I’m in a really grumpy mood. I’m doing my best to avoid nonsensical election coverage, but decisions must be made in what may turn out to be one of the most important elections of this still immature century. As usual, the media descends into the worst of horse-race journalism. Rather than scrutinising party policies and fairytale economics, headlines scream about the television debates.
Why can’t Mary Lou McDonald take part? (Because she’s not a candidate for Taoiseach). No one landed a «knock-out blow» on Wednesday night. (Aw! It’s like a Formula One race with no crash. What a bore.) Watch this 10-second clip of the Taoiseach pausing before answering a question about drug use! (As if I’m going to vote based on the expression on someone’s face for half a second in a television studio.)Log In
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Fortunately, the discerning readers of this column expect more from me so I’ll explain why I’ll be voting Fine Gael. I arrive at my position mostly but not entirely by a process of elimination. My first goal is to avoid at all costs the prospect of Sinn Féin coming anywhere near power. There are many reasons for this, but let’s start with the terrorism. I know this seems a quaint point when made to an uneducated younger generation and creates cognitive dissonance for journalists who don’t like to be reminded of the very recent past. But in 2015, Mary Lou McDonald described Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy as a «very typical rural man», «very nice» and even «very approachable». Murphy, for those who never knew or have chosen to forget, was the leading Provo IRA godfather from south Armagh’s bandit country.
Let me repeat: she said that in 2015. How can so many journalists declare themselves bored by the apparently tedious fact she said an infamous director of terrorism was «very nice». What is wrong with people who want to turn their backs on this blatant moral turpitude?Sinn Féin may be facilitated into government in Northern Ireland through the legal mechanisms of the peace agreements, but we in the Republic have a choice. To choose to ignore and dismiss McDonald’s fine opinion of terrorists is something I cannot fathom.
Secondly, when Sinn Féin is presented with the opportunity to govern, the party refuses to do it. The party had six MPs that should have been in Westminster helping us with Brexit. There were nights when key votes turned on two and three votes. Their abstentionism trumped their patriotism. Meanwhile in Stormont, the party collapsed the executive twice for three-year periods, leaving Northern Ireland with no government. The paralysis and harm this inflicted didn’t matter to its MLAs.
The ‘cash for ash’ inquiry has revealed that Sinn Féin finance minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir was emailing leading senior republicans Pádraic Wilson, the former officer commanding of the IRA in the Maze, and Ted Howell, looking for instructions as to whether or not he could agree to the inquiry. If he’s doing that, is McDonald doing that? Is any political journalist going to ask if she’s seeking permission from the IRA to make political decisions? No. They’re banging on about whether or not she should take part in a TV debate, distracting everyone from the implications of Wilson and his friends getting access to Garda files if Sinn Féin ends up in government. Then there’s Fianna Fáil. As history shows, once a generation the party bankrupts the country. It is astonishing to me that having got out of the bailout just a few short years ago, so many journalists are actually buying the line that Fianna Fáil was a mere innocent bystander for most of the 20 years it governed Ireland prior to the collapse.
Apparently, the crash was all about the global economy and not the fatal mismanagement of public spending or failure to keep an eye on Seán Quinn and Seán FitzPatrick. That’s a convenient narrative being propped up by the media.
How can people forget so soon the trauma, the unemployment, the emigration and the suicides? The economy has recovered. Some people never will. Micheál Martin is a likeable man who has behaved decently in opposition, but he was part of the problem and he cannot escape responsibility for that. I’m as frustrated as the next person by the fact big problems like health and housing seem to be stuck in a rut. But we only got back on track in 2016. What we need now is a government that can govern and solve these complex problems without requiring the permission of the opposition or a random Independent TD. So if you didn’t like the slow movement of the last government, blame new politics. And so we come to the final process of elimination — the splitters. As DCU political scientist Gary Murphy wrote recently, the most likely outcome of this election is instability. A vote for an Independent, random soft left party or Green is simply a proxy vote for someone else, for fragmentation and for paralysis. The challenge for voters is to accept that a choice must be made. It’s either Fianna Fáil back again or Fine Gael. That is the real choice, as depressing as it is. So the only possible answer is Fine Gael, with sufficient seats to crack on and solve some of the difficult problems we face. That’s not an easy choice, but the relief of clarity comes simply by looking at the alternative.
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