Silly season journalism and Sinn Féin

» Robbie Smyth

Eoghan Harris gets bonus points for his headline (8 July) linking Sinn Féin with Scientology. Focusing selectively on the past is an excellent strategy. So, ignoring the decades of cronyism, corruption, crazy government, pick instead some point in the past and blame today’s republicans for it.

YOU’RE a journo, it’s August, ‘the silly season’, and stuck for something to keep the bosses happy that you’re earning your keep.

You options are:-

(a)             Talk about the spirit of a new Ireland after the shame of our Celtic Tiger excesses;

(b)             Bash public sector workers, or

(c)             Lay into Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin it is then.

Attractive as this option is for ailing Coalition ministers and some journalists, there are some ground rules that must be followed.

First is the ‘critical advice mode’: Highlight Sinn Féin gains in seats and poll stats before unleashing the ‘if you want to grow more you must take the following advice’. This usually boils down to either having a new leader or changing policies.

The Sunday Business Post’s Tom McGurk is an expert here. On 8 July he wrote how: “With a mixture of timing and sheer luck, Sinn Féin looks set to become a dominant force in southern politics but can it change enough?” Definitely a column aimed at the Sunday morning, south Dublin, Marian Finucane audience.

You have to be careful though in how you set up your Sinn Féin article.

Spare some sympathy for Sunday Times Political Correspondent Sarah McInerney who back on 17 January 2010 had a nearly full-page article emphatically headlined ‘They have gone away you know’ along with a strapline telling readers ‘The party is heading for oblivion.’

Four months after Sarah predicted Sinn Féin is on its way to “oblivion”, the party tops the poll in the May 2012 Westminster election with 25.5% of the vote and (in the second election running) the highest number of votes of any party in the Six Counties, returning all five of its sitting MPs; almost exactly a year later, Sinn Féin almost trebles its Dáil representation, to 14 TDs; in the May 2011 Assembly elections, Sinn Féin consolidates its pole position as the largest nationalist party and second in the Six Counties with 29 MLAs and 178,222 votes.

Oblivion? Oh, Sarah.

Sarah wasn’t alone here, though. Enter Shane Coleman in the Sunday Tribune, 21 January 2010 who did get a whole page to describe how “Sinn Féin’s decimation has been brutal and sudden”. Sinn Féin is still here; the Sunday Tribune (regrettably) isn’t.

Outrightly snarky columns are favoured by Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil TDs. Yes, those people who actually did wield power for the last 25 years, and brought us economic collapse, massive tax inequalities, ostrich-like deregulation, bad planning, and costly wasteful government. They’ve a lot to say about Sinn Féin.

Conservative politicians in Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour gloss over the fact that Sinn Féin argued in the last decade that the economy was in speculative bubble; said there were massive problems with banking regulation, unsustainable growth, extortionate house prices, under-investment in key areas and bad government planning and strategy.

A recent example is Education Minister Ruairí Quinn who attacked Mary Lou McDonald in the Dáil (5 July) complaining about “the voodoo economics you spout in here”. It’s been a long time since ‘Ho Chi Quinn’ had the ‘Vive le Gauche’ sign adorning his constituency office window.

A favourite columnist is Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes. In June, after the McGuinness handshake, Hayes complained in the Sunday Independent that RTÉ was “dancing to Sinn Féin’s tune” (if only!). The same day’s front-page lead headlined ‘Sinn Féin’s ‘cheap little power game’ with Queen’.

Eoghan Harris gets bonus points for his headline (8 July) linking Sinn Féin with Scientology. Focusing selectively on the past is an excellent strategy. So, ignoring the decades of cronyism, corruption, crazy government, pick instead some point in the past and blame today’s republicans for it.

Enda Kenny is trying to take over from Michael Collins and I am not sure he can pull it off. First off there is a date issue. It used to be that we commemorate centenaries. However, on 15 August, Michael Noonan popped up to launch the Collins 90th anniversary commemorative coin, and Kenny became the first Taoiseach on 19 August to speak at a Collins Commemoration.

Kenny, still in Obama mode proclaimed: “Here at Béal na mBláth, as Taoiseach, I give you my word that I will not rest, our Government will not rest, until Ireland has reclaimed and restored its economic sovereignty”.

Fascinating, but that week was also the 90th anniversary of the death of Arthur Griffith. Wasn’t he the one who promoted the idea of peaceful opposition and striving for economic sovereignty while Collins was the one with the guns, ruthless assassinations, spy rings, arms dealing, bank robbing, etc, etc?

Must be an ‘old’ IRA thing.