Monday, November 20, 2006
Rossport and the dead hand of Northern politics?
There was an interesting piece in the Sunday Independent on the Shell to Sea campaign. Recent protests at Bellanaboy and a heavy police response has galvanised some attention online, with some exaggerated claims of parallels with the brutalisation of the Ogoni in Rivers State and the Niger Delta. But it was the involvement of Sinn Fein in the campaign that caught Declan Lynch’s eye:
...here is their schedule for one day, according to an internet source.
Sinn Fein picket at Shell in Clare Hall; Sinn Fein picket at Donnycarney church; Sinn Fein picket at Shell in Glasnevin; Sinn Fein picket at Shell at Lucan bypass; Sinn Fein picket at Shell, Taney Road, Dundrum; Sinn Fein picket at Shell in Dalkey; Sinn Fein picket at Statoil in Castleknock; Sinn Fein picket at Statoil in Hartstown.
Picketing was from 5pm to 7pm, and venues outside Dublin were not listed.
He goes on:
Could Sinn Fein, indefatigable as they are, have invented a controversy more suited to their needs than Rossport?
Here in one package is the perfect gift for them, wrapped up in an emerald green ribbon - an apparent David vs Goliath struggle which can make them look good, for a change; an issue which stirs the old nationalist blood, with the all-powerful foreign oppressor looting the natural resources of Ireland and grinding down the poor but defiant Irish people; a controversy which can advance Sinn Fein’s project in the South, and a means of getting an immediate result by chipping away at the local political establishment, the Enda Kenny types who echo McDowell’s dark talk about “Provo tactics” when they refer to “outside forces”.
All of this, he argues, is likely to be counter productive so far as the wider Irish population is concerned:
...any vaguely normal Irish person has already turned away from Rossport, for one obvious reason: when the light catches it a certain way, what’s going on there looks like something brought down from the North. Which, to the vast majority of folks watching the “clashes” on the RTE News, means that they don’t want to know about it.
The blazing intensity of it, the sheer west Belfast style of the protests, including some outstanding footage of men resisting arrest, writhing in the ecstasy of oppression as they are carried away by the peelers, all this turns the hearts of the people of the Irish republic to stone.
He concludes:
...part of the statement issued by the Rossport 5 on their release might have been drafted by Adams himself, with Ferris pacing the floor adding helpful suggestions. It went: “We remind Shell and their Irish Government partner that imprisonments have historically and will always fail as a method to secure the agreement of the Irish people.”
Ah yes, it’s that old ecstasy again - though with the TV cameras rolling and the press writing it all down, and an appearance on the Late Late, these days even oppression is not what it used to be. At this point the men were evoking the tradition of romantic republican heroes, the last line of resistance to the Crown.
At this point too, the cause was lost.
An interesting conclusion, the truth of which very much remains to be demonstrated in practice. Not least at the polls next summer.
Mick Fealty @ 01:05 PM
Just tell us Mick, how you consider the claims of violence against protesters by Gardaí to be exaggerated? The scenes were clear to us all from watching our TVs on Friday week. Gardaí banned a protest, didn’t tell the protesters and then set about removing them violently, with batons drawn, from the road. Yeah, Declan Lynch is right about West Mayo resembling West Belfast but it’s not down to Sinn Féin, its down to the Gardaí and their imitation of the heavy handed tactics of the PSNI/RUC.
What Declan overlooks to mention is the involvement ‘The Man’ - ie his boss Tony O’Reilly, who has considerable interests in terms of oil exploration via Providence Resources - has in his rather lopsided view of what’s happening in Béal an Atha Bhuí.
He also fails to mention that one of the main spokespeople for Shell - one Paddy Ruddy - is actually a local big wheel in Sinn Féin. This was reported in the latest edition of Village.
When Michael McDowell muttered darkly about ‘Provo’ tactics etc, and when he was echoed by Enda Kenny and his ‘dark forces’ from outside, he was of course talking through his hat. He had no evidence - but then again that never stopped him making unfounded allegations before. And when he was brought to book on one such allegation, the charge against Daily Ireland that it would be akin to a Nazi broadsheet except for SF, he relied on the Pinochet defence to get him off. And he gets plenty of airtime and his mutterings are written down by the press, especially Mr Lynch’s colleagues.
