Presidential campaign raises anti-nationalists
BY MICHEAL MAC DONNCHA
Few people would have guessed at the start of this the most
bizarre of all the presidential elections ever held in the 26
Counties that the campaign would take such a serious turn and
become so inextricably linked with the politics of peace. It has
almost become a referendum on the peace process.
The controversy began when the Sunday Business Post of 12 October
published memos from the Department of Foreign Affairs which
recorded summaries of conversations between an official and Mary
McAleese earlier this year. The context was the aftermath of the
Westminster election of 1 May, with McAleese allegedly saying
that she was pleased Sinn Féin had done so well. She is also
supposed to have indicated that she would not get involved in the
election in the absense of a Sinn Féin/SDLP pact. The SDLP had
turned down Sinn Féin's call for a pre-election agreement.
There was little immediate controversy but on the following
Monday evening before the two candidates were due to appear on
Questions and Answers, Derek Nally issued a stinging attack on
McAleese who he said seemed to be ``working on a different set of
moral assumptions'' compared to ``most Irish people''. The attack
continued on the programme with Irish Times journalist and former
Progressive Democrats TD Geraldine Kennedy weighing in behind
Nally. ``Did you ever vote for Sinn Féin?'' demanded Kennedy.
McAleese said she had never done so and was always an SDLP
supporter.
Nally's handlers John Caden and Eoghan Harris - both former RTE
producers who are virulently anti-nationalist and defended
Section 31 censorship for years - orchestrated the attack behind
the scenes. But they went too far even for Nally and he ditched
Caden in the middle of the week.
When Gerry Adams said on Thursday that personally, if he had a
vote, he would probably vote for McAleese the anti-nationalists
weighed in again, this time with Fine Gael leader John Bruton
leading the posse.
The real agenda behind the Mary McAleese controversy is an
anti-nationalist reaction led by enemies of the peace process.
The thread running through this whole controversy has three
strands - anti-nationalist, partitionist and anti-peace process.
The same voices who were raised against the Hume-Adams-Reynolds
dialogue which began the peace process have been raised to attack
Mary McAleese for being a nationalist.
Fine Gael leader John Bruton is responsible for escalating the
controversy. Once again he has lent himself and his party to the
anti-nationalist crusade with echoes of McCarthyism.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams was quite entitled to indicate
what his personal preference would be if he had a vote. To use
this as a stick to beat Mary McAleese is to return to the old
agenda of demonising and excluding Sinn Féin and all who have
contact with the party.
Sinn Féin has every right to have its say in this election and in
any election on this island. They are the only party
substantially organised on both sides of the border - not a
Northern party as some labelled them this week.
Speaking in Leinster House on 8 October Caoimhghin O Caoláin said
that it is ``time to put behind us the failures of the past, the
failure of partition and particularly partitionist thinking'' so
often evidenced in Leinster House.
The latest anti-nationalist crusade is a perfect example of this
partitionist thinking. It is glaring in the election material
issued by Fine Gael candidate Mary Banotti. It says:''The
presidency is about the nation behind the state. About all the
individual people who make up Irish society. It is the only
public office elected by the direct vote of all the people of
Ireland.''
The clear import of this statement is that people in the Six
Counties are not Irish, that Ireland stops at the border and that
Irish society is confined to the 26 Counties.
Fine Gael is also guilty of hypocrisy with Mary Banotti claiming
the mantle of Michael Collins, her great uncle, yet saying that
Mary McAleese could not build bridges to unionists because she is
a nationalist.
Even more hypocritical is the posture of Fine Gael in deploring
the leaks and then using them to attack McAleese.
The Department of Foreign Affairs leaks clearly came from senior
political sources. The parties in office at the time were Fine
Gael, Labour and Democtratic Left. They have questions to answer.
Whoever was responsible they obviously did not care what damage
their action might do to the peace process and in particular to
the position of the Irish government in that process. Once again
the anti-nationalist agenda was at work.
This was not just about the presidential election. It was about
targetting nationalism and pushing a partitionist pro-unionist
agenda.
John Bruton endorses the partitionist agenda. That agenda must be
rejected if we are to build an inclusive Irish society based on
equality and justice.
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