Mick Clifford: Political leaders risk credibility by peddling unfounded conspiracy theories
Former journalist Gemma O’Doherty produced a film about her theory that the presumed murder of a child spawned a major cover-up that involved Fianna Fáil and the gardaí.
Conspiracy theories have come in from the cold. There was a time when such theories were confined to the fringes, but no more. One only has to look at how the Jeffrey Epstein case has transfixed the American body politic.
Donald Trump propagated the theory that some form of deep state — including Democrats — had questions to answer around associations with the late paedophile. Then he got into power and saw that it was in his best interests to dismiss these theories, but the followers he had pumped up are now even more suspicious.
As trust in institutions has plummeted, it has never been easier to claim that dark forces are working against the populace at large, usually to benefit some gilded few.
These theories are designed to induce the public to believe the person purveying the stuff is on their side, standing up to dark forces. Those alleged to be behind the conspiracy are effectively dehumanised, portrayed as lacking even the most basic morals. Much, but far from all, of this muck emanates from elements of the far right.
We are not immune to it in this country. Just last week, the reported on public meetings where Sinn Féin figures repeatedly claimed that the government was en route to introducing conscription to fight some foreign wars.
A video posted on TikTok from one of the meetings had Mary Lou McDonald saying the following: “I’ve one son,” she said. “Over my dead body will my son be deployed to fight an imperialist war of aggression on any people.”
At another meeting, the Sinn Féin leader told the gathering: “We didn’t raise our children to be sent off to foreign wars … it’s up to every single one of us to do everything we can so we never see the day when Irish sons and daughters are sent away to fight imperialist wars of aggression”.
The meetings were called to assemble opposition to the Government’s proposal to do away with what is called the triple lock. The idea is to remove a stipulation that Ireland cannot deploy more than twelve troops overseas without the approval of the UN. (The other two locks are the requirement of approval from Government and the Oireachtas.)
The Government claims that the triple lock is outdated in the current, turbulent international environment. They say that it effectively means this country must get approval from the likes of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Chinese communist party before deciding how to deploy any military personnel.
Opposition parties claim that doing away with the UN element would dilute neutrality, which the government rejects.
Whatever one’s position, the notion that without the triple lock, neutrality would be done away with and conscription introduced for young people is an alarming scenario to purvey.
The obvious implication here is that this subterfuge is being conducted in cahoots with elements outside the country, maybe in Brussels, or worse, Nato.
These dark forces will then use Ireland as a recruiting ground for fodder for some imperialist war, whatever that is in today’s world. Thus, leaders like Micheál Martin and Simon Harris are, deep down, warmongers with expansionist dreams willing to accept forty pieces of silver to betray their nation.
Sinn Féin is not alone in peddling such a conspiracy theory. Here is the headline on a recent press release from People Before Profit: “Councillor Conor Reddy condemns government plans to end triple lock and involve Irish troops in imperialist wars, Says we need homes, not bombs.”
It is stated as fact that ending the triple lock will condemn this country to being a combatant in some unnamed imperialist conflicts.
Lock up your sons and daughters. Get Mary Lou to put herself before the tanks, offering her life to save the nation’s youth.
The problem with mainstream elements peddling conspiracy theories is that they can easily return to haunt you, as Trump has found out with Epstein.
Less than ten years ago, a shocking conspiracy theory had purchase among a whole raft of political parties in this country. It made its way onto not just the floor of the Dail, but the European parliament.
Former journalist Gemma O’Doherty produced a film about her theory that the presumed murder of six-year-old Mary Boyle (her body has never been discovered) in Donegal in 1977 spawned a major cover-up. It went like this: the main suspect was a member of Fianna Fáil and a local politician intervened on his behalf to tell the gardaí to leave him alone. There followed a cover-up within Fianna Fáil and the gardaí. This cover-up persisted to the present day and went all the way to the top of the party.
The theory, among other things, portrayed Micheál Martin and senior party colleagues as capable of covering up the murder of a child.
Such was the fevered promotion of the theory, I did a bit of rooting around. Suffice to say no great investigation was required to immediately identify that what was put together was without any factual basis whatsoever. There was not a scintilla of truth to what was a scurrilous campaign.
Yet, Ms O’Doherty was hailed as a fearless truth seeker. Opposition politicians were thrilled to be photographed with her outside Leinster House. Mary Lou McDonald raised the case in the Dáil while MEP Lynn Boylan raised it in the European Parliament. Nobody bothered examining it because it was too convenient to allow the absence of facts to interfere. Even as late as 2018, when others were drifting away from Ms O’Doherty, Catherine Connolly, the current presidential candidate, endorsed O'Doherty's then aspiration to be president.
We can all be guilty at times of errors, misjudgements or carelessness. But the wanton peddling of conspiracy theories by mainstream politicians in today’s world is reckless and can endanger democratic norms.
There is plenty of fodder available to mount serious opposition to a government that is endured rather than respected among a large cohort. There is much about the politics of the main parties in power to question, dispute, and even get angry about. If the triple lock is really such a fundamental element of neutrality, it should be easy to mount a cogent, factually based argument to retain it.
But when opposition is reduced to invoking conspiracy theories, inferring that leading office holders are without any basic human morals, resorting to images of offering their own lives up to save the country, then we have reached a new nadir. Let’s not go the way of other countries where a competition of ideas has been replaced by hatred, faux outrage, and the belief that those on the other side of the political aisle are capable of absolutely anything.
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