Anthony McIntyre ponders on the self-harm Sinn Fein has a penchant for inflicting.

By the rules of the game that Sinn Fein has opted to play, party figures keep making the same boob, apparently oblivious to Einstein’s definition of insanity. Nothing is gonna change no matter how many times its leading lights experience a rare public Up the Ra moment. 

So once they start staggering or swaggering out to punch the air with a bellow of Praise The Provos, their veneration is certain to be short lived. It is never going to evoke from the political class, to which it now belongs, a loud murmur of Amen, Hallelujah to the H Block hunger strikers. The response will invariably be, go to the sin bin until you come back wearing a monkey suit.   

Sinn Fein has stepped onto the very landmine it, of its own volition, laid. Brian Stanley, chair of the Dail’s Public Accounts Committee, is the latest head on the chopping block, now nervously wondering if the axe will fall. His was a triple tweet whammy, the first salvo of which was launched by way of a barrack buster:

kilmicheal (1920) and narrow water (1979) the 2 IRA operations that taught the elite of d British army and the establishment the cost of occupying Ireland. Pity for everyone they were such slow learners.”

Setting aside the gloating tone of his comment - always hard to make allowances for - what Stanley is being slapped down for by his critics is the Narrow Water operation and his linking of it to Kilmichael, both of which produced hefty British military casualties. Fianna Gael and Fine Fail – it really is that hard to tell the difference – at least can stand over the actions of the War that launched their post partition political projects. Not so Sinn Fein. It is sent scurrying in search of an apology each time its members venture out to justify any aspect of the Provisional IRA’s armed struggle. It unfailingly obliges.

Despite Stanley's praise for the lesson taught to the British for their "occupation" of Ireland, the British presence remains on the very same terms that it did at the time of Narrow Water: consent of a majority in the North. 

Therein lies Sinn Fein's dilemma. It has abandoned the coercion principle it once gave unambiguous support to, in favour of the consent principle, yet wants to sentimentalise the instrument of coercion. What it painfully discovers, without learning from, is that once the ground on which Themselves Alone stood is vacated, hollowed out is any substance to its legitimising of the attempted armed coercion of Britain out of Ireland, and by force of arms compel the North to become part of a unitary state against the wishes of a majority of the Northern population. Acceptance of the unity only by consent formula thrusts a dagger straight through the heart of any historical legitimacy the Provisional IRA campaign laid claim to. It also makes it relatively easy for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to stand over their IRA forbearers while making Sinn Fein uncomfortable when it seeks to stand over the Provisional IRA. Our IRA good: your IRA bad. And because of Sinn Fein's readiness to blink first, it works. Better to say nothing than to unsay in the afternoon what had been said in the morning. 

Given what Sinn Fein ultimately settled for - on terms the Provisional IRA fought against, not for - the Provo campaign could only make sense if the body had operated as the armed wing of the SDLP. The demands of the SDLP were met in the Good Friday Agreement which at the same time rejected the Provisional methodology and aim of unity through coercion. Yet it proved enough to end the Provisional IRA campaign. As Glenn Patterson caustically observed in 2008: "Applying the 1919-21 war of independence's model of end results would give us the war of devolution with a north-south dimension."

That was not worth a single life, neither Para, Provo nor the countless others who died for what was on offer in 1973. Seamus Mallon rather than Brian Stanley identified the slow learners. 

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Don't Lead With Your Chin

Anthony McIntyre ponders on the self-harm Sinn Fein has a penchant for inflicting.

By the rules of the game that Sinn Fein has opted to play, party figures keep making the same boob, apparently oblivious to Einstein’s definition of insanity. Nothing is gonna change no matter how many times its leading lights experience a rare public Up the Ra moment. 

So once they start staggering or swaggering out to punch the air with a bellow of Praise The Provos, their veneration is certain to be short lived. It is never going to evoke from the political class, to which it now belongs, a loud murmur of Amen, Hallelujah to the H Block hunger strikers. The response will invariably be, go to the sin bin until you come back wearing a monkey suit.   

Sinn Fein has stepped onto the very landmine it, of its own volition, laid. Brian Stanley, chair of the Dail’s Public Accounts Committee, is the latest head on the chopping block, now nervously wondering if the axe will fall. His was a triple tweet whammy, the first salvo of which was launched by way of a barrack buster:

kilmicheal (1920) and narrow water (1979) the 2 IRA operations that taught the elite of d British army and the establishment the cost of occupying Ireland. Pity for everyone they were such slow learners.”

