Politics Perceptions, Criminality and the Election.

Years ago my brother read British comics like the Lion and the Valiant or was it the Hotspur I cant remember now but they contained all sorts of non-sense with footballers playing without boots becoming cult heroes, and motor bike cops who solved crimes, with the reader having to spot the clues. They had second world war stories also and in these the Germans were referred to as Krauts and the Japanese as Nips. But have no fear the world was a different place then and there was none of this awful political correctness that blights our sensibilities now. In the main people sort of laughed at it and reasoned well that’s what that crowd deserve for loosing the war, and when I was growing up people didn’t really talk about the war as such it was referred to in sort of hushed tones, like somehow we might be accused of something in relation to its waging, and after all were the gallant Irishmen who fought not sort of frowned upon by the masses for serving the Queen. Oh yes the good old days before the arrival on these shores of the politically correct breed, and they have slowly but surely taken the fun out of almost everything.

Not that everything was sweet then either, it is difficult to imagine that many of the awful revelations re- our past and our treatment of women and children and the poor in general thrived in the face of such ambivalence and within a culture that was controlled by the church and its closest ally the state. For in Ireland the state was and is an institution it is not representative of citizenry but rather it is the iron hand that negates its citizens into divisiveness based on class which by its nature leads to conflicts of interest, and the separation of agendas which in the cold light of day serves only the elite few.

It is with this in mind that I reflect on the presidential election and also the last general election where upon we have had the two most recognisable faces in Sinn Fein stand for election. Before I continue I must state that I abhor violence and I am at one with the victims of violence no matter where and whom they might be. However I am also a realist and when I examine the world in which I live taking away the violence that is owned by criminality, I will take a look at what we would regard as justifiable violence like in the case of sovereign countries engaging in war. I was born in 1958 five years after the Korean conflict and just after the war started in Vietnam in 1955,with American involvement beginning in 1965 and it came to a conclusion in 1975,and so on until we come to the unofficial wars in South America, and on to the debacle that was and is Iraq and Afghanistan.Of course there were skirmishes in the Balkans and Libya along the way and Britain had its own little crusade in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, each one of these conflicts have been justified at least to a level of acceptance to what I term the general populace. Who are it seems quite adept at accepting that violence can be used to settle conflicts in far way regions were despots have threatened not only their own citizens but our way of life also, and violence can protect us from such fall outs from conflict like oil shortages, and trade embargo’s etc. Recently we had the commander in chief of the American armed forces and the commander in chief of the British armed forces welcomed and wined and dined by our little outraged nation. If a proper examination of these countries conduct whilst engaging in war and even as to whether they were legally entitled to go to war was to take place, I wonder how many people would approach them with photographs of their loved ones and demand an explanation. But you see it is alright because these people are our friends so we are advised and who are we the general populace to argue differently.

Forgive me but my mental image of the general populace is not very flattering I tend to imagine a middle-aged couple sitting in a comfortable room watching the Six One news and commenting occasionally with observations like, ‘isn’t that terrible,’ and ‘the yanks will sort them out,’ and ‘I don’t trust anyone with a beard,’ and ‘they should take the dole off of them,’ I could go on but I wont you get my point.

Now when Gerry Adams stood for election for the last Dail the knives were out and sharpened and we had the political opportunists foaming at the mouth in anticipation of making a kill. Here was a man with a sinister past a member of the IRA no less a murderer and a protector of murderers. Not a great start for anyone trying to convince the electorate that this man is right man for them. To put things in context the political establishment were asking people to believe that a man like Gerry Adams who had just led his people down the road to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland was not a fit candidate to serve in Dail Eireann. Now I wasn’t present at the Good Friday agreement negotiations, they took place without me and no matter how sore I am about it I just wasn’t there and that is it, but honestly would it be too much to argue that the very parties that were sticking the knife into Gerry Adams in our election were instrumental in nominating both him and Martin Mc Guinness as peacemakers and men of vision during these negotiations?

