Mud, Glorious Mud

You know there’s an election on the way when you hear that some bad event or some bad person is in the news and is being tied tight tight tight to Sinn Féin.

This election could be as far away as the end of February, but Shinner-kicking boots have been donned, laces tightened on both the Nolan morning radio show and  Talkback,  William Crawley’s mid-day sphere of influence.

The sin which both presenters are intent on scrutinising with as big a listening audience as possible is that two Sinn Fein press officers provided references for a former colleague later convicted of child sex offences. The convicted man was working as a Sinn Feín press officer  when originally arrested.

In response to questions from the Sunday World, Sinn Fein said the man informed the party about his arrest the following day and was “immediately suspended” from his job and party membership.  Three months after he was suspended by Sinn Féin, two of his former Sinn Féin colleagues provided him with references. They did so, apparently, without consulting Sinn Féin. Before SF could complete an internal investigation of what happened, both men resigned their jobs and party membership.

Because child sex abuse was involved, the media have been poking through things in  microscopic detail, drawing in any comment that might help present themselves as the constant defenders of all things good . This morning,  the British Broadcasting Corporation had Mairia Cahill on air, highly critical of  the way Sinn Féin had dealt with her.

As you’ll probably have noticed, these things happened a few years ago – in Cahill’s case, decades ago, when Enda Kenny was still Taoiseach and so able to give her a big hug for the cameras. Why have these matters  sprung into the headlines now, you ask? No sorry – I’d really like to give you a cigar or other glittering prize for the right answer but alas, cut-backs.

Looking at things in broader terms, I think it’s time we began to assess people using criteria related to what they’re being paid for, rather than how high on the rankings of the Boys’ Brigade they feature. Yes, of course child abuse of any kind, particularly sexual abuse, is revolting.  But some pretty revolting people have also been outstandingly good at their job.  Churchill, voted the greatest Englishman ever,  starved to death over a million Indians. Picasso was a giant of the painting world, despite having a pretty sordid sex life. Boris Becker had sex in a broom cupboard and begat a child there; but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t the best young player ever to win at Wimbledon. And If you want to select your brain surgeon on the basis of how kind he is to his wife and family, go head, knock yourself out. Me,  I’d rather use different criteria.

Meanwhile, between now and the election,  the basic idea in this case is to fling  at the Shinners as much mud as you can lay hands on, even manufactured mud. Some of it’s bound to stick, and what better time to bespatter the shadowy-figures party than in the mouth of an election?