Setting aside the gloating tone of his comment - always hard to make allowances for - what Stanley is being slapped down for by his critics is the Narrow Water operation and his linking of it to Kilmichael, both of which produced hefty British military casualties. Fianna Gael and Fine Fail – it really is that hard to tell the difference – at least can stand over the actions of the War that launched their post partition political projects. Not so Sinn Fein. It is sent scurrying in search of an apology each time its members venture out to justify any aspect of the Provisional IRA’s armed struggle. It unfailingly obliges.

Despite Stanley's praise for the lesson taught to the British for their "occupation" of Ireland, the British presence remains on the very same terms that it did at the time of Narrow Water: consent of a majority in the North. 

Therein lies Sinn Fein's dilemma. It has abandoned the coercion principle it once gave unambiguous support to, in favour of the consent principle, yet wants to sentimentalise the instrument of coercion. What it painfully discovers, without learning from, is that once the ground on which Themselves Alone stood is vacated, hollowed out is any substance to its legitimising of the attempted armed coercion of Britain out of Ireland, and by force of arms compel the North to become part of a unitary state against the wishes of a majority of the Northern population. Acceptance of the unity only by consent formula thrusts a dagger straight through the heart of any historical legitimacy the Provisional IRA campaign laid claim to. It also makes it relatively easy for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to stand over their IRA forbearers while making Sinn Fein uncomfortable when it seeks to stand over the Provisional IRA. Our IRA good: your IRA bad. And because of Sinn Fein's readiness to blink first, it works. Better to say nothing than to unsay in the afternoon what had been said in the morning. 

Given what Sinn Fein ultimately settled for - on terms the Provisional IRA fought against, not for - the Provo campaign could only make sense if the body had operated as the armed wing of the SDLP. The demands of the SDLP were met in the Good Friday Agreement which at the same time rejected the Provisional methodology and aim of unity through coercion. Yet it proved enough to end the Provisional IRA campaign. As Glenn Patterson caustically observed in 2008: "Applying the 1919-21 war of independence's model of end results would give us the war of devolution with a north-south dimension."

That was not worth a single life, neither Para, Provo nor the countless others who died for what was on offer in 1973. Seamus Mallon rather than Brian Stanley identified the slow learners. 

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

5 comments:

  1. Sinn Fein are quickly becoming the Basil Fawlty or Hyancth Bucket of Irish politics they want to be at the top table but have no idea how to behave when they get there. Their needfulness to become accepted is driving them mad why do people keep scolding us, they just don’t get that every politician can’t wait to nail some scandal on the another’s back it’s what they do best
    Why are they apologising is their need to be accepted driving them so badly or madly? I was in the company of an FF TD many years ago and remember his quote like it was yesterday “as a politician never say something you can’t stand over “

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  2. Great article. So why are they seemingly doing so well in the opinion polls . Mind boggling .

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    1. They are doing well in the polls because they look fresh compared to the staleness of what is in office. Their ability to progress was held back by the odour of decomposition which caused too many to hold their noses. But once they put Mary Lou in place a rise seemed certain, notwithstanding the wobbles. They are unlikely to make any change in government if they get in. More of the same - they will just invent different ways to describe the mush they serve up.

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  3. My take on that Tweet is that, even with the withdrawl, basically it plays well with the nationalist electorate. The Parachute regiment are reviled across Ireland, with much justification, and the deaths of 16 of them at Narrow Water was (is?) seen as belated comeuppance for Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday. Narrow Water, unlike the Mountbatten murders, is about the "cleanest" IRA operation one can think of.

    AM is right in that from a political legitimacy perspective, Narrow Water is unjustifiable. But from a crude, street level eye-for-an-eye perspective, Narrow Water was not only justified, it was necessary, and welcome.

    Stanley, I think, knew that among most nationalist voters, linking punishing the Parachute regiment with the war of independence, and both with contemporary Sinn Fein, was a win-win situation.

    I don't know many SDLP voters, but I do think that in private moments, most of the nationalist electorate would agree that Narrow Water was justified, even necessary.

    Sinn Fein wouldn't gloat about shooting a 50 year old part-time UDR man with the same vim as they do Narrow Water, and for good reason. Nationalist support for the IRA was always elastic and very conditional. The same was probably true within the unionist electorate for the UDA/UVF - not many would support shooting a politically uninvolved Catholic cab-driver, but not many would condemn the killing of a Sinn Fein councillor.

    All in all, Stanley's Tweet was probably a gain for Sinn Fein. At worst, it wasn't a loss. Nobody won't vote for them because they bragged about killing a load of Para's.

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    1. the last documentary I saw on the matter one of the journalists commented that the Paras were so reviled that there was little sympathy for them when they took the hit.
      However, the Shinners are not so surefooted as the above comment would suggest they should be. Stanley's reluctance to hold his ground is an indication that they are apprehensive about something. If not the electorate, what?
      In my view the electorate don't give a toss for the Paras and will be demanding no apology for it either.

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