This TV review first appeared in The Andersonstown News
Those who know him personally say that Micheál Martin is a decent, pleasant man. Alas, in politics, decency and being pleasant rank fairly low down the list of qualities required for success.
Or, in Micheál’s case, qualities required for leadership. Before the interview with him on Primetime (RTÉ ONE), the programme ran an introductory package from Daniel McConnell of The Irish Examiner. Micheál’s record as Taoiseach was, McConnell said, “a mixed bag”, which was a kind way of putting it.
“The opening up at Christmas was, in retrospect, a mistake”. ‘Strewth. A backward child could have told Micheál not to do that. It was done in order to avoid ‘lockdown fatigue’ among the public; it resulted in an awful lot of people getting sick and a lot of people dying. Give me lockdown fatigue any day.
Micheál has lost, not one but two Ministers of Agriculture in quick succession – Barry Cowen and Dara Calleary. Which was unfortunate and maybe careless of him since, in McConnell’s view, the ranks of Fianna Fail aren’t overflowing with talent – “unlike Fine Gael and Sinn Féin.”
In summary, McConnell’s report concluded that maybe Micheál was an analogue politician in a digital age. Now that’s good. Analogue is just so wearisome and second rate and slow compared to digital. Out of place, out of time.
Micheál himself said nothing in the interview following McConnell’s package to suggest he was anything but analogue. It was put to him that communication concerning Covid was all over the place – like, the Minister for Health saying that mandatory quarantine meant fourteen day of “self-isolation”, staying in your room and having meals brought to the door; then next day the Tánaiste says no, you could mix with your immediate family, sit down to your grub at the family table. Next announcement saying something different again. “Haven’t the government been at sixes and sevens in all this, Mr Martin?”
Micheál took a quick breath and then planted his boot in the government-in-waiting. “The only party that’s been at sixes and sevens in all this is Sinn Féin” the Fianna Fáil leader declared. This is known as the raising-a-Shinner-hare technique. When the questioning gets hot, don’t even attempt to answer – instead point to the inadequacies of the Sinn Féin party. The only catch is that you end up sounding like someone who’s run out of ideas. Certainly that’s how Micheál came across.
There was a time when Micheál Martin was sharp and talented. Don’t forget , he was the Health Minister who introduced the smoking ban in pubs and restaurants. At the time it was a risky thing to do – it was unheard of in most countries, and pub-owners and restaurateurs yelped loudly. But Micheál did it, and in the end most people judged it a good decision.
But that was back in the good old analogue days. We are where we are now, and Micheál is bumping along the ocean bed. A few more TV interviews like this one and it’d nearly make you want to see the man put out of his political misery. Hello, Jim O’Callaghan?
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