Sinead Ryan and Eamon Keane give their views on the Rubberbandits.

No: ‘It’s anti-Limerick, prodrugs and aimed at teenage boys - and that’s not clever and it’s not funny . . .’

I ACCEPT straight away that I am, in all probability, not in the Rubberbandits natural demographic. However, as half my heritage is Limerick, I reserve the right to feel as offended as the next person by whatever this lot constitutes.

I love Limerick. I will promote it to the ends of the earth even while others do their best to confine its definition to a mob-based gangster hell hole.

There, and only there, am I at one with Willie O Dea.

Sinister

He finds himself with the dubious honour of having a song written for him by the latest offering from this so-called band, the members of which remain unidentified but seem to get a kick out of dressing up like sinister masked Provos from the 1970s, extolling the virtues of drugs and the former Minister for Defence.

The defensive minister thinks they're great altogether. "It's a work of art," he claims of their silly, tuneless rants. It's a pity, really, because the lead singer, for want of a better description, has a bit of a voice. It's just a shame he doesn't use it for lyrics other than "F**k your Honda Civic", "She looks like Billie Piper after half an ounce of coke", and "Willie O Dea: f**k off and let me be", although there is some merit in the latter contribution.

Hypocrisy

Okay, enough of the po-faced mammy commentary. These songs are not, whatever else they may be, 'works of art' as O Dea would have us believe in his unsolicited contribution on RTE's Liveline.

This week, particularly, we've had enough hypocrisy over drug taking and ignoring the contribution that coke-heads (famous broadcasters or otherwise) make to gangland murders -- of which Limerick has had more than its fair share.

Is it just a bit of a laugh? Just a big joke, right? Well, okay -- if you're an adult, well-educated, understanding of irony in all its forms and can see rude, vulgar lyrics as some form of post-modernist protest -- well, fine.

My problem is that the market audience for this latest YouTube sensation is, for the most part, more likely to be young and impressionable teenage boys, most of whom are still going through their education. Like drugs, coarse language and degrading women is neither big nor clever. Or funny.

And, by the way, real 'artists', no matter how brash and atrocious to the eye or ear, would never allow a medium to interfere with their work. The Rubber bandits admit that they have freely changed their lyrics so that their songs could be given air play.

The 'ounce of coke' line, which props up the internet version of one of their offerings, was changed to 'bag of jokes' after a radio producer got huffy. Goodness! Imagine Tracey Emin agreeing to put a pair of knickers over her naked sculptures' open-legged form, or Spencer Tunick being told to cover up all his nudes in his installations, or even Eminem asked to tone down the rap content -- they'd rather die.

Not so the Rubberbandits because, as they so delicately put it, "We're only interested in the money". Well, so are the drug dealers they glorify. They deserve each other.

YES: And the righteous, middle-class whiners who object to it do not care about Limerick. Yhey would just as soon ban 'Trainspotting'

Yea the Righteous are back!

Welcome to the Bible belt, where impure songs really can corrupt you. Best turn off your computers and lock up your daughters.

God, I really thought I was dreaming.

In the middle of the worst recession in history, people are up in arms over the Rubberbandits song. Apparently, its lyrics will corrupt teenagers and destroy Limerick's reputation. It also perpetuates crude stereotypes and may have caused the banking crisis as well.

I have never come across such utter rubbish. Willie O'Dea is getting it in the neck for backing the song too.

The lyrics of the song are ironic but I guess we don't do irony in Ireland. If we did, we might think it ironic that on the day the most obscene piece of literature ever to come to Ireland -- the EU Bailout deal -- was passed in the Dail, some of the nation were horrified by a satirical song.

The song is tongue in cheek. The band are not promoting drug/alcohol parties. In fact when you look at the characters in the song's YouTube video they are proof that drugs are not healthy.

Addicts

I previously worked with teenage drug addicts. Drug damage doesn't occur because a group from Limerick happens to take the piss out of it. But the righteous tell us that on hearing the song, teens in their thousands will be running through the suburbs in search of the elusive high.

Dear God.

What is really singing out is middle class Faux Anger. Like they give a shite (can I say that word or will it corrupt someone?) about Limerick.

In America, NWA and other original rap artists wrote about ghetto life. They wrote about drug culture. They reflected what their community was about and they were criticised by the white establishment for doing it.

One of the Rubberbandits singers, Blind Boy, explained on RTE's Liveline yesterday how they were not advocating drugs. Rather they were highlighting through satirical humour the pathetic nature of such abuse.

The hysterical reaction is Political Correctness gone mad.

By the same argument the righteous would have us ban JJ Cale's song Cocaine or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting.

Apparently talking about drugs now leads to addiction.

We have good form in this area though. We are the country that banned Sean O'Casey's autobiography and the writings of Edna O'Brien and John McGahern. They too were corrupting us.Sure weren't we all going to go sex mad on account of them writing about dirty stuff?

Ghetto

If Willie O'Dea likes the song and wants to get down with the kids so what? By all means get mad at politicians over the ghetto housing estates in Limerick that produce drug dependency. But we really have lost the run of ourselves.

To quote Led Zeppelin: ''does anybody remember laughter?''

Which is more obscene -- a country driven to its knees by bankers and politicians or a group of Limerick men who make music?

- Sinead Ryan and Eamon Keane