Nothing ‘ironic’ about confronting genocide

AS SINN FÉIN trips over its own feet in its efforts to be a key player in mainstream politics, one wonders at what point will it dawn on the party that it is not possible to have one real face and several bogus ones? For as soon as the mask slips, all is exposed. Dublin Lord Mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha demonstrated the futility of trying to conceal a core inability to shake off hostility towards the politics of acceptance when he launched his tirade against Bob Geldof for having the effrontery to be honoured by Queen Elizabeth.

Mayor Mac Donncha appears more comfortable walking alongside Aung San Suu Kyi and turning his back on the Live Aid founder.

Sooner than dissociate from the now disgraced Myanmar campaigner, who has resolutely refused to condemn the genocide against the Rohingya people, he launched an attack on Geldof.

But then again, for Sinn Féin and the IRA, the denial of war, especially their own part in one, is nothing new.

It is indefensible to forget or deny genocide in Myanmar. There is therefore a moral imperative on Dublin to withdraw the freedom of the city to Ms Suu Kyi.

To many Geldof may be regarded as something of a national earache, but he has more claim than most to be the custodian of a moral compass, if such a thing can still be claimed to exist.

He has brought the world’s attention to confront painful realities that were all too often conveniently ignored.

The platform of purity and probity on which Ms Suu Kyi’s reputation was built has been dissolved by her inaction in the face of evil.

As she said herself: “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”

With more than 600,000 of the minority group having had to flee for their lives since August, there is nothing “ironic” about Geldof’s decision to hand back the freedom of the city. What is inexplicable is that Mr Mac Donncha should find it appropriate to fete someone who is indifferent to genocide.