No offence intended
Monday, February 20th, 2006Saint over at Dossing Times has a great piece on the treatment of Sinn Fein in the Irish media today.
In an attempt to support his comments, I think it is best to look at the situation from a more objective position;
We are currently in the company of a political party in this country that has a private army; they may have decomissioned most of their weapons, they may have decomissioned all of their weapons but they are still in existance. This private army, and by extension the political party, believes itself to be the true army and police of the Irish state and that all killings (from Jean McConville to Gardaí Gerry McCabe) are as such perfectly legal; in the words of Sinn Fein themselves, they are no more than unfortunate. This party has ministerial desires both North and South of the border and has been accused of attempting to gain a stronger position in Dail Eireann through blackmail. You’d be sane to assume that this party is no more than an Irish version of the BNP, only more obscure. You’d be wrong, however. In the last elections Sinn Fein gained 4 seats, or 400% more TD’s than before, if you want to be technical. That puts them within spitting distance of matching The Green Party and the Progressive Democrats in the house, more worryingly Bertie Ahern has failed to clarify his position on the possibility of a coalition with the party since the claim of an end to IRA hostilities (probably a political carrott at present).
Do the media give Sinn Fein a hard time? Well you have to ask yourself, how would expect a smiliar party in any other country to be treated? How a political party which questions the validity of core aspects of the Irish state (and thus its very constitution) can even exist within it is beyond me; frankly it’s about time Sinn Fein made their minds up and got off the military/political offence; of course the only way that will happen is if the media and politicians give them a little nudge.
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