It’s sometimes funny, the difference between the official world and the unofficial world. Take RTÉ. The oldest example of a collision between these two worlds showed when Gerry Adams was a guest on the Late Late Show. Gay Byrne refused to shake Gerry Adams’s hand, five other anti-Sinn Féin worthies including Hugh Leonard, Austin Currie and Michael McDowell were lined up to bombard him with accusations of various kinds. (I should add that I have recently been told on good authority that Gay Byrne was instructed by RTÉ management of the time not to shake hands and that he was annoyed to be so instructed – a revelation that surprised me but there it is.) The unofficial world, in the form of the audience, sided with Adams rather than his six accusers, and what should have been an anti-Sinn Féin victory night turned out to be the opposite.
Last night, twenty years later, the vice-president of Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald was on the Late Late Show. Ryan Tubridy, although nowhere so frosty towards his interviewee as Byrne, brought up on several occasions the death of Jean McConville and Gerry Adams’s membership or non-membership of the IRA. Perhaps it was a case of once bitten etc., but Tubridy avoided Byrne’s faux pas of obvious hostility. Just as well, because the audience once again were largely positive in their attitude towards Mary Lou. Like Gerry Adams twenty years earlier, she maintained her good humour throughout and responded to all questions, including her ambition to be Sinn Féin president, in a cheerful and positive way. That in part contributed to the warm reception she got from the audience.
The other part of the audience warmth, I believe, came from the feelings of the broad public in the south towards republicanism in general and Sinn Féin in particular. Beneath the official world, among the ordinary people,past the political and media establishment, there remains a belief that the ideas of national unity and social justice are worth struggling for. If you were to judge by the statements of politicians and analyses in the media, no such belief exists. But every so often it insists on popping out and reminding officialdom that it hasn’t gone away. That was the case twenty years ago and it was the case last night.
Wishful thinking? Maybe. Maybe not. After 23 May, we’ll all have a clearer picture on the subject.
Its never wishful thinking Jude, we must all strive to make it a reality, your blog is excellent reading Maith thu!
It was notable that Deputy McDonald was getting a warm reception from the women in the audience. Moreover Turbidy stressed his commitment to women’s representation.
Can you imagine Mark Carrurthers etc making a similar statement up here?
That interview last night did have a sense of occasion about it. Hardly Frost/Nixon, but it seemed to mark the point at which Sinn Féin went from being ‘The Provos’ to a more ‘normal’ political party, palatable to the people of Ireland. Who better than a Trinity educated South County Dublin woman to usher in this transition?
Tubridy’s line of questioning wasn’t quite Miriam O’Callaghan vs Gerry Adams, but by the same token he didn’t shy away from the ‘We all know Gerry was in the IRA’ approach. Most Irish media outlets remain incredibly antagonistic towards Sinn Féin, but the audience reception and Twitter/Facebook response all seem to be incredibly positive.
We’ll see what the elections bring, but big wins for SF might mean that RTE et al need to change their position on Sinn Féin lest they find themselves out of step with the Irish people. We live in interesting times.
Did not see interview but from what I heard Jude seems to have the measure of what happened.
I can understand why Gerry would be a hate figure to many Unionists, let`s face it, it would be rather weird if they didn`t hate him. The Free State antipathy towards him is a different kettle of fish, the IRA never fought a military campaign there, it certainly never planted no warning bombs. The political establishment down there knows it will be wiped out electorally in any all Ireland elections of the future, the Protestant votes in the north will ensure they are a huge part of the new Ireland. There will be no place for the gombeen men of FF or FG or any partitionist party.
Sorry I don’t expect to win any friends with this reply but I suspect that the reason Gerry Adams is hated by certain elements within the South is down at least at some level on anti-northern prejudice equivalent to racism.
Some elements particularly in the political and media circles exhibit a superiority complex over upidy northerns with something to say. Just watch the face of a Fianna Fail politician contort with derision when in discussion with a Sinn Fein politician from the north.
I take it nobody here has ever been referred to as a “northern b–t–d” or been told “why do you not f— off home to the black north”. It happened to me in Dublin And once in Galway many years ago.
And we have form in this regard, anyone who thinks the Irish are not racist needs to read the accounts of anti-black pogroms in New York where innocent black people were lynched and hung from street lights by mobs of Irish emigrants during the American civil war because of the treat of conscription being introduced for the Union army.
Do you think a lad from Liverpool or Sunderland has never been told to f””k off back up north from Londoners?
Do you think someone from Marseilles living in Paris won’t meet the odd idiot who will insult the part of the country he is from? Giving as good as you get is the best reply.
Quite right Alan, there is racism and prejudice everywhere doesn’t mean it is not a factor in the ridicule which Gerry Adams is subjected by elements of southern media and politics!
As someone whose work takes me all over Ireland,I can honestly say that ordinary people aren’t as hostile to SF as the media and politicians would like to portray.When I say what area of the North I come from (an area with a strong republican reputation) ,I am on many occasions surprised by the response.The names of my local hunger strikers are invariably mentioned and SFs progress in the south will be spoken of favourably.This may partly to curry favour but in most cases I think it is people genuinely stating their views.
I think you are probably right Michael, the ordinary person on the ground would tend to give people the benefit of the doubt but the over zealous hatred for Sinn Fein in the media and politics goes to something much deeper. Perhaps the conundrum of the violence from which the state was established and the similarities to the provisionals or dissidents.