Friday, March 28, 2008
Blink and you’ll miss it
Just FYI for the files: The Andersonstown News has removed Blinker’s, er, Squinter’s, article about Gerry Adams from their websites, and from Squinter’s blog. (Hint: it’s quite easy to start your own blog - ask Newton Emerson, Eamon Lynch or Anthony McIntyre, who also benefited suffered from the censorship control-freakery of Teach Basil, for tips*). We print it below for posterity’s sake - to remember the day the bold men struck a blow for freedom of speech.
* Insert your own “Told you so” here
UPDATE: The Belfast Telegraph reports: “A pro-Sinn Fein newspaper has apologised to Gerry Adams after an unprecedented attack on him by one of its best-known columnists.” Only “here” would an MP be able to stop a local paper from criticising his political performance, not to mention getting a front page apology in the bargain, with barely an eyebrow raised, eh?
P.S. You can still access the heretical article via Belfast Media and Irelandclick sites using their Pagesuite viewer and paging through the archived edition - well, until they black that out or something. SHhhhh, keep that to yourself though. Don’t give them any ideas....
Squinter: Taking a sideways look at the week
20 years on, Gerry must face the truth
“The cruellest lies are often told in silence.” Adlai Stevenson wasn’t far wrong when he said that. Not that Squinter can be accused of keeping quiet too often, but it is the case as we prepare to bury Bap McGreevy that there are some things that are said and some things that aren’t, and one of the things that isn’t being said - publicly at least - is that it’s time for Gerry Adams to shoulder his share of the blame for the mess we’re in and stop blaming everybody else.
Adams has been the West Belfast MP for 20 years. First elected in 1983, he has served continuously since then, save for a five-year break when Joe Hendron took back the seat for the SDLP in 1992.
If a week is a long time in politics, then 20 years is the Upper Paleolithic Age. It is in that same 20-year period that the slow, steady decline into chaos in certain parts of West Belfast began, and it was on his watch that it has gathered pace to become the runaway train that it is today.
First thing to be said is that there are many people and many agencies to blame for the state of the lower Falls, to take that as an example: the Chief Constable, the Housing Executive, the courts, the Prison Service, the Probation Board, Social Services, certain local parents - the list goes on. But while Adams can and does point the finger at some or even all of the above, Squinter has to say that he has never heard Adams accepting any responsibility for the fact that large parts of his constituency are no-go areas, but without the bellbottoms, the parkas and the armalites, of course.
It definitely wasn’t Adlai Stevenson who said: “You don’t drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there.” Whoever said it had a point. Like every one of us, Bap McGreevy fell into the water when Harry Holland was slaughtered. It was hoped back then that the wave of community disgust and horror might be fashioned into a life raft which would carry us all on a tide of community solidarity and determination to a safer shore. Didn’t happen. What happened was that Bap McGreevy was left to drown - in his own blood - while the rest of us continue to flail around hoping that we won’t go under too.
Who’s to blame for the failure to press home the Harry Holland momentum? Gerry Adams is to blame, that’s who. He’s not the only one to blame, of course. Squinter refers you back to the list above, and every one of us who complains and then pulls the curtains and turns up the TV when the sun sets is to blame in our own collective way. But Gerry Adams is the MP, has been for 20 years. He’s supposed to know how to marshal and direct; he’s supposed to give us the ideas and the leadership; he’s supposed to make things better. When he asks for and gets our votes he accepts a host of very onerous responsibilities, and the most basic of those responsibilities is to make his constituency a good place for decent people to live and for parents to bring up their families. In that he has failed terribly.
Of course the police are falling down on the job, but how long is it possible to get away with that excuse? Bears crap in the woods, fat babies fart, the Pope wears a funny hat, the Trevors are jaw-droppingly useless. Tell us something we don’t know. Gerry Adams knows a lot better than Squinter that while the PSNI might have a lot of intelligence about the people of West Belfast, they know them as well as they know the remotest tribe of Western New Guinea - and they care even less. Against that background, complaining about the PSNI not doing their job is like complaining about the cold weather we’re supposed to be getting over the Easter weekend.
And every time Sinn Féin gets together at another fist-clenching Stormont meeting (the 2008 equivalent of Long Kesh political lectures), we’re told that economic deprivation underpins the myriad social problems that are convulsing the West Belfast community. They hope nobody will think to ask whose job it has been for the past 20 years to get investment and jobs and to generate community confidence and optimism.
It wasn’t as if Adams didn’t have the clout and the contacts. A former aide of Tony Blair has been making frankly embarrassing revelations in a new book about how close Adams and Blair were. Adams was the Oprah Winfrey of Irish-America. And what did we get? InBev gone and Visteon going. A huge investment conference that holds its nose as it swishes past West Belfast ferrying ministers and Invest NI suits to Hillsborough and Cultra. Adams might have got away with pointing to the lack of investment in his constituency in 1983 and saying: “Nothing to do with me, mate.” 20 years on and you’d buy a house in Ross Street quicker than you’d buy that.
