"Some Nazis had fled to Ireland after the war. The big Irish schoolbook company was founded by a Nazi.That was another reason the education system was bullshit" he said.The quote is from Paul Murray's latest novel "The Bee Sting" and it is uttered by a vacuous youth trying to impress his girlfriend when he finally managed to get his tongue out of her mouth.
Those of us who have been around for some time can't but know who is meant here. And the rest of ye can work it out without using up too much brainpower.
Apart from the fact that the statement is a load of bullshit, its turning up in a novel in 2023, and irrespective of who it is attributed to by the author, does tell us something. And that is that the vilification of the person concerned perpetrated by a well known journalist in 2007, with the connivance of RTÉ and a film production company, is alive and well and out there in the public consciousness.
It is a pity to see it repeated in a popular work whatever the context.
And blaming the person concerned for the deficient state of the Irish education system is a totally new trope. In reality, his contribution to the ramshackle system he found was immense and he should be getting a medal (posthumously !) rather than having the defects of an educational system caused by a sleeveen government, laid at his door.
That's all I have to say on this for now.
Get the book.
The book is available to readers in Europe here, and to those outside Europe, and particularly in the USA here
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