Opinion

Deaglán de Bréadún: Ashling's violent death has left us all in tears

Ashling Murphy was killed while out running in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Ashling Murphy was killed while out running in Tullamore, Co Offaly. Ashling Murphy was killed while out running in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

THE lyrics of a pop song from a different era came to mind recently.

It was called ‘Boys Cry’ and the singer was Eden Kane (real name Richard Sarstedt). The message was that young fellows do shed tears, but only when no one is looking or listening. Last week, like many other males, females and other gender identities, I felt the tears welling up after hearing about the violent death of Ashling Murphy as she was taking a run beside the Grand Canal in Tullamore, County Offaly.

Every death can cause sadness, but the killing of the 23-year-old primary teacher, traditional musician and camogie-player, who had so much to offer the community throughout what should have been a long and happy life, would draw tears from a stone.

Journalists are not meant to cry and we’re usually too busy working on our reports to become emotionally involved. One occasion when standing aloof proved impossible was after the Omagh bombing of August 1998. The weekend following that terrible event in which 29 people died, including a woman pregnant with twins, I reported from the town on a ceremony with an estimated 40,000 attendance, some of whom collapsed from grief and received emergency attention. Twelve of those killed eight days before were teenagers or children and, in addition to a virtual ocean of memorial flowers, there were scores and scores of cuddly teddy-bears such as youngsters might give one another on their birthdays.

My emotional moment came some time later, when an album called ‘Across the Bridge of Hope’, featuring a range of star performers, was released in support of the Omagh Bomb Victims Fund. The track with the greatest personal impact was Sinéad O’Connor’s down-tempo version of Abba’s ‘Chiquitita’ which literally had tears rolling down my cheeks, thinking of the young victims in particular. More recently, Sinéad herself has suffered the loss of her teenage son Shane and everyone in her legion of fans would doubtless offer heartfelt condolences.

In light of the events I have mentioned, day-to-day politics seem almost trivial, but those who hold political office can influence our lives and the future of our children.

If you were playing a word-association game, the term “competence” would hardly come to mind at the mention of Boris Johnson these days. He’s gotten himself into an awful mess and a more appropriate term would be “loser”. However, given his previous adroitness at the political game, that might yet turn into “survivor”. Someone who won a majority of eighty seats in a general election clearly has some political skills, however much he may be hiding them of late. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has been mentioned as a possible successor and she has been taking a carefully measured approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, behaving in a hospitable manner towards EU negotiator Maros Sefcovic while keeping Tory hardliners happy by warning she could introduce unilateral safeguards under Article 16 of the deal if necessary.

Down south, the position of Taoiseach Micheál Martin may have improved somewhat. As usual in political parties, there are potential rivals for the leadership of Fianna Fáil, with names such as Jim O’Callaghan, Michael McGrath and Darragh O’Brien mentioned in speculation. Rumblings within the party have eased a bit of late but the real test may come when, under the terms of the coalition agreement with Fine Gael, Martin hands over the reins as taoiseach to his Fine Gael counterpart at the end of this year.

There are rather fewer rumblings in Fine Gael at the moment. The biggest shadow over party leader and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s future may be the episode where a confidential draft document outlining the government’s proposed GP contract with a medical organisation was shared by Varadkar with the head of a rival medical group. At time of writing the matter is still the subject of a Garda investigation.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin continue sailing along at the head of the polls, on both sides of the border. In the south it looks like FF and FG will try to avoid having a general election “until the shine goes off the Shinners”. In the north, unionist parties are the ones facing the biggest challenges. If Sinn Féin gets enough support in the next assembly election to hold the office of first minister and the unionist side refuses to nominate a deputy first minister, then the power-sharing system could collapse, which might increase pressure for a poll on Irish unity.

Email: Ddebre1@aol.com; Twitter: @DdeBreadun