It’s a new form of journalism which the Sunday Independent has pioneered, the journalism of extreme prejudice. It’s something they should be proud of, their contribution, along with slandering the dead (Liam Lawlor) to the profession.
However Mr Lynch’s conclusions are not interesting in what they say about the Shell protesters in as much as they would be interesting in what they have to say about his narrow and ignorant view of the world. If his narrow and ignorant view of the world was interesting….
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 02:28 PMOillibhear, I’ve linked to pictures on Indymedia of the violence. What I actually said was “some exaggerated claims of parallels” with Nigeria with a specific link.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 02:40 PMMick, I think the OC’s response illustrates Lynch’s point beautifully.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 02:56 PMfunny how OC misses the point and offers us more
“writhing in the ecstasy of oppression”. inadvertantly but hilariously confirming lynch’s claim.
Then OC, running out of farm-yard steam goes onto say something ignorant and unkind about Mr.Lynch a journalist and playwright.
You couldn’t make it up.
Writing plays is all about the very opposite of narrowness and prejudice ... hello !
I wonder how many plays ,have you written OC?Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 03:04 PMParcifal, I’m not sure which planet you call home but I don’t know and don’t care what plays Declan Lynch is written - it’s his journalism which concerns me on this occasion and I believe I’ve made my point with the facts to back it up. If Declan Lynch wants to write a play about the Shell protest, then let him go ahead and no doubt he’ll get a rave review from his Sunday Indo colleagues and he’ll be a success. Good for him. But I stand over my assessment of his and Sunday Independent journalism in general as ‘narrow, ignorant and extremely prejudicial’.
As for Urquhart, why don’t you try an argument? Are you not able for it?
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 03:19 PMIn those recent protests at Bellanaboy no more than 20 of the 150-200 odd demonstrators were from Sinn Fein…that has been reported in the Village magazine amongst others publications that do not so obviously toe the 26 county govt. line. The Sinn Fein supporters who were present, moreover, where from the local cumann. There is no evidence that ‘outside forces’ were bussing in Sinn Fein members from outside Mayo. What the media and 26 county govt. do not seem to realise it that this issue has genuine support among a wide spectrum of people in Ireland, some of whom are willing to travel to support it and most of whom are not politically affiliated. In any case, I do not see the Sunday Independent as being, ahem, exactly unbiased when it comes to reporting stories on Sinn Fein (or most other matters) and to use it here as a basis for a serious discussion on Rossport is laughable…
The Sunday Independent, in addition, will always toe the official line on most matters, particularly where it comes to the rights of big business versus the ‘common man’. Its report should be seen in this context, when it attempts to ‘smear’ the protesters with the tag of Sinn Fein supporters. We can, I think, also see the ‘comments’ of McDowell and Enda Kenny, far-right politicians, in this context (Kenny, a Mayo T.D. should be careful of this outright support for Shell, and disdain for the demonstrators, come the next election…)
To attempt to link the bulk of the protesters, involved in a genuine local attempt to stop an unpopular and potentially dangerous industrial development in their area, to the Provos or Sinn Fein (the ‘marxist’ bogeyman of the urban middle-class imagination!) is a very low and very old tactic, designed to scare off the middle-classes from supporting the rightful protests of these Mayo people. McDowell and others know that linking these protests to Sinn Fein (the dreaded ‘marxist’ Provos) will be enough to make most voters see the issue as one where those leftist Provo trouble makers are stirring up trouble again, and thus, be happy to see the Gardai (who were shown to be, ahem, less than upstanding in the Morris tribunal) go about their work of smashing the heads of the ‘troublemakers’, etc.
It is a scurrilous attempt to divert the masses attention from a government attempt to force through building work (in the name of a private corporation of all things) against the will of the local democracy.
