When it comes to propaganda, no one can do it like McDowell

RICHARD BRUTON’S smile as he was shaking hands with Justice Minister Michael McDowell outside Leinster House in Dublin this week was understandable.

McDowell was eating humble pie, after scoring a spectacular home goal and giving Fine Gael its first major boost of the year by comparing Richard Bruton with the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.

Fine Gael has been throwing everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at both Fianna Fáil and the PDs but not with much success. Suddenly, Fine Gael seems to have scored a direct hit as McDowell exploded like a hysterical adolescent.

He was like a petulant schoolboy who was so annoyed at his opponents scoring a point that he went and grabbed the ball before the kickout and lashed it into his own net. The media and the public would hardly have noticed the Fine Gael score but for his outburst.

The whole thing reminds me of a story that a friend tells about listening to RTÉ one Sunday afternoon as soccer commentator Philip Greene was waxing lyrical on his beloved Shamrock Rovers and its distinguished players when suddenly there was a cheer, and Greene exclaimed: "Oh, good God, Dundalk have scored!"

Few would have noticed Bruton's criticism, if McDowell had not gone so over the top with his reaction. People have not been looking for more gardaí; they want less crime. If there were less crime, they would have given the Justice Minister the credit.

Nobody believes there is less crime, so there is no credit due to the minister, whether or not he fulfilled his promise of more gardaí. His bluster is merely an attempt to obscure his failings.

In a way using the Nazi slur was as courageous as it was outrageous, because the minister himself could easily be compared to a prominent Nazi.

If he put on jackboots and a swastika armband, he could pass for a latter day Heinrich Himmler, to whom he seems to bear a certain physical resemblance. But the comparison can only be made in the physical sense. To suggest any kind of ideological comparison would be unfair and grossly distorted.

Nobody should really have taken the Goebbels accusation too seriously either.

You can accuse Fine Gael of many things, but not of conducting effective propaganda.

While Goebbels was a vile, unprincipled individual, he ran a most effective propaganda machine that turned that demented clown Adolf Hitler into a kind of demigod, as far as the German people were concerned. People who have read Hitler's speeches think that they must lose something in translation, because one would think that nobody could have taken such hysteria seriously. People who know German will assure you that the speeches were just as ridiculous in German.

Judge James A Kelly, who went to secondary school in Germany during the early 1930s, recalled Hitler coming to the school one day. Being Irish, the teachers gave young Kelly a place in the front row. When Hitler started his ranting, Kelly burst out laughing, and Hitler screamed that it was no laughing matter. The mortified teachers quickly escorted the Irish boy from the hall, and whenever any other Nazi dignitaries came to the school, Kelly was kept well away.

Goebbels was one of the men who helped to turn the clown into one of the most malignant forces in all of history.

How could any honest person in their right mind accuse Fine Gael of effective propaganda?

After all, this is the party that selected Eoin O'Duffy as its first leader. He was our answer to Adolf Hitler, but fortunately as McDowell found out this week we do not have the Nazi mentality. O'Duffy was laughed off the political stage, and he then took off crusading with the 'rosary brigade' during the Spanish Civil War. The party has never quite recovered from its brief flirtation with that lunacy.

It did threaten to make a real breakthrough under Garret FitzGerald, but that has been the nearest it has come. Of course, those were the days when Michael McDowell was an active member of Fine Gael. He broke with FitzGerald and then bolted from the party.

When it comes to propaganda, nobody in Fine Gael could compare with McDowell himself. As chairman of the PDs during their first coalition with Fianna Fáil, from 1989 to 1992, he probably wielded more political power than anyone ever did outside Leinster House.

FOR instance, he was largely responsible for the ousting of Brian Lenihan as Tánaiste, Jim McDaid as Minister for Defence (before he even got a chance to collect his seal of office), and finally the coup de grace, the ousting of Charlie Haughey as Taoiseach.

He also played a vital role in putting some manners on Pee Flynn and electing Mary Robinson as President. All those were a political grand slam.

Since McDowell got back into the Dáil, he has not been nearly as effective. After all, he and his colleagues have smeared themselves with the ignominy of having propped up Ray Burke as Foreign Affairs Minister, even though the proverbial dogs in the street knew he was dirty.

Compare Burke with Brian Lenihan what was Lenihan ousted for? He gilded the lily in a tape-recorded interview with a student.

But telling lies is again "no bother" in Fianna Fáil. Indeed, it is a misdemeanour in comparison with the kind of misconduct that is being persistently ignored. The great pity is that McDowell did not continue in coalition as he started.

Now, he is too busy fighting with prison officers, gardaí, media, and everybody else.

His spat with the Garda Síochána over plans to set up the new reserve is crazy.

Last year Fianna Fáil brought over Harvard professor Robert Putnam to speak to the parliamentary party. Putnam wrote the book, Bowling Alone, which showed convincingly that volunteerism is under enormous strain in the United States, and the same signs are already evident here.

In the 1960s bowling was the most popular participatory sport in the United States. They had all kinds of bowling leagues.

The American way of life has changed dramatically since then, and so has ours.

People now live further from their work and may spend hours each day commuting. They also spend a lot of time watching television, videos and DVDs or entertaining themselves on computers. Both spouses frequently work outside the home, so more of the work in the home is being shared. As a result, people have much less free time.

They belong to fewer clubs and organisations, and they meet friends and neighbours less often. Organised bridge and other card clubs are dying out, or are essentially the preserve of the older generation. Fewer people are inclined to get involved on club committees clubs are having great trouble persuading suitable people to stand for office.

The demands on time have essentially wreaked havoc on the sense of volunteerism. But Michael McDowell seems to be running against the tide in looking for a volunteer, unpaid, reserve force for the gardaí.

Who will volunteer? You might get the have-a-go hero element that garda recruiters would consider unsuitable, and probably every criminal gang in the country will try to get somebody in for their own purposes.

Wake up, McDowell, before your dream becomes our nightmare!