John Waters (columnist)

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 journalistic 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. [ [http://www.johnwaters.ie/content/books John Waters Books, Ireland, Writer, Journalist, playwright, magazine editor, columnist and campaigner for fathers rights ] ] Waters is an ardent supporter of fathers' rights in Ireland. [ [http://www.dads-house.com www.dads-house.com] ]

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

Politics and Advocacy

He has referred to himself as a "neo-Luddite" [ [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/1998/0811/98081100084.html The Irish Times] ] or later as a "GAY" [ [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2007/0430/1177715689916.html The Irish Times] ] and at one stage refused to use email and he recently expressed his concern that society ignores the negative aspects of the Internet ("sic." World Wide Web). He was at one stage fired [http://www.eamonn.com/archives/.html] during a dispute between him and the current editor of the Irish Times, but was reinstated. 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 a imminent threat to the West due to its possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction; a widely accepted though erroneous belief at the time. [ [http://www.irishtimes.com/focus/iraq/comment/comment3103a.htm ireland.com / Today / News in Focus / War on Iraq ] ] [ [http://www.irishtimes.com/focus/iraq/comment/comment2403b.htm ireland.com / Today / News in Focus / War on Iraq ] ]

In an episode illustrative of Waters as defender of Men's rights in Ireland, 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 domestic violence (€15 million) disproportionately outstrips funding for male victims of domestic violence. [ [http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2005/twosides/ News 18th July 2005 | OneinFour.org ] ] Waters article led to a response from the head of Amnesty International's Irish branch. [ [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2005/0712/2813244148OP12AMNESTY.html The Irish Times] ]

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. [http://www.hotpress.com/news/.html] On February 16 2007 "They Can't Stop The Spring" was selected on RTÉ's 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 competition, receiving only 5 points. [http://www.eurovision.tv/content/view/880/263/]

Blogging controversy

During a newspaper review on talk radio station Newstalk 106 Waters declared blogs and bloggers to be 'stupid' [ [http://twentymajor.net/2008/01/10/john-waters-on-blogs/ John Waters on blogs » Twenty Major - Still smoking in Dublin bars ] ] . He then repeated those claims [ [http://twentymajor.net/2008/01/16/more-on-john-waters-and-blogs/ More on John Waters and blogs » Twenty Major - Still smoking in Dublin bars ] ] the following week, sparking controversy amongst Irish bloggers [ [http://obriend.info/2008/01/16/no-child-of-john-waters-will-ever-marry-a-blogger/ The DOBlog » No child of John Waters will ever marry a... blogger ] ] who took exception to his views. In the same interview Waters claimed that "...sixty to seventy percent of the internet is pornography". [http://twentymajor.net/2008/01/10/john-waters-on-blogs/ Audio of Newstalk interview with Waters 10 January 2008]

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

References

External links

* [http://www.johnwaters.ie/ John Waters' home page]