There was no late tackle from the Late Late front man. I even found myself laughing when she quipped that relaxation time for her is when she gets home to her "mansion." It was the moment the interview, not difficult to begin with, swung decisively in her favour. The victory lap came when she suggested that for the first time since the formation of this state the citizens it governs have a chance to elect an administration which does not include Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. Even though the offer is to get rid of Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and hand the reins to Tweedleduh, the audience was with her and its applause must have sent a shudder through the other two establishment parties.
Other because Sinn Fein has worked assiduously to become the established order's loyal opposition. McDonald's statement that the likelihood of her party in government with Fine Gael is a long shot is probably only because Fine Gael is more of an ideological party than Sinn Fein and might not be as eager to abandon everything it purported to believe in just to get jacksies on ministerial seats. Hard to see it calling for an end to the Special Criminal Court equating with Sinn Fein's flip in the opposite direction. But watch how the long shot over the next two years starts to shorten.
On the Late Late, McDonald waxed glowingly of the sterling job both the no jury court and the Garda were doing in the fight against gangland. An affirmative nod that Sinn Fein has not the slightest intention of being a party of the Left, but a party of the establishment. A party for whom the battle cry has been change has seen itself change beyond recognition from the days when its leader was a member of the IRA Army Council, so that it can slot into the establishment with the minimum of fuss. As Vincent Browne intuited almost seven years ago:
It is not just that McDonald and the previous president have been reported to be millionaires, and millionaires are no more in favour of equality or change than bishops favour same sex marriage. It is much more structural than the appetites of millionaires. Sinn Fein has been interpellated -- in the Althusserian meaning of the term -- by the dominant memes of capitalist society in preparation for becoming part of the ruling bloc. It is a system guarding imperative. It will not in the slightest alter how the ruling bloc rules.
It is not that Sinn Féin is a threat to the established order, it is that Sinn Féin wants to become part of the established order.
It is not just that McDonald and the previous president have been reported to be millionaires, and millionaires are no more in favour of equality or change than bishops favour same sex marriage. It is much more structural than the appetites of millionaires. Sinn Fein has been interpellated -- in the Althusserian meaning of the term -- by the dominant memes of capitalist society in preparation for becoming part of the ruling bloc. It is a system guarding imperative. It will not in the slightest alter how the ruling bloc rules.
In this scenario there is not a chance that Sinn Fein will build 100,000 homes in five years. McDonald's slogan -- it is not a strategy -- of "just build" is not merely populist. It is as vacuous as praying for the houses to magically appear. The previous leader would have given out 100, 000 wheelie bins and then claimed to have provided enough shelter with roofs over the heads of an equivalent number of people, snarling at anybody suggesting his claim was literally rubbish. McDonald does not have the latitude for error afforded to her predecessor who few considered Taoiseach material. She is a serious contender and the stakes are high. Little room for nonsense or dancing naked with dogs on a trampoline in her 'mansion."
Steady as she hopes to go, the choppiness might only have been avoided on the Late Late because the elephant in the room was not allowed to trumpet its presence to the extent that would have allowed for a less anodyne exchange. She will not be out of the woods until the current Hutch trial has concluded and is no longer sub judice. An Irish Independent poll claims to reveal that an uncomfortably large number of people believe there are links between Sinn Fein aligned Northerners and Dublin gangland.
The allegations levelled by Jonathan Dowdall - a state witness in the Hutch trial - in illegally obtained tape recordings will be viewed in many circles as all the more credible because he didn't realise he was being taped and might therefore have had no reason to be guarded. At the same time, there is no compelling reason to feel he was not boasting to Hutch as they journeyed to and from the North allegedly to meet senior figures in the Provisional IRA.
Mary Lou McDonald certainly does not have the presentational issues as Sean O'Rourke so pointedly observed of Gerry Adams. He only had to deny something for it to become officially believed. She might help her own cause in fending off disquieting suggestions about supposed Sinn Fein links to gangsterism if, when asked does she still believe Adams when he claims never to have been a member of the IRA, she flatly replies in the negative. If she says she continues to believe him, chances are nobody is going to believe her.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
Very good well written article which I enjoyed reading
ReplyDeleteSo Sinn Fein in power will build 100,000 houses in 5 years no mention of providing the infrastructure to facilitate the people who will live in them
ReplyDelete