario:
A woman who is 15weeks pregnant and says she is 12 in order to proceed with a termination. Say her baby is smaller (for any number of reasons in the article), the GP will assume she is 3months pregnant and give approval to abort the baby.
What about the right to Life of the nearly 4month old baby?
@Pconor: so you didn’t understand it, ok, at least I know what level if comprehension you have.
Do you think doctors operate solely on assumptions and never ever bother with referrals?
Do you know the difference between a medical abortion and a surgical abortion? Obviously not, look it up and tell me that women and doctors are stupid enough to expect a medical abortion to be effective and result in zero complications in the second trimester.
@Pconor: do you really think a cleft palate would ever be classed as a fatal foetal abnormality? if you do, there’s no talking to you.
@Pconor: Well you won’t be forced to have an abortion if you don’t want one so why worry about it affecting you?
No matter what side of the debate you are on the tainiste made a dogs dinner of this. This will make the repeal case of repeal and leave it to politicians to decide look very unstable.
@doorhandler: no it won’t. One silly man flip flops? You think all the black jumpers are going to have doubts now. In 2 months this will be forgotten about.
Is changing your mind the biggest scandal you can get involved in in politics? So what if he changed his mind. Isn’t it better than stubbornness we see in other politicians who nail their colors to the mast early and come hell or high water won’t change their mind regardless of facts that come to light in d mean time. I am no FG or Coveney fan but I commend his courage on this. It is such an important decision for all people in this country including politicians and we should all be allowed make our judgment as we see fit.
@jonathon carroll:
Changing your mind against public opinion is indeed courageous.
However, it is only courageous if done for the right reasons.
Coveney did this to protect his political skin.
Nothing courageous in that.
@Charles Alexander: I firmly believe if people raise their own standards of consideration it is not a question of changing their minds but a more balanced and humane view. I health minister is driven by the conviction it is a ‘healthcare’ issue however the judiciary of this country can’t have it both ways where laws designed to protect bad people from doing worse including murder will be diluted by laws which allow extermination policies as a right.
The referendum is being optimized for a youth vote , the Oireachtas report diminishes Mother/ Developing Child to woman/pregnancy or woman/fetus and the rush to push this through is a spectacle in itself. This is our brexit – an ill-thought out affair to push through something that people would become more adverse to with time.
@Gerald Kelleher:
Agreed and well put.
@jonathon carroll: it’s amusing how many people on the left now say “Coveney looked at the evidence and changed is position accordingly… great leadership and maturity to change his mind base on facts…” etc etc.
That’s fair enough but you could equally say the Labour Party changed their mind on water charges in 2011 once they looked at the evidence and made a policy turn based on the facts ( or massive national debt) before them?? Mature and sensible?
Didn’t hear that argument then oddly enough!
Not a labour voter btw, bunch of eejit a in my opinion buts it’s amusing how hypocritical some people are when an agenda suits them.
@Charles Alexander: well said
It’s amazing what a few quid from Soros can do for one’s opinion…
@Damien Mooney: HAHAHAHAHA! Seriously where is all this money George Soros is funnelling to us Pro-Choice supporters?
If I could just crack the case I might finally be able to buy that unicorn I’ve always wanted………. which is about as real as the nonsensical idea that the bogeyman Soros is out to “destroy us with abortions for all!!!”
@Tricia G: it’s behind the scenes. You don’t really think he’s handing out wads of cash at Repeal marches?
I listened to part of the interview on Newstalk and it was the sound of a person who was really uncomfortable with the new direction and even let it slip that it was an issue between mother and doctor instead of the usual woman and doctor, after all, what mother kills and puts herself before her child.
The notable change is that an extermination policy is being promoted as ‘healthcare’ so the referendum is not a pro-life vs pro-choice question and answer but rather whether the Irish are prepared to deceive themselves using language originally designed for humane purposes.
It is criminally irresponsible to use an alternative expression for pregnancy (fetus) and direct it towards the life in the womb in order to terminate that life. It is cheap, it is cruel and primitive turn it what way you will -
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fetus#Latin
People can admire the sly use of language to accomplish the objective of extermination but they may also visit the death camps and discover how a society in the 20th century acquiesced to dehumanizing language in order to obliterate a European culture among them. When ‘healthcare’ become extermination policy then we know we have arrived at an awful place in our island’s history.
He’s entitled to change his mind, but he shouldn’t be trying to deny that he did.
He really is making a pigs ear of it.
Coveny is becoming the new dick dasterdly ,he does not understand neutrality ,he does not understand, every unborn childs natural right to life .a man without principles is a boat without a rudder .
@Anthony Gallagher: maybe he understands a woman’s right to choose?
@Nathan Hayes: if you think that’s why he did this you’re deluded. He’s in his 40s – you really think he woke up last week, slapped his forehead and went “my god I’ve been wrong on this the whole time!”
He’s trying to have his cake and eat it. Trying to hedge his bets. And it’s blown up in his face. That’s what happens when you play face saving politics with important issues.
Pro life or pro choice – politicians like Harris Varadkar Martin and Coveney lying to keep seats is a massive problem facing this country.
@Anthony Gallagher: .. and a woman without a choice is forced over to England.
@Nathan Hayes: more like how can he prolong his tenure in office
Not fooling anyway…if something was white they’d say it was purple
@Tony Skillington: i think they’d say its green.
Why the dramatic phrase ‘u-turn’? He just changed his views.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: haha semantics sean
Full about turn Simon..
Try fool electorate..
Seemed to be efford to sway undecided voters….If Tanaiste can move to yes side then ok for conservative undecided voters…..However it has backfired on issue of trusting the Dail with rules for abortion….Damaged his chances to succeed Leo as FG leader….
If we don’t allow our politicians to change their minds then there is no hope of progress.
@Conor Paddington:
Yes but because of his dodgy background (all those unanswered questions from the Moriarty Tribunal about his Dad’s finances; his dismal failure as Minister for Housing) and the fact that he never held a job until he inherited his career through nepotism, simply indicates that nothing he says can be trusted.
Simon Coveney is a symbol of failure,.
@Conor Paddington: “progress” ? why is killing and aborting human children to death in their mothers womb considered to be “progress” ?
it’s medieval barbarism, for which we should be ashamed.
the politicians who bravely opposed this referendum showed real courage in the DAIL. If children die because of this referendum, the politicians who promoted deserve the full blame.
Vote NO to “trusting ” politicians with unborn childrens lives.
When is a u-turn not a u-turn,when a politician says so,and the public are supposed to trust this crowd.for the sake of you’re children,grandchildren,and theirs,get ff,fg,and labour out of politics.
Turncoat Coveney all over the place!
Coveney has really messed up here
No it was a full 360 degree turn around
What way is the wind blowing today, Simon?
Whipped boy!
Who cares? He changed his mind, just like plenty of others as more information has been given. At the end of the day, his vote only counts for one
Good luck in the next election ,you’ll need it . People wont be buying into your horse shite lies again .
Nothing will be nailed down so why vote at all it will mean nothing
unborn children will die in abortions because the Fine Gael pro aborts did not oppose the media backed, pro abortion lobby.
Only keeping the 8th can save those childrens lives now.
Dump Varadker, Harris, Doherty — the Fine Gael pro abortion clique out of office.
have your say