Does Stephen Collins have a crystal ball? Does the Irish Times dabble in tea-leaf reading? I’m beginning to think both may be possible.
In recent weeks both Stephen and the IT have been cranking up the anti-Sinn Féin rhetoric. Last week in a column Stephen called for “the truth” to be told about Sinn Féin’s part in the Troubles and for young people not to be hoodwinked into voting for them. A few weeks before that, on the same day, Michael McDowell gave Sinn Féin both barrels (metaphorically, natch) for being the nasty influence they are in Irish politics, and the IT editorial said something equally dismissive of the Shinners as a ‘normal’ political party. Yesterday the IT declared that a “Secret Facebook group reveals bitter tirades and abuse of Sinn Féin’s opponents”.
And the crystal-ball/tea leaves thing? Well, quite a few newspapers (but not the IT so far) report a Behaviour and Attitudes poll which shows Fianna Faíl at 22%, Fine Gael at 27% and Sinn Féin at 32%.
Did Stephen feel something in his water that warned him of this unhappy situation? Did the IT get a leak telling it that the Party from Hell (aka the North) was straddling the polls, making its ascent to power in the medium term even more certain?
It’s hard to know. But you can see why they spiked my letter on Friday:
Sir,
Your columnist Stephen Collins is concerned for the young people of Ireland who may be hoodwinked into voting for Sinn Féin. He is alarmed about former republican combatants from the Troubles , “many of whom are not elected politicians and operate in the background.” (‘Do we want a shared island or a united Ireland?’ 18 December 2020) As a seasoned journalist he will know that all political parties employ people who are not elected representatives to advise them, whether that’s in matters of health, finance or electoral strategy. He will also recall a time, as do many of us, when republicans were urged to abandon violence and take a peaceful political path in pursuit of their goals. Stephen seems convinced that people who have a past cannot have a future. I beg to differ.
Yours etc
Jude Collins
Comments are closed.