The party's latest uncomfortable foray into the media crosshairs results from one of its members having vandalised a portrait of a former Belfast mayor. Then DUP councillor Wallace Brown, now Baron Browne of Belmont, served as mayor in 2005-2006.
The motivation for the damage to the portrait remains unclear but it's probably too much to expect that it is just a coincidence, wholly detached from the removal of the portrait of former Sinn Fein mayor, Niall Ó Donnghaile, at the DUP's insistence.
While Sinn Fein readily agreed to the DUP request for Ó Donnghaile to be airbrushed from the official memory of Belfast City Hall, there may have been some within the party who found DUP grandstanding difficult to swallow.
The incident occurred after an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of an Irish language group, Glór na Móna. Presumably, drink was taken and through inebriated eyes the Brown portrait acquired horns.
Some online barbs have been thrown Sinn Fein's way, accusing it of ratting out one of its own members to the cops just to show how establishment the party is. While not wholly misleading in terms of the party eagerness to build its establishment credentials, 'ratted' is used more to club than to clarify. Sinn Fein, beleaguered by scandals, is increasingly nervous. It is not that it necessarily revelled in reporting the offending member, but felt compelled to report him because of the situational logic which has boxed it in. As it has been effectively assuming the role of the gamekeeper in pursuit of all poachers, it finds itself snookered by the establishment rules, leaving it in dread of being framed as a party unwilling to play by the very rules it insists others must observe.
The Sinn Fein member responsible has resigned from both his employment and the party, inviting reflection on there only being room at the party inn for those types Bobby Sands pejoratively characterised as 'systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots.' This is not to advocate that Sinn Fein should break the law but it does underscore the journey into establishment constitutionalism that it has made while simultaneously pretending to be taking on the establishment.
In terms of allegations levelled at some Sinn Fein members since the resignations of two party press officials over the Michael McMonagle affair, this portrait defacement is hardly major league. Somebody not sympathetic to the party commented today that at least somebody within Sinn Fein was still a rebel. While vandalising the portrait was not the wisest of actions it is hard to get too worked up over it. Nobody dead, nobody glorifying the use of homicidal violence.
What seems worthy of more attention is the DUP response. Not that the party complained - it has every right to even if Gavin Robinson has gone off in search of a conspiracy fiction suggesting possible anti-Semitic motives - but the choice of complainant, Dean McCullough:
One cannot but question, therefore, if this is in any way linked to the rightful removal of the portrait of former Belfast Lord Mayor, Niall Ó Donnghaile - following yet another Sinn Fein scandal. Let us be clear, we will not tolerate the portraits of upstanding public servants, and Democratic Unionists, being damaged in our City Hall.
McCullough continues to remain oblivious to his own scandalous behaviour which was considerably more malign than people damaging portraits: eulogising those who massacred a civilian population. His eviction from Belfast City Hall would be a much more 'rightful removal' than taking down the Niall Ó Donnghaile portrait.
Definitely not the type of politician whose portrait should ever hang in the City Hall. The contempt expressed by Dean McCullough for the innocent of Bloody Sunday is much more malign than any amount of disfigured portraits.
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McCullough would do well to remember that even the UDR refused to deploy on the Shankill until the Para's were removed from the area. How he can sickeningly vaunt them as a totem of respectability is beyond me. I still remember my Da who was an SNCO back then telling me that the Para's were never to be trusted, and that was after I made a comment about them opening up on a car that drove through a checkpoint.
ReplyDeleteBut back to the original point, the Shinners I remember would have kept such a short lease on all members that the litany of crap that's coming out at the moment is extraordinary. Either someone's asleep at the wheel or something worse is going on behind closed doors. They are firmly establishment these days but wear the coats of rebels. People outgrow coats or coats no longer suit them.
Good point Steve. I doubt he will go to the Shankill and tell people there the Paras that killed two of that community should be awarded medals for doing it, gallantry their only crime.
DeleteIn the SF case it is a coat of many colours.