Let’s keep that cradle rocking

In The Southern Star office on Tuesday afternoon, there was a small, limited debate on what then-Catherine, now-President-Connolly, would wear. The boys professed not to care but then joined in; at least one couldn’t help wondering if it would be blue, to turn the screw on the defeated.

This writer thought red as it probably suits her colouring, but then remembered the possible Labour connotations. Another, younger pup thought purple; it was a depressing moment when this old dog said no, that’s what Mrs Robinson wore and was met with a blank face.

She didn’t know what we were talking about; too young.

Had no clue of the iconic purple outfit that our first female president wore in that famous shot of her inauguration, surrounded by a ‘pale, stale, and male’ cohort.

Same situation with the word ‘Saipain’. A blank look, suffused with pity at the old decaying creature in front of them, full of cultural references they don’t understand and stupid questions about how TikTok works.

Rejoice though, in that anyone under 30 doesn’t really ‘get’ how big a deal Mary Robinson was and is. It’s a good thing, that it is no longer remarkable to have a woman at the top and even writing these words feels a bit cheap, to reduce President’s Connolly’s primary status and achievements to that of her gender.

Mary Coughlan spoke on Tuesday morning about the many young people (25 to 35) who went to see her perform at The Button Factory for the ‘Connolly Céilí, and how they said she ‘speaks to us’.

It’s so vital that these young people stay engaged with politics now, and that the parties keep their interest into the next general and local elections. (As an aside, from the pallour of Micheál on Tuesday we might be seeing one of those things a little sooner rather than we thought).

It’s important because they do not remember ‘rock the cradle, rock the system’. They do not remember having to quit their jobs because they got married, and they do not remember being hit in school for being left-handed.

Those that do remember aren’t dead yet, but they (we) have a recollection and a view of the country that is different to theirs.

They need to stay awake, and listen to what the pale, (fe)male, and stale are saying and not saying, so they can decide and direct where this country is going and what it looks like when it gets there.

Forgot your password?

Speaking of tragic boomers and millennials, the fact that the Louvre CCTV password is ‘LOUVRE’ is magnificent. Magnifique, in fact.

We’ve written here before with little sympathy for those who drip in diamonds, but to lose those diamonds in the most prosaic and fumbling way is so very endearing.

In 2017, Bill Burr admitted to The Wall Street Journal that he had made a mistake.

Dear old Bill had written the book, literally, on ‘safe, secure passwords’ with capital letters, special characters, etcetera, Etcetera$123.

His well-meaning advice became unstuck as people wrote down their now-impossible-to-remember passwords.

Bill didn’t steal the Louvre diamonds, but may have led indirectly to their theft. What a legacy.