In an irreverent comment on the Late Late Show, Kielty referred to Sinn Fein traitors.
First out of the traps against Kielty and RTE was Mairead Farrell, the new chair of the Dail Public Accounts Committee. Having her front the charge against Kielty might be construed by RTE as a warning to the Authority that it might find itself in the crosshairs of the PAC.
Reinforcing Farrell has been TD Louise O'Reilly who waxed Shakespearian on Twitter that:
Apart from ignoring then president Gerry Adams' televised boast to Ruairi Quinn, then Labour Party leader, that Sinn Fein was an establishment party, it dives into conspiracy theory with its suggestion that Patrick Kielty too had now joined some grand media plot against the party.
RTE would be most unwise to either apologise for or withdraw Patrick Kielty's comments in response to pressure arising from an authoritarian impulse. Irish society benefited not at all from Section 31. Close the door firmly on it before it has the chance to close minds.
Before the images appeared, Kielty said: “If you haven’t actually seen the show, trust me, you’re in for a treat, folks. It’s so good. It’s full of deception, betrayal, everybody keeps changing their stories. Well, all we have to do is work out who’s telling the truth.”
When the pictures of Ms McDonald and Mr Stanley appeared on screen, he added: “I think that’s the first two contestants there. The Sinn Fein Traitors – the show we’re all wanting to see.”
To my mind it was satire, a barbed reference to a TV show, The Traitors, which he facetiously suggested Sinn Fein should appear on because for much of the past fortnight it has been accused of not telling the truth and changing its story.
As so often happens satire can be painful for those on the receiving end of it, prompting a smarting and humourless Sinn Fein to behave like the new MOPEs - the Most Offended Politicians Ever. Party figures have piled on Kielty, seeking an apology and demanding that the programme be pulled from the RTE Player website, alleging that the comment was a far right trope.
Memory equipped types will trace the provenance of the T word back long before the far right began slinging it at Sinn Fein. Take it Down From The Mast, composed 101 years ago in the wake of the Irish Civil War, was a much loved rebel song rendered in clubs, pubs and shebeens in the North's republican heartlands throughout the violent political conflict.
Memory equipped types will trace the provenance of the T word back long before the far right began slinging it at Sinn Fein. Take it Down From The Mast, composed 101 years ago in the wake of the Irish Civil War, was a much loved rebel song rendered in clubs, pubs and shebeens in the North's republican heartlands throughout the violent political conflict.
It might be postulated that the far right have appropriated the term and used it as a reverse discourse solely because it was part of the Sinn Fein word armoury employed against its constitutional nationalist opponents. Sinn Fein often referred to the Dublin establishment and its northern rivals in the SDLP as traitors. Republicans opposed to the Treaty mark two in 1998 frequently taunted Sinn Fein as traitors, using its own vocabulary against it. A 'remarkable moment' was reached in 2009 when Martin McGuinness stood alongside the chief of the British police in Ireland to slam physical force republicans as 'traitors to the island of Ireland'. Their supposed treachery lay in their carrying out the same type of killings Martin McGuinness had spent decades ordering before his political career took off.
So there is nothing essentially far right about the term traitor. It is a discursive slap down used by a wide range of actors.
Sinn Fein's reaction to the Kielty quip points to an underlying authoritarianism that simply bridles at opinions not approved by it whether in the form of satire, caricature or political columns. Rather than Kielty regurgitating far right tropes, Sinn Fein's SLAPP strategy and censorious culture is quite similar to actions pursued by the far right government of Giorgia Meloni in Italy.
So there is nothing essentially far right about the term traitor. It is a discursive slap down used by a wide range of actors.
Sinn Fein's reaction to the Kielty quip points to an underlying authoritarianism that simply bridles at opinions not approved by it whether in the form of satire, caricature or political columns. Rather than Kielty regurgitating far right tropes, Sinn Fein's SLAPP strategy and censorious culture is quite similar to actions pursued by the far right government of Giorgia Meloni in Italy.
First out of the traps against Kielty and RTE was Mairead Farrell, the new chair of the Dail Public Accounts Committee. Having her front the charge against Kielty might be construed by RTE as a warning to the Authority that it might find itself in the crosshairs of the PAC.
Reinforcing Farrell has been TD Louise O'Reilly who waxed Shakespearian on Twitter that:
when the establishment comes at you they come not in single spies but battalions. Satire my eye. Kielty & RTE knew exactly what they were doing. And they should apologise.
Apart from ignoring then president Gerry Adams' televised boast to Ruairi Quinn, then Labour Party leader, that Sinn Fein was an establishment party, it dives into conspiracy theory with its suggestion that Patrick Kielty too had now joined some grand media plot against the party.
On RTE today O'Reilly was still on the offensive:
Satire is a core part of freedom of expression, but that wasn’t satire. Using a far right trope, and one, by the way, that was cited in a death threat that was made against my party leader, Mary Lou MacDonald, using a trope like that, I believe, is highly inappropriate. It is miles away from satire, and most definitely is not a joke. I think it is a serious matter. We shouldn’t joke or mess about the far right, or indeed, the language that they use and the tropes that they wheel out.
Ms O'Reilly's insinuation that some political jokes are to be prohibited would seem to be consistent with her declaring herself happy and proud to back the draconian Hate Speech bill which her own party has since performed a volte face on. And this a few mere years after this society had ditched its blasphemy law. There is a pattern in Louise O'Reilly's discourse which lends itself to an authoritarian suffocation of the unapproved idea.
Sinn Fein has been labelled traitors by the far right for all the wrong reasons. When Daithi Doolan forcefully lobbies against racism he is dong the right thing, not the wrong thing. Mary Lou McDonald and other party reps have been on the receiving end of death threats from the far right. If forced to choose between Sinn Fein and the far right it would be Sinn Fein all day long. But that can never be a free pass for the censor.
For Sinn Fein to use the existence and threat of the far right as another arm of the SLAPP offensive positions it rather than Kielty on the Meloni side of the fence.
RTE would be most unwise to either apologise for or withdraw Patrick Kielty's comments in response to pressure arising from an authoritarian impulse. Irish society benefited not at all from Section 31. Close the door firmly on it before it has the chance to close minds.
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