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Fulminating West Brits Go Nuts – Or Fun With Martin And Co!

by An Sionnach Fionn

Ah, only a few days into Martin McGuinness’ presidential candidacy and the Irish media establishment, those paragons of right wing, unregulated free market capitalism (Celtic Tiger? Nothing to do wiv us, gov’nor!) and wannabe English, Neo-Unionist types have gone into a frenzy of righteous indignation. The Golden Circle is imperilled!

From your super, soaraway Evening Herald we have commentator-cum-television reviewer Andrew Lynch (quality…):

“Nobody should be fooled. McGuinness’s friendship with Ian Paisley may have caused them to be dubbed the Chuckle Brothers, but in fact one of his main characteristics is a total lack of humour. In reality, he is a cold-eyed, stone-hearted fanatic — and, barring a personality transplant, a completely unsuitable candidate to be the next President of Ireland.

McGuinness has also put forward the fiction that he left the IRA in the early 1970s, shortly after being imprisoned in the Republic for the possession of explosives. All serious historians of the Troubles agree that this is a total lie. As recently as 2005, justice minister Michael McDowell claimed that both Adams and McGuinness were on the IRA’s army council — suggesting that they were the military masterminds behind a campaign that eventually claimed over 1,800 lives.

The McGuinness for President campaign is based on the notion that Irish people have very short memories. Maybe, but they are surely not that short. If his sinister past is dragged out into the light where it belongs, then the Shinners may start wishing they had run a fresher face such as Mary Lou McDonald instead.

Martin McGuinness has got away with an awful lot in his life. Let’s not allow him to get away with fooling the people of Ireland as well.”

Nothing like the moral high-ground! Especially when you can assume it from a hundred miles down the road, in (relative) safety and you never experienced living with a foreign army on your streets. Well, you sort of did but hey, that was nearly a century ago and we don’t have it down here any more. But of course if we did you’d be resolutely opposed to it, right? Wouldn’t you Andy? Out there, resisting the enemy to defend Ireland’s democracy and freedom? Hmmm…

Then we have the wisdom of Ireland’s bravest of the brave intellectuals, Mr. Fintan O’Toole. Well, brave until it actually came to standing up for his beliefs and putting himself on the line in which case it all sort of fell apart. Nothing like talking the talk, Fintan, but when it comes to walking the walk? Well some men walk away. Of course Martin McGuinness didn’t, in his home town of Derry: in an Irish city in Ireland. He stood up for his beliefs. He (whisper it) actually fought for his beliefs. But according to fearless Fintan:

“I would like to think McGuinness is haunted by some of the obscenities to which he was a party. But shouldn’t that private grief manifest itself in a certain tact, a reticence about pushing things too far? Shouldn’t he feel extraordinarily blessed to have been allowed to escape the consequences of the deeds he has been party to? Shouldn’t gratitude for that blessing make him think twice about the hubris of putting himself forward as the leading citizen of this State, the embodiment of its better values?”

Hubris? As in “excessive pride, presumption or arrogance”? Sure, nothing you’d be familiar with, Fintan?

While it is perfectly reasonable for Martin McGuinness to be quizzed about his personal history, in all of its many facets, there is no doubt that there is an agenda here, a nasty partitionist one. The media establishment, a golden circle of journalists and commentators who spent the last forty years subverting and skewing journalistic independence and neutrality in pursuit of their own political aims and goals, are now out to undermine our democratic presidential election and they will use any means, fair or otherwise, to do so.

A fact that Martin McGuinness has recognised, as reported by the online Journal:

“Martin McGuinness has blamed “West Brit elements” in the media and in political parties for consistent references to his history of involvement in the IRA.

Speaking to Newstalk’s Chris Donoghue at the National Ploughing Championships in Co Kildare, McGuinness said he respected that there would be people who would “try to muddy the waters” regarding his previous activity.

“My faith is with the people… there are West Brit elements, in and around Dublin – some of them are attached to some sections of the media, others are attached to political parties and were formerly involved in political parties.I say to all of them: I go forward on my record. My record as a peacemaker, I think, is unequalled. Anywhere.

McGuinness added that he would not have been invited to the Oval Office, South Africa, Iraq, Sri Lanka or the Basque Country “if there were any question marks whatsoever over my work as a peacemaker.”

His previous involvement in the IRA, he said, had been “said by people who are hostile to my candidacy.”

In a nod to Fianna Fáil’s decision not to field a candidate of its own, the Sinn Féin MLA said he would be appealing to voters “who previously supported other political parties to rally to my flag.

“They have got a very important choice to make about who presents the new Ireland,” he said.

“I certainly do represent the new North – and I think I can represent all of Ireland in a way that brings great credit to the Irish people.””

I have outlined before exactly who those “elements” are. These people, the true subversives, are still there, gnawing away at the sinews of our democracy and our nationhood. It is time for the people of Ireland to stand up and to give the real Golden Circle in Ireland, the lying, cheating, deceitful two-faced men and women of our national news media who are implicit in the economic ruin of our nation the political bloody nose they so richly deserve.

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2 comments on “Fulminating West Brits Go Nuts – Or Fun With Martin And Co!”

  1. liamócomáin
    October 6, 2011

    The question that mmcg should respond to is whether he was a British agent.He stayed with the so called official republicans for about 3 months after the split which formed the provos .Then he joined the latter when his OC in Derry was requested by the late Cathal Goulding to hold an inquiry into the giving of info to the RUC about an attack to take place against them along the Derry/Donegal border.
    There also exists the facts that an ex-British intelligence official stated that mmcg was one of their agents in the IRA for years.mmcg denied this but refused to debate the allegations in public along with the Brit official.If you or I was so accused I have no doubt that the debate would be welcomed.
    If elected the people of the south would be seen as rubbish and I have no doubt that Pearse and Sands would be turning in their graves.The man was never a republican and it appears if elected he will meet the British duke whom he boasts so much about.Perhaps he is seeking a knighthood.

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    • An Sionnach Fionn
      October 8, 2011

      Thanks for the Comment, Liam, though I don’t necessarily agree with the points being made.

      The double-agent accusation is a relatively recent one with very little proof behind it (as far as one can see). Certainly accusations of internal army politics leading to some strange decisions on strategies and tactics would be true (particularly stemming from the rivalry between Martin McGuinness and a former CofS of ÓnahÉ). However that is inevitable in any organisation, and in particular one like ÓnahÉ.

      And I have some sympathy with the argument that the armed struggle was manipulated from the late-1980s onward towards a set goal – its subservience to the electoral needs of Sinn Féin. That certainly was directed by the Adams/McGuinness leadership. But I don’t buy into the “traitors” thing at all. A change in tactics and strategy and “vision” most definitely. Beyond that, despite the presence of genuine British agents and double-agents (which has been exaggerated), I still see a “Republican agenda”.

      Surely a substantial vote for Martin McGuinness (or even a win, however unlikely) would be taken as a retrospective mandate for the armed struggle from the Southern electorate? Is that not a worthwhile goal to attain?

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