The seven ages of Noel Browne- RTE 1

Are there any Noel Browne's in the Dail today?

I can't think of anyone.

Surprised there wasn't more feedback on this TV programme as well as discussion on the man in general. An excellent documentary, even if I did find the grainy film bits interspersed with deep and meaningful quotes, between the clips of interviews with Noel and his daughters a bit annoying.

I read Against the Tide almost 30 years ago and remember it being powerful stuff and something to really get you worked up. I pulled it out the other night. Might be time for a reread.

One thing that did occur to me from perusing it, especially in this decade of commemerations, was could the treatment of Browne's mother and family after the demise of his father from TB equally have, in part anyway, anything to do with the fact that he was an ex RIC Sergeant, many of whom were treated abismally by the new state after 1923 and were forced to emigrate or decended into alcoholism. I know he was working for the ISPCC at the time of his death, and this probably contributed to him (and subsequently the rest of the family) catching TB, but the begrudgery and bias of officials in the new state probably didn't help either, no more than their hypcritical attitude towards his son Noel, "the Trinity Catholic" some decades later.

I know, along with the usual cliches referenced by his daughters, about Noel being regarded by many (especially at the instigation of the Church authorities) as a "communist" and therefore evil incarnate. He probably didn't help himself in a lot of situations either by essentially going "against the tide" and was described by some as curmodegonly and argumentative and difficult. But that being said, I think he was incredibly brave and far seeing and principled, traits seldom found to that degree in many of our politicians since, and I doubt a man with a lesser passion or force of personality would have achieved or dared half as much as he did.

I think the documentary kinda skipped over the abolition of the Mother and Child scheme without delving too deep into it beyond the religious objections. I do recall discussing it at the time of reading Against the Tide and learning that just coincidentally, as well as McQuaid's own family, many of the well to do families in Ireland that had a sons in the priesthood also had sons as doctors, and so the cooperations and conspiracy between teh Church and the Irish Medical profession was almost a natural unity of vested interest.

I'm also reminded of McQuaid's absolute hyprocacy in that he allegedly had the largest library of it's kind in Ireland of banned and sexual literature (purely for research purposes of course!) as well as the oft mention suggestions that he may well have been a paedophile or sexual deviant himself, something I seem to recall Browne referring to in discussions with someone else, where he (McQuaid) may well have been caught in action at one point. In any case I can't help but look at his evil countenance now and hope that he is burning in the eternal hell he so warned others about during his tenure as a preist and archbishop.

In conclusion, I would concur with others in the wake of the programme, that Noel Browne deserves to be commemerated by the country that he served so well and gave so much to. Even the fact that his Robert Ballagh portrait in the posession of the national gallery is currently in storage with "no current plans for its public display" is a demonstration of the begrudgery and hypocracy that persists even to this day about one of Ireland's great politicans of the Independence era.

I thought the caller on Gaybo LLS, who apologized for tearing down his election posters, 'cos the nuns said he was a communist and to tell her parents not to vote for him, was incredible. Is there a monument/plaque/named bridge/public statue of him in Ireland?