Sinn Fein themselves are supporting the protests. And why shouldn’t they? Someone should stand up for the people in Mayo who have been badly served by their local politicians. That is not to say that Sinn Fein are running the protests. A casual look at the make-up of the Rossport demonstrators and their leadership will tell you that…and it is clear that Declan Lynch has no hard evidence of a link going by his crude attempt to associate Martin Ferris with the Rossport demonstrators, etc. This is not ‘journalism’...it is disinformation and propaganda, all in support of a foreign corporation and big business generally…Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 03:43 PMI thought the piece was interesting not because it was comprehensive, but that it was a literate judgement on a given moment in time. That judgement may be wrong for all manner of reasons, not least that he may not be familiar with the internal dynamic of SF’s real target audience in the Republic. But, at the very least, it is always useful to mark such judgements for future reference.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 03:44 PM“As for Urquhart, why don’t you try an argument? Are you not able for it?”
And there I was thinking I was going to make it through today without having a laugh. The last time I heard that very line I was about 13. The genius who said it then escalated his argument by calling me ‘specky’!
I think the point of this thread OC is that Lynch is making the argument. I simply think that your post proves it.
BTW, your citation of Liam Lawlor’s innocence to make your ‘point’ must surely stand as a Slugger Classic?
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 03:48 PMSS: “In those recent protests at Bellanaboy no more than 20 of the 150-200 odd demonstrators were from Sinn Fein…that has been reported in the Village magazine “
Alas, if only Daily Ireland were still around your case would be irrefutable.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 03:50 PMOC I’ll take you on.
Now, you’ve a chip on your shoulder about the Indo, that much I’ve learned from you.
Your hostility comes from what you claim to be its “narrow, ignorant and extremely prejudicial’, journalism.But I put it to you sir, that you’re writhing in the ecstasy of oppression, ( that’s what the article is all about )in other words you’re already on a downer, and as such you cannot see the fair point he’s making.
Now your defence is:
” Am I bovvered, look, face, bovvered,”Take the shame, you’ve been spotted!
What lynch is saying is that Republicanism, and he cites a good example at the Shell protests, in its current form represented by SF is a joke, its a total “downer” and the southerners find it utterly ridiculous.
the hope is when Republicanism can turn itself into an “upper”, it’ll be a force to reckoned with.
That’s the planet I’m on .Glad to make your aquaintance .
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 03:55 PMOC-
You say
“And when he was brought to book on one such allegation, the charge against Daily Ireland that it would be akin to a Nazi broadsheet except for SF, he relied on the Pinochet defence to get him off.”
but then you say
“It’s a new form of journalism which the Sunday Independent has pioneered, the journalism of extreme prejudice.”
and
“But I stand over my assessment of his and Sunday Independent journalism in general as ‘narrow, ignorant and extremely prejudicial’.”
Without wishing to spark a debate on the respective qualities or shortcomings of the aforementioned publications, is it not a bit odd that you complain about McDowell’s comments about DI, and then indulge in levelling similar (if slightly less dramatic) accusations at the Sindo?
If you wish to protect the right of newspapers to take certain viewpoints and produce copy with their own political slant (regardless of whether one finds it to one’s liking), then you can’t exactly attack a newspaper when it exercises that right.
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, an Ireland of Equals, and all that.
Just a thought…
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 04:06 PMURQUHART:
“Alas, if only Daily Ireland were still around your case would be irrefutable.”
I believe the Irish Times also made the same estimate as I gave…would that be a right-wing enough source for you, perhaps? I do not have the link at hand…but perhaps someone else does…
By the way, if you look at the ‘Shell to Sea’ webpage
http://www.corribsos.com/
and go to ‘contacts’ you will see that it is an organisation run, not by Sinn Feiners (surprised?) but by local people (shocker!), plus an independent T.D.
Ah, but then the pre-chewed brainless agit-prop from News International is so much easier to digest, isn’t it? Doesn’t involve having to take an independent view on the matter…Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 04:13 PMSS, since you haven’t got a link to the Irish Times (right wing? have you ever read it??) I’ll give you that the Shell to Sea campaign website backs up your argument.
I’d already had a look at it earlier in the day. Got the address from the PSF website, where it sits between Restorative Justice and South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee - another two independent ‘grass roots’ movements.
