PRESIDENT Mary McAleese, who recently invited the released aid worker Sharon Commins to Aras an Uachtarain, must be tempted to make a similar gesture towards the twins, John and Edward Grimes. They, too, are young Irish people who have been suffering in a foreign country.

In front of the multitudes every Saturday night, they are being abused. They are routinely being dismissed in the most horrible terms by judges Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole. And despite the protestations of their sponsor Louis Walsh, they are hated by millions.

And yet in the strangest way they are also being supported by many viewers who, at this stage, doubtless include President McAleese herself among their vast number.

Indeed with the twins receiving the largest vote last Saturday night, we may be about to witness another truly remarkable Irish triumph over adversity -- perhaps even a triumph for humanity in general.

After all John and Edward -- or as the X Factor announcer would roar, JOHN AND EDWARD -- must be receiving many of those votes on compassionate grounds. And many votes too, must be based on the laudable desire to subvert the system and to land Simon Cowell with a winner that he hates.

These are high ideals.

John and Edward (let's just make it JOHN AND EDWARD), also created a moment of genuine irony last Saturday night, one that can be used to teach young people the very meaning of the word "irony", which is so often

used to describe things that are not ironic at all.

It was the Irish comedian Ed Byrne who had the best line about this tendency, citing the example of the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette, during which, inter alia, she claimed that being stuck in a traffic jam when you're already late, is "ironic".

Byrne explained that being stuck in a traffic jam is not ironic at all, it is just a pain in the arse. But if Alanis Morissette was employed as a town planner, and she was stuck in a traffic jam -- now that would be ironic.

Likewise, "irony" is often misused in the context of things that are merely peculiar, or perhaps too smart for their own good.

But last Saturday night, as Danyl Johnson and Miss Frank sang for their survival, having received far fewer votes than JOHN AND EDWARD, we saw irony in the real sense, and on the grand scale.

We saw these pop moguls on the panel shaking their heads in despair at the outrageous injustice which the people had inflicted on artistes who were clearly more talented than the ones evidently preferred by the people, on the night.

This panel of judges, which between them has put a fair few boybands and girlbands out there, containing individuals who could sing no better than JOHN AND EDWARD, and indeed some of whom made JOHN AND EDWARD sound like The Everly Brothers, were actually voicing their bitterness at a world in which the richly talented are rejected by the people, while the merely likeable rise to the top.

Nor did they recognise the irony -- yes, the irony -- of the fact that none of them would be sitting there, like gods, if the people were merely interested in rewarding musical ability.

If that were the case, various jazz greats would surely not be playing to a reverential but very small gathering on a Tuesday night in Ronnie Scott's, while Girls Aloud play 36 nights at Wembley stadium.

These kings of pop have made it an article of faith that success is a numbers game, that it's about bums on seats and that everything else is bullshit, and here they were lamenting the punters' lack of taste and discrimination. Oh, irony of ironies . . .

Louis Walsh, at least, is able to see that JOHN AND EDWARD have a certain something, that they are a screwball novelty act with an admirable ability to walk through the storm with their hair held high.

Nor are any of the other acts so vastly superior. Of course, they are all more musically talented than JOHN AND EDWARD but none of them, as far as we know, has any intention of ever creating an original piece of work -- and certainly not without first clearing it with Simon Cowell or whatever bigshot will ultimately control their careers.

The young Van Morrison, perhaps, or the young Prince, would be within their rights to start bellyaching if they had to sing off against one another, while JOHN AND EDWARD sat safely in the green room, telling Holly Willoughby how they did it again. But Danyl Johnson, for all his vocal prowess, will not be giving us an Astral Weeks anytime soon.

These performers are deeply old-fashioned, otherwise they wouldn't be on The X Factor. But the show is old-fashioned in

ANDREA BYRNE PAGE 23

another way that President McAleese herself would applaud, with her emphasis on "the community". Or "restoring that sense of community", as the saying goes.

Because The X Factor is now the only TV show which commands a mass audience of the type that TV used to have on the biggest nights of the year, when there was a feeling that everyone in the country was watching the same thing, at the same time.

The X-Factor is restoring that sense of community.

Sunday Independent