His tenacity and stamina brought transparency to an institution that responds to probing much like a vampire to sunlight - the Power Splitting Executive in the North. His book Burned is arguably the best investigative journalism to have emerged on this island in the past decade. It ruffled the feathers of the DUP as the party sought to swan around on the moral high ground before it faced its swansong as head honcho on the political block.
While not having produced anything as detailed or forensic in respect of the party that upended the DUP, four weeks ago McBride charted the journey that Sinn Fein has made in order to position itself for high office in Dublin. He would not claim to have come up with anything spectacular, even new. All he did was craft a common-sense observation, much the way a sports reporter would trace the history of a soccer club and the changes it had undergone on its way to the cup final. His crime was to write it in an economy of words with a pen that worked like a scalpel.
Later McBride would itemise the type of changes he had been referring to three weeks earlier,
Nobody yet has pointed out what in any of that is untrue. It reads much like a claim that Liverpool lost the Champions League final last season to Real Madrid. A case of stating the obvious.
In his 1995 article on Ur-Fascism Umberto Eco warned of mechanisms employed to 'limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.' It would be ludicrous to accuse Sinn Fein of being fascist or Mary Lou McDonald of being an Irish Giorgia Meloni but not so to point out that in its harassment of Sam McBride the party or its online goondas are drawing on tactics which frequently appear in the far right play book. This in a bid to stymie critical reasoning.
In a world where the far right is increasingly pushing irrational obscurantism coupled with the smear that disagreement is treason (echoes of Eco), democratic culture and vulnerable communities will depend on robust journalism strategically positioning itself at each echelon of society's defence in depth. Yet there are ongoing efforts by Sinn Fein to curb such journalism either through SLAPP - which won McDonald the SLAPP politician of the year "awarded to the politician who has proven most reliant on SLAPPs and legal intimidation to respond to opposition, dissent, or efforts at accountability" - or the type of online bullying and intimidation that is being directed at Sam McBride.
Investigative journalism is a vital asset and will prove even more so in a climate where, in the chilling words of Brecht, the bitch that bore the bastard is in heat again. Perhaps now we can better understand why they oppose abortion.
While not having produced anything as detailed or forensic in respect of the party that upended the DUP, four weeks ago McBride charted the journey that Sinn Fein has made in order to position itself for high office in Dublin. He would not claim to have come up with anything spectacular, even new. All he did was craft a common-sense observation, much the way a sports reporter would trace the history of a soccer club and the changes it had undergone on its way to the cup final. His crime was to write it in an economy of words with a pen that worked like a scalpel.
If the Sinn Féin which might soon lead Ireland’s government had been around in the 1970s, it would have been denounced by Gerry Adams as a traitorous, partitionist, capitalist capitulation to the popular mood; the antithesis of the willingness of the 1916 rebels or the Provisional IRA to disregard public opinion.
Later McBride would itemise the type of changes he had been referring to three weeks earlier,
And it’s not just Sinn Féin’s approach to violence which is different. The party’s revolution is seen in its embrace of capitalism, its support for abortion, its abandonment of hostility towards the EU, its backing for the PSNI and An Garda Síochána, its endorsement of the Special Criminal Court, and in a plethora of other areas.
Nobody yet has pointed out what in any of that is untrue. It reads much like a claim that Liverpool lost the Champions League final last season to Real Madrid. A case of stating the obvious.
Some of the things the party has changed its position on are welcome – such as supporting the right of women to choose to opt out of their own pregnancy. It seems logical that many people who previously recoiled from the party now vote for it because it has changed so much.
For pointing this out McBride has been pilloried by people not happy with him laying the facts out.
For pointing this out McBride has been pilloried by people not happy with him laying the facts out.
The response was wearily familiar to anyone who writes about Mary Lou McDonald’s party in anything less than reverential terms.
There were various strategies adopted. Anonymous accounts pretended to be terribly disappointed in me — they apparently thought I was a great chap when I was criticising the DUP, until this article opened their eyes to my inalterable bigotry.
This is transparent: Do what we like, and we’ll praise you; step out of line and we’ll decry you . . .Others were sneering. It was “fake news” from a “unionist scribe” who as a “west Brit” was too stupid to understand the sophisticated reasons behind their beloved party’s u-turns.
But the abuse quickly started, as it invariably does. Some of it was sectarian. There were references to “planters” and my “overindulgence and self-intoxication in bigoted Orangeism.
In his 1995 article on Ur-Fascism Umberto Eco warned of mechanisms employed to 'limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.' It would be ludicrous to accuse Sinn Fein of being fascist or Mary Lou McDonald of being an Irish Giorgia Meloni but not so to point out that in its harassment of Sam McBride the party or its online goondas are drawing on tactics which frequently appear in the far right play book. This in a bid to stymie critical reasoning.
Investigative journalism is a vital asset and will prove even more so in a climate where, in the chilling words of Brecht, the bitch that bore the bastard is in heat again. Perhaps now we can better understand why they oppose abortion.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
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