Opinion

Fionnuala O Connor: Lack of unionist leadership is a problem for nationalists

Ian Knox cartoon 20/02/18: Unionists attempts to rationalise their visceral hatred for all things Irish lead to blind alleys of self delusion 
Ian Knox cartoon 20/02/18: Unionists attempts to rationalise their visceral hatred for all things Irish lead to blind alleys of self delusion  Ian Knox cartoon 20/02/18: Unionists attempts to rationalise their visceral hatred for all things Irish lead to blind alleys of self delusion 

The way the DUP ended then rubbished their engagement with Sinn Féin was clumsy, embarrassing, and if you let your sense of proportion slip, depressing. Everything didn’t go dark, however; there are several gleams of light.

Some southern opinion saw through the flash mob of straw-men to an indefensible contempt for Irish. Given the predisposition in Dublin’s chattering class to say unionists good because Shinners very bad, even temporary realism is cheering.

With unusual unanimity, the media plainly did not believe the DUP version of events and let their disbelief show, always good when spinners over-reach themselves. And suddenly we had ‘critical mass’ of women in prominent roles - Arlene Foster, Mary Lou McDonald, Theresa May and Michelle O’Neill - instantly qualifying them for assessment as politicians good, bad and indifferent, gender irrelevant.

With no speechifying, McDonald on her first major northern outing made brisk work of what Foster had done. Either side of her in front of the cameras you could see O’Neill and Conor Murphy registering a new style of leader.

A politician from a wider world with skills to match - including those learned in an IRA-dominated machine - who must surely shake up republicanism north and south?

It obviously suited the organisation Gerry Adams fronted up that the smiling O’Neill has remained one-dimensional. McDonald cannot surely want a cardboard cut-out deputy.

Last Monday’s whistle-stop by Theresa May could well have provided the most demoralising performance of the week but shaken and vulnerable as May is, local competition outdid her.

Others have more than adequately weighed the awfulness of Foster.

In this paper alone Allison Morris concluded that by appeasing her hardliners the DUP leader had fed ‘a different kind of crocodile which will be back for more’ while John Manley decided Foster had created ‘an Irish language bogeyman’ which might haunt her for years.

Gerry Moriarty, the Irish Times longest-serving Northern Editor, noted with almost audible pain how the would-be deal collapsed because extreme unionist voices dictated.

‘There were no, or precious few, middle ground unionists going on the airwaves to challenge those fanatically opposed to any notion of a language act. That moderate unionist voice was badly missing.’

A very different journalist cut through what for many here is conscious effort – maybe mistaken - to stay away from ancestral grievance.

Tom McGurk in the Business Post pitched his analysis squarely at ill-informed southerners. To those with minimal knowledge of unionist government attitudes to Irish culture from the northern state’s foundation, he wrote, it was ‘fairly jaw-dropping’ that a few now claimed Sinn Féin were using Irish as a political weapon.

The furore was only the latest chapter in ‘a culture war’ which had existed in some form since the Ulster Plantation. Unionist ‘antipathy’ to the Irish language was ‘a historical inheritance, plantation-style DNA’.

Fiery stuff, but in the sedate Irish Times Moriarty, mildest of men, sounded not much less critical. Some unionist commentary on the proposed Irish Language Act had been ‘hysterical and irrational. From it nationalism will have drawn an old sectarian message about unionism.’

Many have believed that all along, some galled in particular by the constant gibe that too few speak Irish to give it legal status. From the political heirs to governments that rooted out the language, this is surely perverse as well as cheeky.

But the latest Foster showing sharpens awareness that unionist lack of leadership is also a problem for nationalists. Who do they negotiate with?

At least initially McDonald has set an upbeat tone merely by minding her tongue.

There was no sneering.

She convincingly argued the existence of a draft deal which Foster near-pitiably failed to explain away and left it at that, which was a mercy.

Because she’s not Adams who offended their ears as well as being ‘SF/IRA’ McDonald might just make southern viewers less alienated from the north, and from Sinn Féin on the north. Not a moment too soon, with Brexit forcing the border into focus.

The underlying message last week is that Sinn Féin are willing to go back to Stormont. Loss of nerve by Foster and her party has given the new leadership time, badly needed to deal with Dáil dynamics and organisational overhaul including their next northern move.

By pulling out of a deal that at best might have made good on previous agreements the DUP did Sinn Féin a favour. What their leadership failure re-confirms about wider unionism points up the difficulties ahead and makes any gleam of light more welcome.