Opportunistic government not helping the Northern Executive

Since taking power it appears that Enda Kenny has a rather ambivalent attitude to the North, writes Alison O’Connor

LISTENING to various Government ministers denounce the continued existence of the IRA it is difficult to stifle a reaction of anything other than “and what’s your real point”.

Two men are dead and that is a very serious point, but the playing of politics with this fact not alone does these men and their families no favours, but in the wider context contributes to the harming of the peace process. The looming general election has meant our politicians have been utterly unable to resist the opportunity presented by the current controversy to give Sinn Fein a good kicking.

The Good Friday Agreement was the best political development in this country in our life times, and is likely to remain so. It has its flaws, and the results of those are still being seen today, none more so than with the killing of Kevin McGuigan and Gerard “Jock” Davison. But the result of the peace process is that we are speaking of deaths in the single figures, that are, thankfully, an unusual occurrence, and for all of the personal pain involved, are a tiny figure compared to what we might have had without a peace agreement being reached.

Fine Gael, as we know, did not broker this historic agreement. It was the responsibility of former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, both now discredited in their own ways. However the magnificence of sorting out this seemingly intractable problem can never be taken away from them. This will always stick in the craw of Fine Gael.

Since taking power it appears that Enda Kenny has, at best, a rather ambivalent attitude to the North, and as we see at the moment, at worst, is prepared to allow what occurs there to be used to damage Sinn Féin’s electoral prospects in the South.

I couldn’t have agreed more with the unity of purpose displayed by almost all parties against Sinn Fein in it’s horrendous handling of sex abuse allegations, including the cases of Mairia Cahill and Paudie McGahon. But even then the response from the Government benches and other parties had a strong smack of political opportunism, rather than genuine concern for the victims involved.

The public recognised this at the time, and rather than punish Sinn Féin for it’s awful attitude, it seemed to turn instead on the Government for being so opportunistic, as evidenced by the opinion polls. I suspect the same thing will occur here.

People will be concerned at the deaths of these two men, and the implications for the peace process, but they will be unimpressed by the Cabinet-generated hysteria of recent days. For all of the white heat that Cabinet members have tried to generate there is an underlying sense here of, tell me something I don’t know, about all of this.

Sinn Féin squealing loudly about the unfairness of all of this is a bit hard to take. But they do make some interesting points.

Gerry Adams has said that Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has uncharacteristically undermined her role to politically smear Sinn Fein. Even as an admirer of the minister it is hard to disagree with Mr Adams having listened to her on the subject. That is a pity. A subtler approach would work far better.

It is, of course, frustrating to watch Sinn Féin escaping without punishment in terms of it’s public support, despite it’s evasiveness and double talk. There is also the issue of it’s cult like behaviour where we never hear externally of any form of dissent. Yes, they will tell you that this is as a result of loyalty to the party and the extraordinary kinship felt by all involved, which they will also tell you is actually enhanced by the attacks from outside quarters. But barring the ongoing issues in the Cork East constituency of Sandra McLellan, which was soap operatic in Sinn Féin terms compared to their usual stony silence, you’d never hear anything that did not involve putting the best foot forward for the party. The omerta is observed to such an extent you do have to wonder if there is some level of fear involved.

This “weirdness” of this, if I may describe it as such, was particularly evident during the IRA sex abuse allegations and the way in which the party drew the wagons around Gerry Adams. The behaviour of deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald was a particular disappointment.

No one wants a situation where the IRA still exists, even if it is on a level of criminality rather than paramilitarism. But as Michael McDowell has said the Government in which he was Minister for Justice made a “clear political calculus” when it came to the issue of whether the IRA should take some steps of formal disbandment. As he said there was a “greater evil” to be avoided in terms of the IRA metastising into something else.

While there may not have been a public acknowledgement of that at the time, for pragmatic reasons, the logic behind it was reasonable. As time went on it simply became a fact that we knew, and along with the other hard swallows involved in bringing about peace it was accepted, if not liked. For all their squealing now our current Government has not gone out of its way either to become involved in a way that might have made that IRA-lite even less relevant in the communities in which it operates.

Reading Gerry Adams’ weekly column in the Andersonstown News it’s stretches credulity to accept when he says there is no basis for the charges made against his party by their political opponents and that the matters of the deaths of the two men had nothing to do with them and there was no more they could do. But he does have a point when he says it’s the manner in which others have gone about making those charges and attempting to use them for their own political capital that takes away from their legitimacy.

The naked opportunism will make it all the more difficult for the Government to attempt to ensure the Northern Ireland Executive keeps going.