Tony Flannery

It is good to have Frank back on the airwaves, and stating his case for the first time. It has been a horrible few months, where both the members of PAC and a great many media people felt free to write anything they wished about him, and nobody was making any effort to provide balance or to present an alternative point of view. Some of the things that were written about Frank were ludicrous in their inaccuracy, even to such an extent that we occasionally got a good laugh at them.

The schedule of my Speaking Tour in the United States has now been finalised. It covers eighteen cities in one month. The schedule is as follows:
Begins in Washington DC on October 22nd.
Then on to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Providence, Boston, Syracuse, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Memphis (3 day Call to Action conference, at which I am a keynote speaker), Sarasota, San Antonio, St. Louis, Phoenix, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, finishing on November 20th.

I am not a great fan of Garth Brooks, or of big concerts in general. Personally I have no strong feelings about the cancellation of the concerts, though I am sorry for all the people who had bought tickets, and were looking forward to the event. But the circumstances around this cancellation, I believe, highlight something about modern Ireland that I think is particularly unpleasant, and indeed destructive. I refer to the extraordinary level of negativity, how there are invariably people who object to everything and anything that is proposed and who organise opposition to it.