THE joint decision of Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill not to attend the White House St Patrick’s Day celebrations was the correct one. As we face into the international storm that is coming, with US abdication of domestic and international law, this decision will stand the test of time.
The mile that was taken by Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly in Michelle O’Neill’s absence is worth noting, however. Promoting the life out of the Washington circuit of Irishness was an interesting choice by her and her press people.
St Patrick’s Day is not a pseudo-British celebration, it is an Irish holiday, made huge by the Irish diaspora asserting their Irish culture, heritage and increasing soft international power. The spaces created in Washington are in acknowledgement of Irish interests being at the heart of American interests. That there is no equivalent space for Britishness in the US calendar has forced the NIO and unionism to shoehorn their message and press operation into the narrative.
In recent years the British ambassadorial mission to the United States has been one of defending disastrous decision making. From Brexit to the Legacy Act, the British policy in Ireland has undermined the Good Friday Agreement, and in America this is viewed grimly with the United States viewing itself as the third guarantor of the Agreement. With the DUP cheerleading British policies rather than the Good Friday Agreement, the party’s influence has not been what they wanted.
This year, the NIO and the DUP sought to take advantage of Sinn Féin’s absence. Emma Little-Pengelly went gung ho in the “interest of Northern Ireland”, and a compliant local media played ball with front pages and column inches devoted to her one-woman show. Not one outlet seemed to show any discomfort at the mile being taken at the inch of Michelle O’Neill’s boycott. Indeed, rather than scrutinise the appropriateness of Ms Little-Pengelly’s approach, or any negative impact it might be creating to the joint office, Mícheál Martin’s statement that Michelle O’Neill had made a mistake by not going was given far more coverage.
But that photo op blitz is over now and the realities of politics at home must be faced.
Stormont is facing a crisis of confidence. We cannot pretend that the collapse of 2017 has not had a huge impact. Nationalism and republicanism are finished with the hubris of anti-Irishness and DUP arrogance. A new start to relationships and the devolved government should have meant that our confidence in the institutions would be built with respect and good manners. Instead, what we face is being peed on and told it is raining. We know that the DUP is preventing progress at the Executive by not allowing papers to be discussed. We know that we do not have Casement and little prospect of it as we sit this week. We know that the GAA is being treated with derision. We know that the Irish language is being attacked, albeit in more nuanced ways.
Such is the passive aggressive environment that one suspects cosying up to Trump to promote 'Northern Ireland' and getting hundreds of photo ops is as much about asserting a mirage of political influence and dominance.
All of which undermines the fragile confidence in the institutions, if we ever had any in the first place.
