Opinion

Patrick Murphy: Sinn Féin has failed to adequately address hurt caused by Barry McElduff

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy is an Irish News columnist and former director of Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams with deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams with deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams with deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald

Not for the first time, Sinn Féin appears to have lost its way. The party has already survived several U-turns on policy and principle over recent years, but this week's handling of Barry McElduff's shameful twitter leaves its year-old northern policy of equality looking somewhat threadbare.

Sinn Féin has now left itself unnecessarily vulnerable at a crucial point in Irish politics and at a pivotal moment in the party's history, with next month's planned leadership hand-over.

Change is nothing new to Sinn Féin. It supported a military campaign for a united Ireland and then agreed to partition. It opposed Irish entry into the EU and is now a fervent EU supporter. It married the DUP and then divorced it.

It welcomed British royalty, but now refuses to shake royal hands and, of course, it opposed Tory welfare cuts and then implemented them. All of these reversals were conscious decisions and, interestingly, all increased the party's electoral support.

(Critics might argue that the party's electoral success has been effectively based on Tony Blair's principle of becoming a different party.)

But this week's decision was unplanned. Having promised to "reach out" to unionists, it effectively insulted the entire unionist population (and many of the rest of us) with what most saw as its failure to adequately address the hurt caused by Mr McElduff's behaviour.

The party's demand for equality, integrity and respect was significantly undermined by what might be called SF's "crocodile" moment. Its northern strategy now appears to be in shreds - equality for all, except the relatives of Protestant workers murdered by the IRA?

So how does the party get out of the latest hole it dug for itself, what exactly does it stand for now in Irish politics and to what extent is it in control of its own destiny?

It will take a long time, or some diversionary events, for the party to distance itself from this shameful episode. The principled approach would have been to expel McElduff and suspend Mairtín Ó Muilleoir, but the party's cult-like protectionism overcame principle and the relatives of the Kingsmills dead were made to suffer all over again.

The relatives are all genuine, decent and honourable people. None of them want revenge. None of them want retaliation. All they seek is the truth, as evidenced by the dignified attitude of Alan Black, the sole survivor of what was an IRA anti-Protestant pogrom.

Against all that the 1916 Proclamation preaches, SF tells unionists that they are British. Maybe that is why they show them such contempt and drive them into the political arms of the DUP.

Even if you argue that McElduff made a genuine error (and no IRA supporter should ever be allowed to forget the anniversary of Kingsmill), it is difficult to understand how an MP should consider it appropriate to walk about with items of food on his head. There are 37 food banks in the north for those who cannot afford to buy the food Mr McElduff was displaying. There is nothing humorous about hunger.

His job is to create a society where no one goes hungry and he can start by attending Westminster and turning the Tories out of office. Instead, he walks about with food on his head, a level of behaviour in which not even Donald Trump has engaged.

So what does post-McElduff SF stand for? In the north, it is now at the same level as the DUP. It is hard to see any difference between what can only be regarded as two bigoted parties. (The SDLP and the UUP are sectarian in their electoral appeal, but neither shows a trace of bigotry.)

SF's former education minister, Caitríona Ruane's, acceptance of a £40,000 salary payment, even though she did not even stand in the last election, will damage the party's demand for integrity.

In the south, SF is softening its left wing image by rowing in behind Fine Gael's demand for a North-South ministerial council, to oversee some of the north's governance. With that southern attitude and SF's northern embarrassment, Fine Gael will be laughing all the way to the polling station.

From a pre-Christmas position of strength, Sinn Féin's future is now unusually unpredictable. It is at the mercy of events in Dublin, London and Europe. It does not have to be where it is and Mary Lou McDonald now faces an unnecessary additional challenge as incoming party leader.

All SF's policy reversals to date have produced electoral success. But this one is unlikely to and its probable outcome will be a southern-led party leaving its northern sub-branch to wallow in the sectarian mud.