WHATEVER you might think of them, it would be hard to argue against the assertion that Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald and, especially, Michelle O’Neill have not put a toe wrong over the past two weeks.
In touch with their constituencies and the national mood, they asserted a new politics into an old argument. At once they defended the people of the Garvaghy Road and managed to keep their obligations to their respective parliaments, and not flinch in the face of unionist and media hostility. If Sinn Féin come out top in next year’s Assembly elections, many will point to this fortnight as a significant factor. And Mícheál Martin appears to be seething.
During the past week there was an opportunity for Dublin to flex its muscles as the senior guarantor to the Good Friday Agreement. With its staff and offices on the ground enjoying meaningful relationships with individuals and organisations across the North and real-time institutional memory of the challenges the Portadown Orange and their Svengalis have unleashed, it was the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs that could have made a speedy and meaningful difference. Instead, Micheál Martin was inept, slow and silent. Until he decided to speak, and then it was to attack Sinn Féin.
Sadly, it was not hard to see why. I have long argued that Mícheál Martin is a patriot, but this week he failed in his duty because he is jealous and afraid of Sinn Féin. It is personal animus, and it clouds his judgement. He, unlike all of the other shades of nationalism and republicanism on the island, decided to promote personal rather than national interest when the Garvaghy Road residents faced the prospect of an unwanted triumphalist coat-trail being forced past their homes. His public statements could have drawn on the Reconciliation Fund’s decades of support for the Orange Order, or the now well-established Shared Island Unit’s reconciliation learning (whatever that might be), and provided a path to a soft landing for the Portadown Orange Order and the mortified rest of the Orange.
He could have sent official delegations to the Garvaghy Road to understand the trauma and the impact of unresolved violations that were reawakened by the Parades Commission determination, and ensured that this would inform wider and current approaches to legacy. He could have sent anyone from Fianna Fáil to stand on the platform on Saturday with every other nationalist party on the island, other than Fine Gael. Instead, this leader of the Soldiers of Destiny has decided that his best approach is to attack Sinn Féin. He didn’t just stand idly by, he joined forces with the pygmies, matching Bryson and Lockhart in displacement of accountability for the situation we are in.
One of the huge lessons of the past two weeks is what Irish nationalism and republicanism can achieve when they join together and put aside the personal and deeply felt grievances for the greater good. A single unity of purpose, with respectful cooperation and acknowledgement of difference, can move mountains. Imagine if the Irish government, which abandoned this region after partition, but has since Brexit promised to do better, decided to protect Irish citizens and their rights meaningfully.
They have done it on legacy, but we need more. Personal feelings or hurts cannot be allowed to get in the way if we are to ensure the Good Friday Agreement is meaningfully guaranteed.
