Robert Fisk in St. Canice’s Cathedral

Robert Fisk was going to be one of those events where nobody was going to mind if it overran. And overran it did, with Fisk considering all questions that came his way and answered them with great consideration and his trademark brutal honesty.

He was a fitting choice for this year’s annual Hubert Butler Lecture as his forthright opinions and clarity of mind fit in perfectly with the work of the great Kilkenny essayist. St. Canice’s Cathedral was packed to capacity for this highly anticipated event, which was the first sell out of the festival when it was announced back in June. There was also a great mix of ages, nationalities and interests amongst the crowd in attendance. Fisk wasted very little time in getting into his 40 minute or so lecture during which he spoke passionately about the war on terror, attitudes to Muslims in the west and vice versa and the inevitable failure of the war in Afghanistan. Fisk concentrated the first half of his lecture on language and how words are being used in the media. His sentiment was that the language of journalism is becoming more pernicious. He illustrated this point by exploring the use of the word ‘terror’ and all the connotations and baggage that comes with that. Fisk argued that the word is used as a shorthand for justifying the wars being waged in the Middle East ‘it’s all terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, maybe terrorism, then terror, terror, terror’. He then moved on to the puppet masters behind these wars and how their lust for power is achieved through their trumpeting of ‘terror’. ‘Power and terror are interchangeable’ he argues before taking some well aimed shots at Tony Blair, a man he obviously holds in no regard whatsoever. The idea of what constituted war crimes and the language that separates the good guys (West) from the bad guys (Middle East) needs to properly delineated and broken down. This is something, Fisk says, that the western media is not very good at doing. He spent a good portion of the lecture talking about Israel and the bonds they have with the USA. Fisk was adamant that he wasn’t being pessimistic for the sake of it, but that he genuinely can’t see the outcome of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict favouring anyone but the Israeli’s. The only way that the Muslim nations can stop the aggression of Israel, he reckons, is by individually suing the manufacturers of the weapons that injure and maim. This, of course, would prove too expensive and impractical and so the Israeli war machine will just roll on. Fisk didn’t predict any happy outcomes but nobody was there for happy endings. Fisk was telling us how he saw it and drew on his many experiences of writing about war to illustrate his arguments.

Fisk is a resolutely old school journalist. He doesn’t like the internet at all and thinks it has created lazy journalism. He doesn’t hold Wikileaks in any regard either, first calling it Wikipedia and then getting it right saying ‘Wikileaks or whatever the wretched thing is called’. His honesty and candour comes from the fact that he is always on the ground level when it comes to war and thus his reports and his writings are always first hand perspectives. As the man himself said ‘I don’t cover a war unless I can be in it.’

A fascinating, thought provoking and ultimately overwhelming lecture on how the people we put in power will never learn from their mistakes. Fisk is a true original. And as he pointed out, he’s never going to give up because he’ll always need to know what happens next. And I guess that's where the phrase 'crusading journalist' comes from. A truly memorable event with an unforgettable man.

 - John

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