20 years. Two decades. Four parliamentary terms. Four US Presidents. Two Popes. 11 Secretaries of State. Five UN Secretary-Generals. Five Taoisigh. Five Prime Ministers. In Ross Street the wind of change blows in empty Budweiser boxes and despair; it blows out good people and hope.
As a friend bitterly told Squinter over a St Paddy’s Day pint, Ourselves Alone are not the proud and risen republican people surging shoulder-to-shoulder towards a new Ireland, but the abandoned pensioners of the lower Falls who now fear the night a million times more than they ever feared the Brits or the loyalists. And don’t tell Squinter they’re not right to be afraid. When the bad guys can kill a well-known and popular ex-prisoner who was a fit and strong body-builder, then quite frankly Squinter’s more than a little concerned himself.
And so, next election day, Squinter thinks he’ll stay in the house in solidarity with those who are staying in their homes simply because they’re afraid to leave.
ADAMS RESPONDS TO THAT SQUINTER ARTICLE
A chara,
The ‘Squinter’ article of March 20, following the murder of Bap McGreevey, was both offensive and hurtful.
I am well used to and welcome criticism but I am disappointed at the tenor and tone of his tirade.
It was more reminiscent of a Sunday Independent columnist than the Andytown News.
Squinter’s advice that we should stay at home is also bad advice.
The duty of citizens is to join in the efforts to achieve more change, more jobs, better housing, and safer communities.
That’s the way forward for this constituency.
Gerry Adams, MP MLA
The Andersonstown News accepts that the tone and the timing of the Squinter article last week, during a period of community mourning, was inappropriate and unnecessary and apologises to Gerry Adams and our readers for any hurt caused.—Ed.
Previously on Slugger: here, here, here, and here.
Rusty Nail @ 10:05 AM
Democracy,freedom of expression and liberty have been damaged but good men will work to have them restored.
It is as serious as that!!!!Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:04 PMSusan
You seem to think Sinn Fein ordered it removed, do you have any proof to back that up? Anyone else?Has squinter said anything?
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:06 PMYou really are a geg Steve.
The Squinter column has not appeared this week and the paper will only say “Squinter will be back”.
This really is the most remarkable act of cowardice by a supposedly independent newspaper. Don’t try and excuse by asking “has Squinter said anything”. Squinter is clearly not allowed to say anything.Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:12 PMhttp://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Weir-hits-out-at-newspapers.3925594.jp
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:17 PMSteve, instead of hypothesising about what you think I “seem to think,” pay attention to what I said:
“As a politician and as an elected representative, Gerry Adams has every right to object to any and all aspects of Squinter’s essay he feels are inaccurate, unfair or unwarranted.
However, as a republican and as a writer, Gerry Adams has an additional responsibility to defend to defend the principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. To expect nothing more, and to accept nothing less.”
Gerry Adams has every right to refute and dispute Squinter’s claims, but he also has a personal responsibility to defend Squinter’s freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. WHOEVER is responsible for the attempt to excise Squinter’s article from history. And Gerry Adams has a responsibility to do so not for the love of Squinter, but in defense of the basic democratic and republican principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
I
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:19 PMSo I am a geg
Presumably because I dont accept the propaganda being spewed by the Anti-Sinn Fein posters.
I operate a business so I understand about pressures from outside forces, Sinn Fein certainly did object to the article but did they order it removed or was that a business decision by Mairtin O? After last weeks post about him denigrating Adams I wouldnt think adams has that kind of pull with the paper.
I presume that the publisher knew full well the content of squinters article but never anticipated the back lash they recieved and not just from Gerry and he subsequently found it expiedient to follow these actions.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:24 PMPresumably because I dont accept the propaganda being spewed by the Anti-Sinn Fein posters
Er, you seem happy enough to believe the SF propaganda judging by your rather one-sided posts.
How boring must Canada be if you spend your days arguing about the ATN?
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:30 PMMarty
Politically speaking its very boring but thats what you get for a stable 141 year old democracy thats transmuted into a reasonably egalitarian societyNot perfect but not bad
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:52 PMSteve
Quite right - a wonderful legacy left by the Biritsh in our former Dominion.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:54 PMSo much for free speech. The 3 -20 archive edition has been removed. Welcome to 1984. Hello Pravda. mise
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:55 PM‘for me the issue isn’t so much about the apology, but about the way the post has been removed from the Squinter blog, excised from history as if it never existed. ‘
Sammy M, do you mean to say its been disappeared?
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 05:02 PMSteve
Quite right - a wonderful legacy left by the Biritsh in our former Dominion.
Posted by Blooper on Mar 28, 2008 @ 03:54 PM
Well it may have started out modelled on the british system since we have no inheirited right to govern ie house of lords and much less centralized and more devolved administrations I would judge our democracy similar but very different.Of course it is partially do to our rather more geographically diverse nation that power out of necesity was devolved out to the provinces
And just for the record the english did not instal our form of government it was a made in Canada solution that was only modeled on the english parliament
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 05:05 PMSusan
What I am saying is you are berating Gerry Adams for having the article removed with out any proof that he did.If he did use whatever power he might have to get the article removed then I would agree with what you are saying. But in the absence of any proof I refuse to condemn him because the article was removed after he complained.