You say: “Ah, but then the pre-chewed brainless agit-prop from News International is so much easier to digest, isn’t it? Doesn’t involve having to take an independent view on the matter… “
I expect that the humour in that statement is unintentional?
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 04:43 PMIt is funny to see Declan Lynch looking into his heart and seeing what the Irish people are thinking.
This was the guy who said during the last Presidential election that he didn’t know anybody who was voting for Mary McAleese or anybody who was not voting for Nora Owen.
On hopes that he has broadened his circle since then but I still wouldn’t look to him for an insight into public opinion.
Mind you I enjoyed both his novels and his columns are often hilarious.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 04:43 PMNot Nora Owen. Mary Banotti.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 04:44 PM”...Writing plays is all about the very opposite of narrowness and prejudice ...”
Such touching faith in the highmindedness of all playwrights, Parcifal. Obviously you have been spared having to endure the works of Miss Agatha Christie, Jeffrey, Lord Archer, Tom Stoppard and a few others I could name.
Mr Lynch may write his little plays but he is not to be included in the ranks of Synge, Brecht, Miller, Pinter or Friel nor do his valiant attempts at theatre exempt him from criticism for his political stance in support of an oil giant.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 06:46 PMNo one actually seems to have tackled any of OC’s points, instead engaging in ad hominum attacks and straw men.
This is truly a trainwreck of a thread.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 06:50 PMI’m sorry but does nayone have anymore more links regarding this story? have I missed something or does this story indicative of the mindset thats failing N.I.
Feck me, a great opportunity for overseas investment (and it’s not a handout), a bit of proper development, some people might even get proper jobs. No wait cant pass up a chance to be oppressed. It’s those big bad Norwegians this time, yeah they’re a right shower them lot.
Nah we wont protest in the proper channels, no well get out in the road, stop people doing their jobs, have a rammy with the polis, magic.
Do these people not have anything better to do?
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 07:09 PMJocky
You’re spot on. Energy security or Irish wealth don’t come into it when you’ve a chance to get your head knocked on the evening news and the chance of picking up a few vulnerable votes.Parcifal, you say “What lynch is saying is that Republicanism, and he cites a good example at the Shell protests, in its current form represented by SF is a joke, its a total “downer” and the southerners find it utterly ridiculous. “
I think you’re spot on too. I just hope that the Northerners cop onto it too before long.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 07:17 PMOK to address OC points in detail,
Protestor sits on road, bloking road preventing folk going abot their business, police removes protestor from the road using force (yes including baton to the head).
Exaclty what is the problem? why do the protestors have the right to feck up everyone’s elses lives? Sitting down in the middle of the road fecking peoples lives is not normal behavious a baton to the head is what you should get if you participate in that type of behaviour.
And then he criticises a paper for having a different (Id say more realistic) view of the world than him. Pathetic
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 07:17 PMAlso, can someone explain how the great SF advance in the south is going to happen when at heart they are peddling antics that would not look out of place with Scargill in the mid 1980’s. It’s a brave new world out there with the shinners, it’s 1984!
This type of agit-prop piffle is about the level of your G-8 anarchists and is taken as seriously as that.
What these people don’t realise is people notice this type of thing and factor it in their decisions on where they invest their money. Still can always blame the brits for the unemployed.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 07:40 PMWhat these people don’t realise is people notice this type of thing and factor it in their decisions on where they invest their money
Agreed Jocky. I would have thought that if the Sinners wanted to increase their vote in the South they would want to appeal to the people enjoying their relatively new-found prosperity rather than looking like they’re opposed to big business.
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 07:48 PMURQUHART:
“SS, since you haven’t got a link to the Irish Times (right wing? have you ever read it??) I’ll give you that the Shell to Sea campaign website backs up your argument.”
Yes, the Irish Times is the same paper that has an ex-Progressive Democrat as the editor and ultra right-wing columnists such as John Waters, John Krauthammer (previously Mark Stein), isn’t it?
“I’d already had a look at it earlier in the day. Got the address from the PSF website, where it sits between Restorative Justice and South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee - another two independent ‘grass roots’ movements.”
