Michelle O’Neill attended a Clonoe commemoration? I’m outraged!

There’s an article on The Irish Times website today commenting on the speed with which some people become outraged. The article talks about the volatile President Trump but goes on  to make the case that outrage is perhaps unChristian and a substitute for effective action.

It’s an interesting notion. Certainly Jesus told his followers to forgive their enemies seventy-times seven. He also made a crude whip and beat the moneylenders out of the temple. So has this intriguing question of outrage anything to do with us?

That last sentence is a rhetorical question – of course it has. Unionism, as somebody  pointed out in the comments section here, is forever being outraged – the latest occasion was, I think , Michelle O’Neill’s attendance at a Clonoe ceremony remembering the killing by the SAS of four local IRA men. In turn, unionism in the form of the Orange Order accuses nationalists/republicans of getting up really early in the morning so they can be offended by Orange marches. There’s also the argument that you shouldn’t be offended by something that lasts only six minutes.

For the most part but not exclusively, I’d say unionism is quicker to adopt the outraged attitude than nationalism/republicanism. (Please note ‘for the most part’ – of course there are nationalists/republicans who get furious about things done by unionism as well.) But I don’t think anyone who knows anything of the history and rules of the Orange Order can conclude anything other than that they are a divisive force in Irish society, and that it is a good thing that they are not permitted to march where they choose. In other words, the outrage of nationalists in such areas as the Garvaghy Road was justified and  it led to a more desirable state of affairs.

Which brings us to our Executive and Assembly, as was. Anyone looking at events in Stormont over the last ten years approximately – more, actually – will, if they’re fair-minded, concede that insult and contempt were largely unionist characteristics. Even before the DUP and Sinn Féin formed an Executive,  David Trimble managed to spend his time in office without ever treating Seamus Mallon in a civilized manner. That was followed by those years when Sinn Féin, rather than replying to the DUP in kind, continued to make gestures of reconciliation, with no thanks for it: for example,Martin McGuinness said that not a single unionist politician congratulated him on meeting with the queen, and no unionist politician denied that. It’s also fair to say that when Martin McGuinness announced that unionist response to the RHI scandal was the tipping point, the majority of republicans heaved a sigh of relief. There is only so much forbearance can be expected in politics.

So have Sinn Féin failed to maintain their reconciliation stance? On the face of it, yes. They’ve made it abundantly clear that they’re not prepared to continue with the high-handedness of unionist leaders. Does that mean they’ve thrown in the towel and are now as outraged as anyone?

I don’t think so . The Irish Times article I spoke of at the beginning urged the substitution of outrage for action. Had Martin Luther King simply been outraged, civil rights marches might never have happened in the US. Ditto here, had John Hume and other civil rights leaders meekly accepted their position as second-rate citizens.

There is a psychological theory that if someone is too nice to you too consistently, you begin to hate them. I don’t think that applies here, since there have always been those in unionism, especially the DUP, who detest all things Catholic/Irish. Their hatred is self-generating. But it is true that we admire those who are slow to anger but who, finally, make it clear that arrogance is not acceptable in a situation involving equals. Justice itself rests on that conviction. My concern is not that Sinn Féin have made it clear that the RHI was the tipping point. My concern would be that, post-election, they would allow the DUP to slip back into their old, contemptuous ways. That wouldn’t be good for nationalists and republicans, and it wouldn’t be good for the DUP and unionists either.