Free Conor Casby!

In the latest chapter of the Cowen nudes scandal, artist Conor Casby has been questioned under caution by the Gardai in connection with the hanging of two paintings, of exceptional quality, of Taoiseach Brian Cowen in the National Gallery and the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallery in Dublin.

The charges are 

incitement to hatred

 -  Cowen is inciting people to hate him pretty well by himself, I don' t think he can blame a painter for the ill will felt toward him at this time 

indecency

-  i think by all accounts Mr Casby has shown himself to be a pretty decent bloke that most of us would like to share a drink with, are nude paintings considered 'indecent' again in this country?

criminal damage for hammering a nail into a wall in the National Gallery. 

- I'm sure the National Gallery can afford the polyfilla to close up that hole, I would imagine the press from this debacle will have people streaming into the place in their droves, maybe they should leave the hole and erect a new plaque, 

" this hole marks the spot where the nude painting of Biffo by Conor Casby once hung.  it is significant and has become a part of the National Gallery's permanent collection because Biffo's reaction to Conor Casby's bold test of the limits of free speech revealed that at heart, our Taoiseach is a childish, humourless, megalomaniac unfit for the highest political office in the land." 

Well, this story has been blogged to death and rightly so. It's a farce, seemingly without end. After RTE's stuttering stumbling and mortifying 'apology' to Cowen you would have thought that Biffo might have taken the country's temperature again and left well enough alone. As far as I recall it's our license fees and taxes that finance RTE, and a complaint from the office of the Taoiseach should have no bearing on what's broadcast on the national airwaves. 

But no, they sent the Gardai into Ray D'arcy's studio?!? Did they think he wasn't going to mention it on his show? 

With all the money spent on media consultancy by Fianna Fail and the Government what surprises me most is that not one spindoctor or FF header saw this as an opportunity for Biffo to change his image.  Laugh it off and its a two day story. Send the stormtroopers in and the news cycle extends for three weeks and gets picked up in paper's across the continent. 

Conor Casby, i'll visit you in the lock-up that's for sure.