22 January 1998 Edition
A man of menace
By Eoghan MacCormaic
Have you ever wondered where the Iraqis get all their US flags from when they take to the streets of Baghdad to protest. I've often wondered about this matter.
Y'see, you'd think that for some time now it would be sort of difficult to walk into a shop in Iraq and ask for The Stars and Stripes. Heads would turn; eyes would roll. Or maybe eyes would turn and heads would roll. Either way, it wouldn't be a popular commercial purchase.
And yet, at the first sign of a protest, there's always a few flags on hand to add a bit of fire to the anger. Where do they come from? Is there a secret factory producing flammable US flags in Iraq? Is this what the Americans are really looking for? Or is all that film footage a blast from the past, a repeat? Are all those flags taken down from some back shelf, dusted off and brought back into focus just when Saddam wants to direct the public attention somewhere else?
News is a manageable commodity and a commodity that is used to manage us. Image is everything and a camera or a microphone in the right place can work wonders to shift the emphasis on a news story. I was thinking about that this week as RTÉ tried to `analyse' the continuing loyalist murder campaign against nationalists and Catholics. The Pat Kenny show, on radio, wheeled out Denis Faul, and his logic was as bizarre and as solidly anti-republican as ever. We were, in fact, on a time warped trip into the realms of the clergyman's imagination and in light of the murders it was eerie to see how easily RTÉ can slip back into the eighties mode of blaming the victims for their own deaths.
Despite all the evidence, despite all the complaints for years, despite collusion and complicity with loyalist death squads, Faul told Pat that 2,000 Catholics should join the RUC. It got worse. `Catholics', he elaborated, really wanted to support the RUC. The problem was The Provos. Yes indeed. Just as the Iraqis have their store of Old Glories, Denis Faul has his store of old stories.
The Provos are really to blame for the LVF/UFF death squads. `Ordinary people are afraid to call the police,' he said. On that much we can agree. `When they hear shots in the night they think it's another Provo punishment shooting, and they don't phone the RUC'. Kenny didn't think to question Faul on the level of such punishment shootings or when the last one occurred. That would have spoiled a good anti-Provo rant.
On and on it went. Punishment beatings, intimidation, little dictators, bullies, only a few bad apples in the RUC, etc. It was Faul at his worst, as he sought to reconstruct the RUC and blame nationalists for their own suffering. You wouldn't know who to be more angry with, Faul for his diatribe or RTÉ for airing it. And it was a gross insult to the families and neighbours of the six nationalists murdered since Christmas, people, according to Faul's warped reasoning, who only had themselves to blame.
Have you ever wondered where the Iraqis get all their US flags from when they take to the streets of Baghdad to protest. I've often wondered about this matter.
Y'see, you'd think that for some time now it would be sort of difficult to walk into a shop in Iraq and ask for The Stars and Stripes. Heads would turn; eyes would roll. Or maybe eyes would turn and heads would roll. Either way, it wouldn't be a popular commercial purchase.
And yet, at the first sign of a protest, there's always a few flags on hand to add a bit of fire to the anger. Where do they come from? Is there a secret factory producing flammable US flags in Iraq? Is this what the Americans are really looking for? Or is all that film footage a blast from the past, a repeat? Are all those flags taken down from some back shelf, dusted off and brought back into focus just when Saddam wants to direct the public attention somewhere else?
News is a manageable commodity and a commodity that is used to manage us. Image is everything and a camera or a microphone in the right place can work wonders to shift the emphasis on a news story. I was thinking about that this week as RTÉ tried to `analyse' the continuing loyalist murder campaign against nationalists and Catholics. The Pat Kenny show, on radio, wheeled out Denis Faul, and his logic was as bizarre and as solidly anti-republican as ever. We were, in fact, on a time warped trip into the realms of the clergyman's imagination and in light of the murders it was eerie to see how easily RTÉ can slip back into the eighties mode of blaming the victims for their own deaths.
Despite all the evidence, despite all the complaints for years, despite collusion and complicity with loyalist death squads, Faul told Pat that 2,000 Catholics should join the RUC. It got worse. `Catholics', he elaborated, really wanted to support the RUC. The problem was The Provos. Yes indeed. Just as the Iraqis have their store of Old Glories, Denis Faul has his store of old stories.
The Provos are really to blame for the LVF/UFF death squads. `Ordinary people are afraid to call the police,' he said. On that much we can agree. `When they hear shots in the night they think it's another Provo punishment shooting, and they don't phone the RUC'. Kenny didn't think to question Faul on the level of such punishment shootings or when the last one occurred. That would have spoiled a good anti-Provo rant.
On and on it went. Punishment beatings, intimidation, little dictators, bullies, only a few bad apples in the RUC, etc. It was Faul at his worst, as he sought to reconstruct the RUC and blame nationalists for their own suffering. You wouldn't know who to be more angry with, Faul for his diatribe or RTÉ for airing it. And it was a gross insult to the families and neighbours of the six nationalists murdered since Christmas, people, according to Faul's warped reasoning, who only had themselves to blame.