Yesterday, myself and my regular companion at Drogs games, and boozing buddy, Paddy, made the short journey by car into the Droichead Arts Centre in downtown Drogheda to attend an event promoting the presidential bid by Catherine Connolly.
Staged in the theatre, it was well attended although not to maximum capacity as some empty seats demonstrated. Connolly's interlocuter on the day was Vincent Browne, a journalist and broadcaster of vast experience and not an interviewer known for suffering fools gladly.
I went to listen rather than be persuaded. My mind was already made up. While not totally on board with some of the stances the presidential hopeful has assumed in the past she has said enough, and more loudly, about the elephant in the room - which many in the Western media have difficulty seeing despite its enormous size - Gaza, to leave me certain she will have my vote come decision day.
I made one short contribution in reference to a question from Vincent Browne inviting Catherine Connolly to explain what her comment speaking truth to power actually meant. I observed that the most truthful word in today’s political lexicon that anyone could speak to power was genocide. And she had uttered it more frequently than any of the potential rival contenders for the Aras.
The discussion was useful in that it allowed Catherine Connolly to set out her stall to those who were on her side to begin with. Briefing points sort of. As Mick Clifford reported:
Browne honed his line of questioning to one essential point: Connolly would be more effective in the Dail where decisions can be made rather than in the Aras where it is all pomp and no power. Connolly responded with the ethical power line of reasoning whereas I felt she may have been on less unsteady political terra firma by citing something more graspable like cultural power. The current incumbent Michael D Higgins has demonstrated cultural power and has often been criticised by conservatives and neoliberals for doing so. A change in Zeitgeist is hard to imagine without a preceding and corresponding shift in the plates of cultural power within a society. This was something definitely not lost on the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci who devoted a lifetime of political-strategic thinking towards inculcating his dual war of position/cultural hegemony concept in the societal mind.
However, as yesterday was more of a rallying the troops exercise the real test will come when the rubber hits the road in the weeks approaching the big day and the candidates need to make their way into the bear pit of live television debates. How Connolly fares when under fire from determined, even vitriolic, opposition remains to be seen. There will be no easy ride like yesterday. That is not a criticism of how Vincent Browne conducted himself. The setting was never set up as adversarial, being more examination than cross-examination.
I went to listen rather than be persuaded. My mind was already made up. While not totally on board with some of the stances the presidential hopeful has assumed in the past she has said enough, and more loudly, about the elephant in the room - which many in the Western media have difficulty seeing despite its enormous size - Gaza, to leave me certain she will have my vote come decision day.
I made one short contribution in reference to a question from Vincent Browne inviting Catherine Connolly to explain what her comment speaking truth to power actually meant. I observed that the most truthful word in today’s political lexicon that anyone could speak to power was genocide. And she had uttered it more frequently than any of the potential rival contenders for the Aras.
The discussion was useful in that it allowed Catherine Connolly to set out her stall to those who were on her side to begin with. Briefing points sort of. As Mick Clifford reported:
If the people in the Arts Centre were anything to go by, she would be home and hosed. It’s difficult to envisage any of them voting for anybody else. But then, these kind of gatherings are as much about attracting followers to the standard, getting them to go out and spread the word.
Browne honed his line of questioning to one essential point: Connolly would be more effective in the Dail where decisions can be made rather than in the Aras where it is all pomp and no power. Connolly responded with the ethical power line of reasoning whereas I felt she may have been on less unsteady political terra firma by citing something more graspable like cultural power. The current incumbent Michael D Higgins has demonstrated cultural power and has often been criticised by conservatives and neoliberals for doing so. A change in Zeitgeist is hard to imagine without a preceding and corresponding shift in the plates of cultural power within a society. This was something definitely not lost on the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci who devoted a lifetime of political-strategic thinking towards inculcating his dual war of position/cultural hegemony concept in the societal mind.
However, as yesterday was more of a rallying the troops exercise the real test will come when the rubber hits the road in the weeks approaching the big day and the candidates need to make their way into the bear pit of live television debates. How Connolly fares when under fire from determined, even vitriolic, opposition remains to be seen. There will be no easy ride like yesterday. That is not a criticism of how Vincent Browne conducted himself. The setting was never set up as adversarial, being more examination than cross-examination.
That said, her folksy demeanour masks a certain steel which has made her such a thorn in the establishment side. Because Browne laid no tripwires for her, she had no need to call on her array of nimble skills to enable her to leap over them.
Can she win? A big ask. Alan Kelly of Labour seems to be doing his best to ensure she never darkens the Aras door. With reports coming out of Belfast that Sinn Fein is prompting Mary Lou McDonald to run, if that came to fruition it would most likely leave the Connolly bid dead in the water. McDonald conceivably could have won had she been out of the traps first. The most the Sinn Fein leader is likely to achieve at this stage is a dispersal of the votes across her and Connolly, allowing the two government parties - galvanised into a unity of purpose to stop McDonald - to come through the middle. How that might work for the starving besieged and bombed of Gaza is yet to be explained.
Compèred adroitly by Bobby McCormack, a driving force behind the ongoing Gaza solidarity work in the town, there was a cultural element to proceedings - a poetry recital to kick it off and and some music to conclude with, before the candidate headed up the road to Dundalk where Gaza too taxes the minds of those repelled by the genocide and appalled by what the current President has labelled the EU lethargy towards it, not to mention the woeful Western media which is still nauseatingly parroting the line that Israel has the right to defend itself. As Gary Lineker pointed out: 'Yes, Israelis have a right to defend themselves. But it appears Palestinians don't.'
Catherine Connolly will need to go at this all guns blazing, and merits the vote of those who believe she is the strongest political, ethical and cultural voice demanding cease fire to the blazing guns of genocide in Gaza.
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I first came across Ms Connolly at a Palestinian Support rally in Galway several years ago, before her entry to Leinster House.
ReplyDeleteAs she addressed the crowd on the banks of the Corrib she greatly impressed, pasionately delivering her unscripted address whilst nimbly moving between Irish and English.
SF are making a mistake if they choose to oppose. Any possibility of a change of government come the next general election recedes if they field a candidate.
That is an interesting point about the next general election. Hadn't thought of it that way until you raised it.
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