You do not appear to know the history of the Rossport dispute…it was ongoing for quite some time before it was ‘discovered’ by Provo. Sinn Fein (for the obvious electoral advantage it gives them as supporters of the poor farmer classes). Oh, I see, because PSF supports the local residents then the Rossport residents must be tainted by the association…is that it? I believe back in the day PSF was against apartheid in South Africa…I guess, using your logic, that tainted the whole anti-apatheid movement there…maybe because at the time An Phoblacht advertised marches in support of Mandela.
“I expect that the humour in that statement is unintentional?”
Yep, it is all about the humour, isn’t it?
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 07:58 PMLet me take you back to the very first point I made - that is that SHELL has as a spokesman in this dispute one of the main SF personalities in the area. Sure Sinn Fein have taken an interest in this story - but no more so than Labour or the Greens or Joe Higgins or Tony Gregory.
But, fancy that, Declan Lynch is trying to paint up this ‘so called’ northern influence in order to, as he thinks, discredit the Shell to Sea protest because he has looked in his heart and he thinks people in the south are turned off by the north. Maybe his venal, vacuous and vacant friends are of such a mind - but he shouldn’t overestimate the worth of the ‘polls’ carried out by the Sunday Independent,(rather than actually going out and doing some real investigative journnalism).
This is all plays into the journalism of extreme prejudice for which the Sunday Independent is infamous - this attempt to tar with one brush very different groups with different agendas and modus operandi simply because they may share one point of view.
This is why, for instance, Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party, has to regularly reassure the SI that they will not be going into government with Sinn Fein, another republican party, or even going into government if it’s as the result of a SF TD voting for them. Does anyone - other than the Sunday Independent - believe that FF have any principle left which they wouldn’t sell for power? Of course the SI doesn’t see this - because they don’t believe in principles either - but like a spoiled child it gets thrown a morsel in order to placate it from to time so it doesn’t go into a hissy fit.a great opportunity for overseas investment (and it’s not a handout), a bit of proper development, some people might even get proper jobs. No wait cant pass up a chance to be oppressed. It’s those big bad Norwegians this time, yeah they’re a right shower them lot.
The problem is, Jocky, that there’s not going to be proper development, there’s going to be exploitation by overseas interests rather than investment and the ‘proper jobs’, the vast bulk of them anyhow, are going to people from outside the area.
People in Rossport want this gas and associated development but not on the pretty poor terms negotiated by former FF Minister, jailbird Ray Burke. Remember him? I’m glad Jocky mentioned Norway as Statoil would never get the deal from their own government that they got so handily here from Rambo and his successors.
The arguments made by the Rossport community are unanswerable and that’s why people like Declan Lynch and associated fellow travellers try and throw us some red herrings.
And they desperately, desperately, desperately don’t want the link between Tony O’Reilly, the owner of the Indo, and Providence Resources and further exploitation rights off Ireland’s western seaboard.Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 08:11 PMI find it interesting the Sindo has reverted to giving large column inches to SF again (way beyond that of Labour in particular) after a period of trying to ignore them. I’d suggest Sir Tony has realised his paper doesn’t influence the working class, socialist or Republican vote and is now selling scare stories to those implacably opposed to Sinn Fein and his interests in the Corrib gas field.
The Rossport issue was initially, for many, social drama mixed with serious environmental and economic concerns - SF stayed with the issues after the protesters were released from gaol, have continued to raise the environmental concerns and exploitation of natural resources while others evaporated after the glamour of the ‘Free the 5’ campaign ended.
SF stuck with the campaign after the ‘victimhood’ (prison for locals) ended. Stuck with the policy, environmental and economic issues long after those that hung around for the gaol shots went home.
Far from ‘writhing in the ecstasy of oppression’ SF stuck with the people of Rossport and Ireland on a political issue while those that saw a photo opportunity cleared off once the 5 were free.
The issue always was about environmentally unsound practises and unfair exploitation of natural resources.
Heads get cracked now. People got gaoled before. SF are sticking to fighting on the issues while others cry ‘Scargil’ and ‘whingers’ without addressing the substance of the debate. [removed]
Posted by on Nov 20, 2006 @ 09:06 PM
