A bit of an SDLP dogfight has broken out in the pages of
Fortnight magazine. Brian Feeney, Irish News columnist and former
SDLP councillor, has recently been highly critical of the SDLP.
He writes in the latest issue of Fortnight: ``In the local
government elections in May one SDLP candidate in West Belfast
got 85 votes. That vote says more about the SDLP than the
candidate. Any fool could see there were too many candidates and
the party vote was not properly divided. How could a party which
has been fighting PR elections for over a generation deliver such
a result for one of its candidates? Answer: lousy party
organisation.''
Back comes a snarl and a bite from Johnathon Stephenson, the
hangdog Chairperson of the SDLP (who, if he played gaelic
football, would be known as Seán MacStiofáin). In a letter in the
same issue he writes that ``Brian Feeney speaking on party
organisation is a little like the Pope discoursing on responsible
parenthood; both are familiar with the principles but know
nothing at all about the practice. During his time as a
councillor Brian single-handedly reduced his own local
organisation to zero''.
Ding ding. Round Two.
I'm sure many of you tuned in to the live coverage on BBC1 of the
Twelfth parade in Belfast. Amid the strutting and dancing and
plain silliness (I just cannot believe that Reg Empey marching
while wearing Orange flowers in his bowler hat did not realise
how ridiculous he looked) the commentary from jazz lover Walter
Love and ``Orange historian'' Clifford Smyth was a joy to listen
to. They took me back to the mythical days when the wee province
was all peace and light and bigots could march wherever they
wanted. Politics? Sectarianism? Drumcree? Don't be silly, this is
a colourful street festival.
So it didn't surprise me that Clifford praised the First World
War replica uniforms worn by a band commemorating the original
UVF while completely ignoring a nearby band wearing the uniform
of the more modern UVF death squads.
Certain of our friends in the media have got their eyes on the
new Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín O Caoláin. Last weekend's Sunday
Times had a front page story saying that Andreas Strassmeir, who
allegedly had links with Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, is
living in Dublin and is ``socialising in Sinn Féin circles''. They
said he had attended a function celebrating Caoimhghín's
election. Of course, no one in Sinn Féin circles has ever heard
of the man and, for the record, Caoimhghín has said, ``I have no
knowledge whatsoever of the individual mentioned in these
reports''.
The Irish Independent had a go at the new TD last Friday when
they gave front page treatment to a story about him having to pay
money back to the Social Welfare. In a sign of their sense of
news value, the story was more prominent than Haughey's little
financial difficulty, the loss of 300 jobs in the Asahi factory,
CIE's £56m losses and the Orange Order's decision not to march in
four contentious areas.
I think Caoimhghín is already getting used to this sort of thing.
Word reaches me of something less than patriotism in the ranks of
the British Army. Apparently, while New Labour Ministers are
telling the world that British Beef is Best and even McDonald's
is once again using British beef in its hamburgers, the British
Ministry of Defence is still refusing to serve mad British cows
in its canteens.
After we forced NIO Minister Adam Ingram to admit his past
membership of the Orange Order, the story was picked up in his
native Scotland. The influential Scotland on Sunday, which led
with the story on 6 July, reported that some of Ingram's
parliamentary colleagues refer to him as ``Orange Hun''.
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