Flak from all sides but Sinn Fein well prepared to weather the storm

SINN Fein must know that it has shot its own credibility to bits on Covid-19, but it’s certainly not admitting that.

There was no ‘mea culpa’ from Michelle O’neill as she faced an Assembly debate last night on her actions at Bobby Storey’s funeral.

But she cut a strikingly subdued figure in the chamber — in comparison to the strident aggression of her party’s social media warriors defending her actions.

It will take some time and effort before her authority is rebuilt with the other Stormont parties, and the wider public.

She will face the same uphill climb that Arlene Foster did after RHI.

Indeed, Alliance’s Kellie Armstrong suggested that the repercussions following the Storey funeral were even more sweeping.

“Unlike RHI, Covid-19 has touched ever single family in Northern Ireland,” she said. “This crisis is personal.”

The collegiate approach that the Executive had taken on tackling the disease until last week was now in shreds, she said.

In their constituencies, MLAS were hearing from the public “Why should I? Why should I stick to the rules now?”, Ms Armstrong said.

Most MLAS spoke as much in sorrow as in anger during the debate. The SDLP’S Colin Mcgrath’s powerful contribution touched on the huge sacrifices that ordinary citizens have made during this pandemic.

He said that 5,000 people had died here since coronavirus restrictions were introduced. “They were told in no uncertain terms that they must stick to the rules. They did what they were told,” he said.

“They had no wakes. They had no visitors to the house. They stuck to the rules in chapels. They took their time slots and followed staff guidelines at the crematorium. They didn’t organise an after service or dress codes or set up a PA system.”

Mrs O’neill had effectively said that “her movement, her people, and her party” was more important than everybody else’s, he said.

The Deputy First Minister had explained her decision to pose for a selife in Milltown Cemetery was one made in “the blink of an eye”. DUP MLA Alex Easton told her that when he watched footage of the entire funeral he wondered “how many blinks of eyes did you have that day?”.

He said the funeral had “made a mockery of this Assembly. Why would anybody take us seriously?”.

The SDLP’S Daniel Mccrossan said his party had been unable to attend the funeral of former party colleague and deputy Stormont Speaker John Dallat. “We made the decision that our grief, our pain, our needs had to come second to the public health advice we had committed to and had asked others to do the same,” he said.

MLAS must “practise what we preach” but instead Sinn Fein had created a “hierarchy of pain” which betrayed republicanism’s commitment to equality.

“There cannot be one rule for those who govern and another for

the rest of us,” Mr Mccrossan said. Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said there was even different mathematics for Sinn Fein in

❝ Sinn Fein is simply battening down hatches hoping that, after the Twelth, the crisis will pass

counting the numbers present at funerals.

“Somehow in the Orwellian Adams world your interpretation of the rules means that somehow you are

more equal than the others,” he said. A ruthlessly forensic dissection of the breaches of coronavirus regulations and guidelines at the Storey funeral was offered by DUP MLA Christopher Stalford.

“More than 30 in attendance, hundreds more behind them, advertising the event, installing a public address system, a mass rally in Milltown, posing for selfies, shaking hands.

“Yet the Deputy First Minister insists her actions were within the regulations,” he declared. “In a fashion that would shame the Trump administration, the Deputy First Minister asks us to shut our eyes to what we can all see and stuff our ears to drown out what we can all hear.”

The Sinn Fein MLAS who spoke answered none of the detailed allegations of coronavirus regulation breaches at the funeral. Pat Sheehan referred to his friendship with Bobby Storey. He had been “with him in the Army, in prison, and in Sinn Fein”.

Orlaithi Flynn focused on the respect that the Storey family deserved following their loss. Sinn Fein is simply battening down the hatches and hoping that after the Twelfth, and the summer, this crisis will have passed.