During the recent campaign they tried to pull the same trick on Martin Mc Guinness as was tried against Gerry Adams, in the latter’s case they brought up the Jean McConville issue, this mother of ten went missing in 1972 her body was found accidentally in 2003 on a beach in Co. Louth. An ex-IRA, man accused Gerry Adams of ordering her execution this accusation Adams has always denied vehemently. Then Martin Mc Guinness was faced by David Kelly who lost his father Paddy who was a serving soldier and was killed in the freeing of the kidnapped Don Tidy in 1983. I would ask why this young man didn’t get his local TD to raise the matter in the Dail or if indeed he had any evidence of a crime why didn’t he go to the authorities. I may be wrong but the only television piece I saw on this issue was of him presenting or rather confronting Martin Mc Guinness with a photograph of his deceased father. One thinks that if Martin Mc Guinness is in politics for thirty years why confront him with this now and indeed why confront him at all without some evidence that he was involved in this crime. People will argue that Gerry Adams topped the poll in Louth and the allegations about Jean McConville didn’t do his election prospects any harm as in effect there is not a grain of proof pointing to any wrong doing by Gerry Adams. That is true but with the odd exception the people of the Louth constituency are not particularly the target of the spin. Louth is a border county and the people who live there know that they lived in war zone for over thirty years and they also know what is required to both make and keep the peace. Also we will see how many of the outraged politicians take the Jean Mc Conville case forward and win some sort of resolution, this unfortunate family who have been left high and dry by politicians, the fact that these victims are deemed as no longer news worthy or worth an interest by these political hacks now that the political scarring of Gerry Adams is no longer pursuable, is it not the worst example of cynicism?


It is frustrating to see such political dirty tricks come into the political debate, I take it as a grave insult to the intelligence of the electorate and their analysis of politics on this island, the slanted information is definitely aimed at my RTE six one viewers but are they that prevalent, perhaps they are when one examines the overall results of the last election. One wonders about the motivation of the ruling classes and their relationship with Sinn Fein in particular, I must make it absolutely clear at his juncture that I am not a Sinn Fein supporter I have never voted for them and I am unlikely to vote for them any time soon. But for the powers that be in this little republic to blatantly try and trick the Irish electorate by the planting of disingenuous red-herrings to try and sway public opinion is wrong in my view and should be challenged and rebuffed. These same parties of power left a small portion of its citizens alone and undefended in 1969, they were expected to struggle and suppress the might of the British army whom at his stage were at one with a corruptive and un-representative government in Northern Ireland. These nationalists citizens of our state were left without defence against not just an army but also against para-military forces like the B-specials and later the UDA. Houses were burned to the ground people were evicted from their homes many of them fleeing south over the border to places like Donegal and Dublin, the citizens of this country were under threat but we chose not to protect them in any fashion. Young men were arrested and interrogated sometimes brutally beaten and then came the greatest breach of human rights of all with the introduction of internment. The spin of course was that this wasn’t a war and that the IRA had no mandate to defend the citizens of our state but it did by definition because we as a sovereign nation refused to defend our own citizens thus leaving the void for the IRA to fill.

We now hold the high moral ground and accuse those who fought what was a war and not the silly titled ‘the troubles,’ as we later christened it. This was of course a conflict very much of our own making in that had we responded as any other nation on this earth would have,and defended our citizens the conflict may never have escalated the way that it did, and I fully accept that it was a dreadful conflict with victims on all sides brutally killed and maimed, I also fully accept that as the conflict progressed it was hi-jacked by criminals and splinter groups on all sides many of these engaged in criminality and in many ways it became a threat to all of our citizens basically because it had no coherent leadership at that time.

Lastly the greatest disservice perpetrated by successive Irish governments was in its failure not only to protect its citizens in the north of Ireland but also us here in the south, there is and there never will be any accountability by those who destroyed so many lives in Dublin and Monaghan in May 1974. Maybe when Gay Mitchell comes canvassing I will show him a Photograph of a beautiful young neighbour of mine form Sallynoggin who died on that fateful day, and I will demand he names the perpetrators.