Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 17:19, 15 February 2010

John Waters (born Castlerea, Co.Roscommon, Rep. of Ireland in 1955) is a columnist with The Irish Times and former editor of Magill magazine. His career began in 1981 with the leading Irish political-music magazine Hot Press. He went on to write for the Sunday Tribune and later edited In Dublin and Magill. Waters has written five books and in 1998 he devised The Whoseday Book, a book that contains quotes, writings and pictures of 365 Irish writers and musicians - which has so far raised some €3m for the Irish Hospice Foundation. Waters is an ardent supporter of fathers' rights in Ireland.

John Waters is the father of a daughter named Róisín with singer Sinéad O'Connor.

He writes a weekly column for The Irish Times that appears on a Friday. He was briefly fired during a dispute between him and the current editor of the Irish Times, but was subsequently reinstated.

Politics and advocacy

He has referred to himself as a "neo-Luddite" or later as a "luddite" and at one stage refused to use email and he expressed his concern that society ignores the negative aspects of the Internet (sic. World Wide Web).

In his articles titled "Impose democracy on Iraq" and "Bush and Blair doing right thing", Waters explained his support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a position based on his sincere belief that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the West due to its possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction; a widely accepted though erroneous belief at the time.

He wrote an article tilted "Two sides to domestic violence", which criticised the lack of gender balance in Amnesty International's campaign against domestic violence in Ireland. Waters cited the National Crime Council report, conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute, that found approximate gender symmetry in most measures of domestic violence and he pointed out that despite these statistics, funding for women victims of domestic violence (€15 million) disproportionately outstrips funding for male victims of domestic violence. Waters article led to a response from the head of Amnesty International's Irish branch.

Waters also devotes much of his column space in The Irish Times to discussing the role and importance of religion and faith in society. In interview, he has described people of faith as "funnier, sharper and smarter" than atheists.

Books

John Waters has written five books to date (early 2010).
His last book "Lapsed Agnostic" tells the story of his complex journey from belief to un-belief and back again.
A remarkable book, with vivid personal experiences linked to acute observations on modern secular Irish and European societies and its effects on mankind. Deep and interesting and possibly to cause controversy.

Eurovision song

In 2006, Waters entered a song, The Words That Never Wear Out, for the Irish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. The song wasn't accepted for the selection final, however. Waters publicly criticised the fact that the selected singer, Brian Kennedy, had been allowed to enter his own composition, Every Song is a Cry for Love, in the final and alleged favouritism towards Kennedy. He referred to people who had publicly criticised his song as "corner boys" in a column in Village magazine.

In 2007 the entry that he co-wrote with Tommy Moran, They Can't Stop the Spring was shortlisted for Ireland's entry to the 2007 contest. On February 16, 2007 They Can't Stop the Spring was selected on RTÉ's The Late Late Show to represent Ireland in that year's final held in Helsinki. After a telephone vote of Late Late Show viewers, They Can't Stop The Spring won the selection. The song finished last in the final of the competition, receiving only 5 points.

In 2010 it was announced by RTE that he would be back again in another bid to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest with a song whom he composed with Tommy Moran. The song titled 'Does Heaven Need Much More' will be performed by Leanne Moore, the winner of You're A Star 2008.The Irish National Final is due to take place on 5 march 2010 and Waters song will open proceedings on the night.

Blogging controversy

During a newspaper review on talk radio station Newstalk 106 Waters declared blogs and bloggers to be 'stupid' . He then repeated those claims the following week, sparking controversy amongst Irish bloggers who took exception to his views. In the same interview Waters claimed that "...sixty to seventy percent of the internet is pornography".

In the Irish Mail on Sunday of July 6, Waters bemoaned the vandalism and untruths in his Misplaced Pages entry, and called for increased regulation and backed legal action against Jimmy Wales and the Misplaced Pages foundation in such cases. Waters said he set up his own web site, www.johnwaters.ie, as a response to Misplaced Pages.

On 26 November 2009, Waters contacted RTE's Today programme with Pat Kenny during an interview with Misplaced Pages co-founder Jimmy Wales to say that "only crackpots write for Misplaced Pages".

Famine genealogy programme

In 2008 John Waters took part in a programme which delved into his family's past as well as those of Eddie Hobbs and Jasmine Guinness. Parish records revealed that his great-grandfather's brother, also called John Waters, had died of starvation during the Great Famine.

References

1. John Waters Books, Ireland, Writer, Journalist, playwright, magazine editor, columnist and campaigner for fathers rights
2. www.dads-house.com
3. John Waters and The Irish Times Eamonn Fitzgeralds Rainy Day
4. Irish Times fires columnist John Waters, RTÉ News, Sunday 23 November 2003
5. Waters is reinstated at The Irish Times, RTÉ News, Monday 24 November 2003
6. The Irish Times
7. The Irish Times
8. ireland.com / Today / News in Focus / War on Iraq
9. ireland.com / Today / News in Focus / War on Iraq
10. News 18th July 2005 | OneinFour.org
11. The Irish Times
13. http://www.hotpress.com/news/.html
14. http://www.eurovision.tv/content/view/880/263/
15. John Waters on blogs » Twenty Major - Still smoking in Dublin bars
16. More on John Waters and blogs » Twenty Major - Still smoking in Dublin bars
17. The DOBlog » No child of John Waters will ever marry a... blogger
18. http://twentymajor.net/2008/01/10/john-waters-on-blogs/ Audio of Newstalk interview with Waters 10 January 2008
19. ^ Past comes back to haunt us, The Irish Times, 13 September 2008, retrieved 4 July 2009

External links

• John Waters' home page

• 1955 births
• Living people
• Irish columnists
• Irish journalists
• Fathers' rights activists
• People from County Roscommon
• Eurovision Song Contest composers