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Voltaire
once prayed ‘Oh Lord make my enemies ridiculous’.
If Sinn Fein were to have been among those enemies
then his prayers were answered. The party laying wreaths
at Belfast City Hall to honour the dead storm troopers
of British Imperialism at the battle of the Somme
brought a wry smile to the face of many. Nothing was
seen like it in Belfast republicanism since party
members assembled outside the UUP headquarters in
Glengall Street a couple of years back to roar something
about maintaining Stormont after Trimble was threatening
to bring it down. It seemed at the time the type of
thing that ought to have been done on red nose day
but not as a serious political protest.
Their
own embarrassment at the time was evident. Some I
talked to sensed they would never be taken seriously
again and tried to blame it, very unfairly, on Jim
Gibney. ‘It was his idea’ they mumbled by
way of explanation, ’even Gerry Adams thought
we were idiots’. Adams may have thought that
just as Gibney may have devised the scheme but when
it was pointed out to those who took part that they
still did not have to go, they shifted uncomfortably
indicating that there were other things they would
rather talk about. The truth was that they were just
the type who would always do what they were told and
who would flock back down in the morning if asked
to, and then blame Jim Gibney after it. Gibney at
least, if responsible, would stand over it and provide
some explanation for it. Just as he did on this occasion
when he wrote a piece covering the event.
As
for the City Hall spectacle there is little to be
found in the republican tradition but plenty in the
Redmondite one that would support it. This became
all the more evident when endorsement was sought from
outside the tradition. DNA defying claims were made
as all manner of dead grandfathers, great uncles and
distant ancestral half cousins were being pulled out
as those seeking reason to support the line rather
than show any evidence that they really believed it
sought to justify the latest ‘revolutionary’
shift. At one time it was Irish Soccer managers who
spent their time discovering tenuous family connections
to justify their squad make-up and producing such
quintessentially Irish stars as Vinny O’Jones.
I
am relieved that my old friend, the former Sinn Fein
councillor Sean Hayes did not suffer the indignity
of having to perform the shameful shuffle and pretend
that some aunt‘s great uncle’s step-brother’s
half-nephew fought at the Somme to get a better deal
for Ireland. Already carrying the mark of Glengall
Street he has since been put out to graze in order
to allow Alex Maskey to take a South Belfast council
seat. Some clouds do, at least, have that silver lining.
It
is merely decent and common courtesy to be alert to
the sensitivity of people revering the memories of
those who are deceased. And in that sense there is
nothing wrong with honouring the dead in a personal
capacity. But it is a different matter to honour them
by way of a political spectacle if the actions which
led to their dying were anathema to the political
values which we hold. Would we honour the Waffen SS,
the butchers of Sabra and Chatilla or Lennie Murphy?
(Although this is not to equate those who died at
the Somme with the war criminals just mentioned).
And why have republicans never honoured the Gardai
whose claim to have died for Ireland over the
past thirty years is considerably stronger that that
of those who perished at the Somme? No, we would rather
bob and weave when pressed regarding the events surrounding
their deaths.
It
is plainly not the fact of dying that was being honoured
at the City Hall otherwise all the dead would be commemorated
there and elsewhere. In the area where I live some
people go to great lengths to ensure that the dead
they do not approve of are not honoured. It is the
cause for which this particular set of dead forfeited
their lives which has allowed them to be placed on
a pantheon. And that pantheon can not be disinvested
of the meaning behind its construction. Put at its
starkest they died to keep Africa white and British.
Those
dead being honoured are no more honourable now than
they were a couple of years ago. But when Tom Hartley
turned up at some commemoration he was subjected to
internal party ridicule and backbiting of the worst
possible sort. Yet he was a mere stalking goat tethered
to some tomb stone in order to draw the fangs of the
critics. Little mention was made of the fact that
Hartley (along with Gibney) had to his credit for
years been trying to reach out to the unionist community
in a genuine way. There were few votes in that. But
then Hartley does pound the streets in the rain nowhere
near election time (when the "once a term"
men and women usually turn up), calling on constituents
to take their complaints about broken spouting. Maybe
because he may genuinely believe he is there for his
constituents rather than they being there for him
we will not see any meteoric rise up the party ranks
for him.
Leading
his band of merry councillors up the garden path to
lay the wreath I sensed that Alex Maskey only had
to raise his hand to scratch his head and the rest
of them, misinterpreting his action, would have saluted
the monument, such is the pervasiveness of sheepish
uniformity. Although one female councillor looked
as if she was on the verge of shouting ‘hallelujah’,
many seemed distinctly uneasy. There was a sense of
‘we know we should not be here but Comrade Napoleon
says we must and Comrade Napoleon is always right’.
Although Comrade Napoleon managed not to be there.
Yet none broke ranks. The sad thing is that amongst
those who formed ranks are some radically minded people
not exactly endeared to the party’s lurch to
the right. But obedience rather than critique has
the call.
Sinn
Fein did not go to the City Hall to lay wreaths because
they had a sudden change of heart, or as a result
of Alex Maskey seeking to represent all the people
of this city. Nor was it about being sensitive toward
the unionist community. The party went because it
is fast becoming the Catholic establishment party.
And turning up at such things is exactly what the
Catholic establishment expects. Furthermore, a deeper
strategic rationale is that the party wants to convey
a sense of confidence in its own strategy to the unionists
thus disconcerting the latter - never that hard to
do. If republicans appear at ease doing what they
had previously bombed others while doing and present
it as magnanimous then elements within unionism can
go into a tail spin. They have this strange ability
to see a white flag just as a bull would a red one.
One
positive aspect of the affair was that those honouring
the imperialist dead walked away after the ceremony.
Nobody from the physical force IRAs detonated a bomb
against the ‘British war machine’ and blamed
it on electronic signals deliberately sent by the
securocrats as was done in Enniskillen in 1987. And
there was little disagreeable to be found in the comments
of a long time republican yesterday when he said ‘better
that they pretend to mourn than to blow up those who genuinely
mourn’. That alone is more significant than the
rest of the waffle the public have had spewed at them
in the past week or so.
Overlooked
in the commentary on this weeks events was the courageous
and imaginative ways in which some are seeking to
find new ways of describing somersaults in terms other
than ‘courageous and imaginative’. Jim Gibney
opted for ‘bold and correct’; Danny Morrison
preferring ‘controversial and unprecedented‘;
Mary Holland clearly sick of the unimaginative way
of saying ‘imaginative’ used ‘difficult
and brave‘. A goldmine for the wordsmiths - watch
how many permutations we get out of those six words
over the next year.
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