I suppose that, in current circumstances, it's popular to
take cheap shots at Anthony McIntyre, Ed Moloney and other participants in
Boston College’s Belfast Project. Martin
Mansergh certainly shows that he’s not above engaging in such low-levelpolitics.
Particularly pernicious is Mansergh’s comment that:
No one foresaw that internal opponents of the peace process would become so embittered as to testify against Adams, albeit as part of a research project under supposedly guaranteed lifetime confidentiality.
This language is dangerously provocative and
grossly inaccurate: no one in the Belfast Project agreed “to testify against
Adams.” To suggest that giving oral
testimony in a research project is tantamount to “testifying” comes
uncomfortably close to labelling participants as “touts.” It’s unfortunate that Mansergh believes it
necessary to single out, demonize and marginalize “dissidents” in order to
advance the peace process.
Mansergh equates McIntyre’s and Moloney’s critiques of Sinn
Fein with a degree of impartiality and unprofessionalism that should have
disqualified them from involvement in the Belfast Project. His “evidence” of bias is a handful of
quotations from McIntyre’s book Good Friday: The Death of Irish
Republicanism. But McIntyre’s and
Moloney’s positions are much more substantial and less reliant on polemics than
Mansergh’s self-serving quotations suggest.
It seems to me that both authors, in numerous places and over many
years, have mounted a sustained, well-documented and powerful counter narrative
to Sinn Fein’s account of the transition from conflict to peace.
To understand the tragedies and challenges of contemporary
politics in the north of Ireland, it’s necessary to hear from a diversity of
voices. Neither those who oppose Sinn
Fein nor those who support Fianna Fail should be bullied into silence.
Why an amnesty is needed in the North
ReplyDeletemansergh was around for the mega corruption of the haughey ahern era. these are the guys that gave away 450 billion worth of oil and gas remember. mansergh is showing his true colours now. they (ff)) are nothing but a shower of corrupt bullies and traitors. if they tried to get 5 million out of a london irish builder (gilmartin) i wonder what the asking price for our natural resources were. theyd be kicked out of nigeria for being too corrupt. minister for finance with no bank account. you couldnt make it up. and this mansergh is their intellectual gimp. what a sad little cuntry.
ReplyDeleteBoston College tapes: McIntyre gave interview to archive
ReplyDelete