Harrington goes a fair way to putt sense on Lisbon

The Gift Grub slot on Ian Dempsey’s breaksfast show on Today FM this morning with Padraig Harrington using a golf analogy to explain the Lisbon Treaty resulted in thousands of texts and emails from listeners thanking the station for simplifying the referendum debate in lay man’s terms.
Harrington’s alter ego teed up with… “Europe is basically like a golfer and Ireland is a caddy”. He then went on to say : “Now we all know that by being caddy we’re in the happy position of receiving a percentage of the golfer’s earnings, which is very nice.
“The downside is that we have to listen to everything the golfer says, even if he’s really boring, like Henrik Stenson,” he added. Dempsey then questioned him about Ireland’s capacity to make decisions within Europe and how the treaty will affect that. “Eh, let’s say we have a really easy shot – 168 yards, par 3, big green, no wind – the golfer (or Europe) will probably know which shot to play, so will probably not need to ask the caddy.
“Now, on more important shots, the golfer usually asks the caddy’s advice, but people fear that if we vote yes, then the golfer can just take any club out of the bag, put it anywhere, which leaves the caddy wandering around the woods, or, worse, in the lake – like me in Valentine.
“If we vote yes, we could end up in more bunkers. If we vote no, Europe may look for another caddy. This means we could become a caddy, wandering around a golf course, without a golfer. It’s only a matter of time, before we’d be asked to leave the golf course!”
Gift Grub was launched on Ian Dempsey’s show on Today FM ten years ago when creator Mario Rosenstock first did impersonations of Bertie Ahern as a wannabe chef. He later did sketches based on Roy Keane, Daniel O’Donnell and Jose Mourinho.