Golfgate has put Sinn Féin on the leaderboard
PHIL HOGAN certainly clung on to office as if his life depended on it but, in the end, it’s we who will pay the highest price for his arrogance. His fall from grace cost him his status, his annual salary of €273,000 plus perks and, perhaps, his high-flying career. The country however has potentially lost the influence that comes with having one of our own as the EU Trade Commissioner as well as someone to fight for our interests in the upcoming Brexit negotiations. Thanks a million, Phil.
But perhaps just as significant a part of Big Phil’s legacy is his handing to Sinn Féin its first major PR coup since Mary Lou McDonald became leader of the opposition, garlanding the party with a fresh legitimacy.
The anger unleashed by Golfgate provoked a backlash against the two mainstream parties and the ruling elite and neither Mary Lou or party stalwarts such as Pearse Doherty were shy about clambering up on to the moral high ground.
Unburdened by any qualms about the shameful conduct in her own party regarding Covid, the Sinn Féin leader slammed Golfgate as ‘old politics’, framing herself as the high priestess of political probity.
AS her rhetoric soared and she lined up a series of establishment figures in her crosshairs, her every condemnatory note about the ‘golfing shindig’ rang true. The fact that it was also a breathtaking display of hypocrisy hardly diminished the scorching accuracy of her diatribe. No-one who listened to her could have disagreed with her words.
McDonald and Doherty may deny any equivalence between Golfgate and the Bobby Storey funeral but it was obvious that Sinn Féin members flouted anti-Covid measures and played fast and loose with the rules.
Michelle O’Neill was also rightly criticised for travelling to Dublin for the formation of the new Government, even though Micheál Martin’s family stayed away. But Sinn Féin’s growing army of supporters will be unfazed.
By their reckless behaviour, Big Phil and other senior figures have made it easy for more voters to renounce established parties for the promises of Sinn Féin.
TRUE, the party’s new cloak of respectability frequently slips to reveal a dark underbelly of chillingly tribal and primitive beliefs. Former Sinn Féin MEP
Martina Anderson rightly apologised for her offensive dismissal of the North’s compensation fund as benefiting mainly those who fought Britain’s ‘dirty war’.
Sinn Féin has many talented and articulate politicians who are brimming with ideas and reforming zeal. Unlike Martina Anderson, who was convicted of conspiring to cause explosions in the Eighties, their hands are completely unstained by the violence of the Troubles.
The Faustian bargain they have struck for the sake of their ambitions should prompt lingering questions about their commitment to law and democracy.
How long will such doubts prevail if the country is seen to be ruled by a clique of well-connected figures who believe themselves above the law? Thanks to Golfgate, Phil Hogan, Séamus Woulfe and Dara Calleary, it may not be long before Sinn Féin is seen as the lesser of two evils.