The politics of a historical fear

“But it was Gerry Adams, who, more than any other single person, was responsible for delivering the most significant political achievement of Irish history for generations: the peace agreement on Northern Ireland. In terms of achievement, no other figure in Irish public life rates even close to him.”

The above direct quote is from Vincent Browne, journalist and broadcaster. This is in a nutshell what Gerry Adams represents to me as a politician and the qualities I expect from one that I would want to help elect. Vincent went on to say with it: “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.” 

Vincent Browne is not only all of the above, he is also a qualified barrister and has not been shy to take on that particular bunch of shysters and the Law Society on their almost complete takeover of the Law itself. This is reality, for the union of them is a threat to democracy and is most likely the reason he left the practice of law for if you are a man of principle that is not the area to be. But I digress for he is also one of the few principled men left in the public arena that know all sides of the coin and is at an age that there is no advantage or disadvantage in speaking your mind; nor he did it prove to be an impediment for him when in younger clothes and a lot more to lose. He is also the man that I believe  that speaks that should be listened to.

The last days leading up to this election, the absolute hysteria reporting by the Irish Independent of fictionalised stories against Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin reached new levels. One could pick one or many of those stories and with a little closer optics the reporting is smear and smear alone. If you accuse anyone by suggestion, association or a question, enough sulphur will stick to the clothing that will never wash off for their innocence will not be noticed in such a polluted atmosphere and like Charles Stewart Parnell, the good that they do or had done, to take from Shakespeare, will be interred with their bones.

We need to look again at the unblemished and constructive politics that Sinn Féin has forged in the North of Ireland in a time of peace and not war, for it is their legacy there above the politics of a historical fear which tells not only what they have done as a political party but where they intend to go as one.

That again is the reference point for me, the undecided voter and should be for the long brainwashed one. 

Memory is weak in the latter that they could now even contemplate a return to power the politics of corruption draping the bones of the most corrupt one in the skulking shadow of the enemy within that is Fianna Fáil looking at the mirror. The problem here is that Fine Gael is staring back. 

Barry Clifford