newspaper headlines

 

Wandered into a shop and glanced in passing at the headlines on the newspapers spread out along a shelf.

A banner headline filling the front page of the Daily Mail blared: "WHO WILL RID US OF THIS RANTING MANIAC?"

The Irish Independent had something more restrained along the lines of: "WAR ENGULFS THE CITIES."

The Irish Times had a vaguely optimistic take: "UKRAINE AND RUSSIA AGREE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS."

The Daily Mirror front page headline said: "COME LIVE WITH US."

I thought it must be about the Irish opening their doors to refugees from the war.

But no.

Closer inspection revealed the headline was about beauty queen Rosanna Davidson, the daughter of singer Chris de Burgh, inviting the surrogate mother of her baby to move into her home.

My mind flew to something Winston Churchill said after the First World War.

To wit: "The whole map of Europe has been changed... but as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again."

Today with the smoke and flames still rising from the funeral pyre Putin is constructing out of all Ukraine, the Daily Mirror has discerned through the fog of war that the really important intractable issues of vital public concern remain Rosanna Davidson's domestic arrangements.

I wonder do they even suspect what's coming.