17 July 1997 Edition
Bruton reverts to type
BY MICHEAL MacDONNCHA
His anti-republican rhetoric may have been somewhat curtailed during his term of Taoiseach but now in opposition John Bruton has fully reverted to type and this week launched a tirade against Sinn Féin, which was directed as much against the Fianna Fáil-led government.
Bruton spoke of the risk of the Dublin government being ``dragged along forever in a cat and mouse game by the skilled propagandists who run the republican movement and who alterantively use victimhood and violence as tools of their political trade''. This statement in the Irish Independent on Monday was followed by an even more over-the-top comment two days later when Bruton attacked Social Welfare Minister Dermot Ahern for the administrative arrangement whereby correspondence from his department to Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghin O Caoláin will be signed by the minister himself. In response to this bureaucratic nicety Bruton asked if the government ``has any appreciation at all of the security interests of this state, and those who live in it''.
Caoimhghin O Caoláin rejected Bruton's attempts to undermine the right of Sinn Féin voters to representation:
``John Bruton talks as if patience, diligence and determination in securing a credible peace process are faults. Mr Bruton as Taoiseach inherited an historic opportunity for peace which had been painstakingly created by others. Sinn Féin was a key element in securing that opportunity. When it was squandered and the peace process and the hopes it carried were dashed, we in Sinn Féin set about trying to rebuild it. We have not been deflected in spite of the huge difficulties created by British government bad faith, unionist intransigence and Mr Bruton's mishandling of it. It is not only legitimate but vital to ask for clarity at this time.
``We will not walk away from the search for peace. Our voters have the same right to representation as those who vote for other parties and I reject Mr Bruton's attempt to dismiss that right and undermine those who are trying to rebuild the peace process.''
His anti-republican rhetoric may have been somewhat curtailed during his term of Taoiseach but now in opposition John Bruton has fully reverted to type and this week launched a tirade against Sinn Féin, which was directed as much against the Fianna Fáil-led government.
Bruton spoke of the risk of the Dublin government being ``dragged along forever in a cat and mouse game by the skilled propagandists who run the republican movement and who alterantively use victimhood and violence as tools of their political trade''. This statement in the Irish Independent on Monday was followed by an even more over-the-top comment two days later when Bruton attacked Social Welfare Minister Dermot Ahern for the administrative arrangement whereby correspondence from his department to Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghin O Caoláin will be signed by the minister himself. In response to this bureaucratic nicety Bruton asked if the government ``has any appreciation at all of the security interests of this state, and those who live in it''.
Caoimhghin O Caoláin rejected Bruton's attempts to undermine the right of Sinn Féin voters to representation:
``John Bruton talks as if patience, diligence and determination in securing a credible peace process are faults. Mr Bruton as Taoiseach inherited an historic opportunity for peace which had been painstakingly created by others. Sinn Féin was a key element in securing that opportunity. When it was squandered and the peace process and the hopes it carried were dashed, we in Sinn Féin set about trying to rebuild it. We have not been deflected in spite of the huge difficulties created by British government bad faith, unionist intransigence and Mr Bruton's mishandling of it. It is not only legitimate but vital to ask for clarity at this time.
``We will not walk away from the search for peace. Our voters have the same right to representation as those who vote for other parties and I reject Mr Bruton's attempt to dismiss that right and undermine those who are trying to rebuild the peace process.''