In a sequel to last week’s Two Pints Facebook post in support of a Yes vote in the marriage equality referendum on May 22nd, Roddy Doyle has this time turned from football to Game of Thrones for his theme, but the intention is the same – to challenge the arguments of No campaigners by using comedy as a weapon.
After his first Two Pints post on the subject, he explained his motivation to the media. “I was asked to write an opinion piece and I thought ‘well I never read them myself’. If I see how somebody famous has an opinion I’m always thinking ‘well so what’, you know? Sometimes they would nearly make me change my mind. You know, such and such a rock star says vote yes, I’m inclined to vote no,” he told the Herald.
“I am expressing my hope that there is a Yes vote and the most useful way for me to do that is to express myself creatively, not to go in front of a camera and say vote yes, because I think that’s just a waste of time.”
The latest story has already had 8,200 likes and 2,800 shares on Facebook.
-There was a ring on the bell there earlier.
-At home?
-Yeah – earlier. I was watchin’ Game o’ Thrones, so me head was full o’
swords an’ tits – .
-We live in a golden age o’ television drama.
-We fuckin’ do. Annyway. There’s a woman there – at the door, like –
an’ she’s talkin’. But I’m still thinkin’, like, I wouldn’t mind bein’ a
dwarf. So it’s a while before I notice the ‘No’ sticker on her jacket – and
her leaflets.
-Oh fuck – leaflets?
-She hands one to me an’ she says, ‘All children deserve their mother.’
So I say, ‘She’s only gone to the shops – for smokes. She’ll be back in a
bit.’ I’m wide awake now, so I say as well, ‘While you’re waitin’, you
could go across to number 78 an’ tell the kids there tha’ they deserve
their mother. Cos she’s in the Joy, playin’ Monopoly with the Scissors
Sisters.
-Is she?
-No – she was cuttin’ the fuckin’ grass. But I’m on a roll now, so I
say, ‘An’ what’s marriage got to do with children? I’ve seven
brilliant grandkids an’ none o’ their parents are married.’
-An’ is tha’ true?
-I’m not sure, to be honest with yeh – I can’t remember. But I say,
‘D’yeh have the Sky Boxsets at home?’ She says she thinks so. So I tell
her, ‘Go on home an’ watch a few episodes o’ Game o’ Thrones. An’
when yeh see wha’ the mothers get up to in tha’ thing yeh won’t be so
quick with your leaflets. An’ don’t,’ I tell her, ‘don’t write it off cos it’s
foreign. Cos it isn’t. It was made in Ireland.’ An’ she says, ‘I know it
was. In Belfast. By Protestants.’
