Why Martin’s self-serving ard fheis speech left me in a spin

THERE was a great little campaign in Ireland for media literacy a few years ago.

It was led by a number of academics and by a young man called Dave Dunn. Dave is one of those highly collaborative and idealistic young people who would probably reject the idea of himself as a leader.

But he had a strong idea, and was single-minded in his pursuit of it for as long as he could. His commitment was to the idea that everyone in Ireland should be enabled to be media literate. There were conferences and symposia — several academics in DIT produced an excellent paper.

Dave’s ultimate idea (and I doubt if he’s given up on it yet) was to persuade the powers-that-be that media literacy should form an essential part of the school curriculum, and that we should all be introduced to it at an early age. The idea, as you might expect, met huge resistance from the self-same powers-that-be.

But he’s right. In an age where we are bombarded, day in and day out, by a thousand different forms of media, the idea that we should each have the skill to parse and analyse, at least to some extent, what we’re being told, is a powerful one.

For instance, if you’re anything like me, you’re constantly being bombarded by ads you don’t understand, on the telly and elsewhere. You know those ads about meerkats with a foreign accent, for example. They’re funny and charming and so on — but what are they for? What product are they selling, and why don’t they tell us about the product?

Or there’s another ad, which features three puppets. Two of them are funny little old ladies with knitting needles, and third is an old geezer on a rollerblade, but the ad once again tells you nothing about the product.

If you bone up on your media literacy, you won’t be able to resist starting to analyse what’s going on. I still can’t figure what the meerkats are selling, but that’s ok, because I worked out that I’m in the wrong demographic — the ads are meant for someone else entirely. If it isn’t aimed at you, chances are you won’t get it.

Advertising is one insidious form of communication that requires a wide-awake approach. But where media literacy really comes into its own is in relation to politics. What a pity it isn’t taught in schools. That was my reaction at least when I watched Micheál Martin on the telly on Saturday night.

I’ve a lot of respect for Micheál Martin, I have to tell you. Like more than a few of his colleagues, he could have taken a large lump sum and a decent pension just before the last election. He chose not to, and instead took on one of the most difficult jobs that’s ever been invented in Irish politics.

But I hope he doesn’t write his own speeches. I’ve never seen a political speech so devoid of ideas or creativity.

But what was worse was the endless, crude spin that peppered the speech from start to finish — self-serving sentences that would make you sit bolt upright, they were so far from reality.

For instance. I have no objection whatever to an opposition leader lambasting the Government of the day. That’s the stuff of politics, and a decent bit of hard criticism certainly won’t do this government any harm. Quite bracing, in fact, to hear the leader of the opposition party giving it a lash in front of his own.

And the speech was full of sustained criticism of the Government. But it started with these words: “Let me repeat what I’ve been saying since the first day of this Dáil — if you want destructive politics as usual, if you want blinkered all-out opposition, then the Fianna Fáil party I lead is not for you.”

To put it mildly, that’s trying to have your cake and eat it. But it was the next sentence that sent shivers up my spine. “That’s what we saw from Fine Gael and Labour in opposition; it’s what we’re getting from Sinn Féin and others today and it has done immense damage to public trust in politics.”

Really? Opposition tactics are the thing that damaged trust in politics? Not the Galway tent?

Not the limousines outside Cheltenham? Not the golf games with bankers, or the unholy alliance with the entire construction industry?

Not beef tribunals, or Moriarty Tribunals, or finance ministers who didn’t have a bank account?

Not a Taoiseach like Charles Haughey who used the office relentlessly for personal gain?

We had decades of neglect, corruption, indifference, and opportunism. Over that time, from Haughey to Ahern, enormous damage was done to politics in Ireland by the cynicism of it all. And then in the last two years, we saw a government of such floundering incompetence that it was almost a relief to see the troika take control of our sovereignty.

AND there wasn’t a single element of all that — not one — for which the opposition was to blame. It was entirely, 100%, down to Micheál Martin’s party.

Talking of the troika, by the way, how is it possible for the leader of the opposition to deliver a 3,000-word speech in our current circumstances without any mention of them whatsoever? Or the ECB, or the IMF?

Is it possible that perhaps Martin or his speechwriters realised that if he brought the subject up, it might remind us of who invited them in?

There were a couple of mentions of Europe. Here’s one of them and it’s another great example of spin. “In addition, there is now more money available because of how Europe has changed its policies.” What magic development is this? Has there been some surge of generosity we haven’t heard about?

No, not quite. He’s talking about the year-long negotiation between the government and the European institutions to secure a better deal on interest rates and the timeline of the debts he helped to incur when he was in government. The extra billion euro now available didn’t just appear out of the air, but there was no acknowledgment of real achievement by others. That would be too much like an opposition without blinkers.

Micheál Martin has an unenviable job, and he’s doing it to the utmost of his ability. He deserves credit of that. But if he really believes in the new politics he talks so much about, the real reform he keeps promising, he’s going to have to do better than that speech on Saturday night. A lot better.