And most posters are just using this as an excuse to take pot shots at the paper and Gerry
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 05:11 PMSammy M, do you mean to say its been disappeared?
Yup, not a sign of it. And comments on that site are moderated - I wonder if there’s any chance of anything critical of the paper’s line being included, except for the odd hysterical letter from hardline loyalists they publish to show how inclusive they are.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 05:14 PM“as a republican and as a writer, Gerry Adams”
He’s a great writer, Susan!!
“Ah, shut up!” I told her. “Who’s listening to you, wee doll,” and I stamped out of the house.
I think he’s just had another bout of the stamps :)
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 05:41 PMSteve, Gerry Adams has a platform locally, nationally and on the world’s stage as an elected politician, a republican, and a writer. He’s been a member of PEN ("promoting literature, defending freedom of expression") since at least the nineties, perhaps longer.
http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/
As I said, and as I expect you will continue to ignore, WHOEVER censored Squinter’s post from the site, censorship is censorship and if Adams continues to be silent in defense of freedom of the press and freedom of speech the ensuing speculation and suspicion may ultimately damage his reputation more than anything Squinter wrote.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 05:48 PMOnce again Sinn Fein invokes symbolism by attaching the Party political to a death in the name of republicanism; however, he was actually beaten to death along non-sectarian anti-social behaviour grounds.
Gerry Adams is trying to confuse the situation by using an uncomplicated message that Bap was at utmost a republican, invoking group recognition of that fact to belie the substance that it was nothing to do with republicanism but on the ground attitudinal problems ingrained in the minds of local youths.
And which Squinter had every right to complain about.
Re:
“The duty of citizens is to join in the efforts to achieve more change, more jobs, better housing, and safer communities.
That’s the way forward for this constituency.”What a patronising fucker, does he think we are all idiots!!!
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 05:50 PMNevin, every so often try to concentrate less on personalities involved and more on principles at stake. If only to get on everyone’s wick. ;o)
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 06:20 PMSusan of course you are absolutely correct, it is indefensible what has happened at the ATN and people should black the paper until this matter is put right.
It is almost as if Gerry Adams is determined to destroy what is left of his reputation, which is something despite disagreeing with him on a great many things I personally find sad, although it does not surprise me as after he signed up to a very similar peace protest arafat went the same way.
For a man who have been the victim of censorship to act in this fashion and keep quiet whilst the ATN and friends act in this manner is pathetic.
It is difficult to comprehend what is going on in Adams mind of late, first we had his despicable behavior at the funeral of Brendan Hughes and now this. It is as if the man is determined to destroy himself.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 06:31 PMThe Provos have murdered, beaten, and intimidated those who oppose them within the ares they see as their own for decades, and now that they have practically stopped doing that but Adams complains to a newspaper people say he has turned into some sort of big bad wolf. I fear that people’s priorities are somewhat skewed.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 06:38 PMmick hall - he’s rattled, since the southern election fiasco it has all been falling to pieces for him - remember enoch: all political lives end in failure - now it’s his turn
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 07:39 PMSusan, that pert butt was just asking to be kicked. And it’s Friday ;)
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 07:45 PMGaribaldy, it isn’t about complaining to a newspaper, and if things are allowed to stand as they are, it isn’t just about Gerry Adams. It’s about freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and standards and funding for an allegedly free press, If a principle is a principle you can’t argue it is a principle just for people like you, or people you like. (Although heaven only knows people will continue to try.)
Thanks, Mick. I don’t know if it is Adams himself who is behind this blatant, documented act of censorship, or clods who think they are defending him, or, as Steve suggests, a publisher skittish about his profit margins. But I do wish someone with Adams’s ear would remind him that the defense of freedom of speech and freedom of the press only becomes a personal attack on him if his continuing silence dictates that it is must be so.
Any chance the man himself ever gets up for a glass of water in the middle of the night and cruises by Slugger?
Jake “All political lives end in failure.” Great point; and most true of the interesting political lives.
Nevin: No comment. NASA’s efforts to defy gravity have nothing on mine. But thank you for that reminder that is Friday!
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 08:05 PMThis censorship is all quite shocking. The Squinter article in itself is only one part of the equation. What was more interesting was the long list of attacks on Adams and Sinn Fein which were posted after the article on Squinter’s site. Suddenly, it appeared as if all those whispered voices of dissent in West Belfast had something to coalesce around. These have all been wiped away, as if they never existed. Stalin would be proud. And what’s laughable is that today’s Andersonstown News has the front page headline: “We want Bap’s Home Levelled” with a picture of Fra McCann and a stern-faced friend. Not content with blaming everyone else, it’s now the flat’s fault. Do they think that demolishing it will make the hoods go away? Please!?!
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 08:40 PM“he Andersonstown News accepts that the tone and the timing of the Squinter article last week, during a period of community mourning, was inappropriate and unnecessary and apologises to Gerry Adams and our readers for any hurt caused.—Ed.”
Good gracious. That is extreme and says *a lot* about the proprietor.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 @ 08:41 PM
