| Historic handshake can’t hide the
real Bertie By Joe Horgan
IT is often the little things that speak loudest. Ian Paisley as the
elected leader of Unionism shaking hands with Bertie Ahern was rightly
proclaimed for the historic moment it was.
Here for once was true political history and progress.
For once we could see how the political process could still produce grandstand
moments. If there ever is a symbolic moment in history then this was it.
At times like that we can almost believe that we are living in a true
Republic that this is a country where noble endeavours are still carried
out and bringing lasting peace to the North of this island is noble indeed.
At moments like this the cash scandals and the corruption are left behind
and we can believe that our political leaders are representative of a
political culture of belief and principle.
We can believe that there is a vision of us as a people, as a nation,
as a society.
We can believe that there is some idea of us, of Ireland that there is
some meaning to all of this beyond the ringing of cash tills.
But it is the little things which often speak loudest.
Later in the same day as his meeting with Ian Paisley, Bertie Ahern, Ireland’s
Republican Taoiseach, carried out a small engagement.
Not longer after publicly shaking hands with the leader of Northern
Unionism he was at the official opening of some new offices though in
reality it was merely the removal of some partition walls so that some
desks could be moved around.
Nevertheless our official leader decided to put in an appearance and officially
declare the place open.
The executives in attendance mainly flying in from London for the day
were said to be surprised and delighted.
But Bertie, of all people, knows how to glad handle and how to oil the
greasy wheels of power.
So it was no surprise really that a few hours after the historic reconciliation
between Northern Unionism and Southern Republicanism that the Taoiseach
should officially open the new offices of Rupert Murdoch’s News
Of The World.
Which in the sleazy, sordid world of Irish politics brings us back to
much safer ground.
Quite how the principles of Republicanism marry with those of the News
Of The World and its sister paper The Oirish Sun I don’t know but
Bertie and Fianna Fail didn’t get where they are today by paying
too much attention to the fine detail of principle.
And anyone who wants to and half-a-million Irish people do each week
can look through the pages of The News Of The World and decide for themselves
how much this paper has improved the tenor and tone of Irish life and
discourse.
That is not a debate that is ever going to interest Bertie however. He
is merely aware that Rupert Murdoch is very powerful and so opening the
offices of a paper that always supports him is no problem at all to a
man who has lent the office of Taoiseach a whole new commercial rentability.
Fair enough we all have to sometimes get a little greasy in order to get
by but we don’t all do it with such relish and at least knowing
about it gives us the fuller picture, the one that that historic handshake
might distort.
Meanwhile, with an election looming, the economy seems to be dipping and
the Progressive Democrat’s Health Minister seems to wish to emulate
her political hero Margaret Thatcher by taking on allcomers.
She started first with the doctors, moved on to the consultants and is
now tackling the nurses who have responded with an industrial go slow.
Ironically enough, in this cash obsessed new Ireland we have built, a
number of ludicrously overpaid journalists and commentators have criticised
the nurses for being greedy and the old reactionary voices of the right
are complaining again about the power of the unions.
Which brings us nicely back to Rupert Murdoch’s News International
corporation and its anti-union, anti-worker bias that is now, thanks to
his ever expanding stable of papers, a message that is spread across the
globe.
Somehow working people wanting better pay and conditions is greed and
is down to the insidious misplaced power of their unions.
Yet when Rupert Murdoch’s and Mary Harney’s beloved business
concerns want more profit and more wealth this is enterprise and innovation.
In Bertie’s Republic nurses wanting more money is wrong but corporations
bailing out of Ireland to go where they can now pay less and treat workers
worse is the natural movement of capital.
Money now has rights but people do not.
So whatever the handshake with Unionism said and whatever the moment of
history meant Bertie’s evening trip to the new office was a timely
remind to us all of the bigger picture beyond the one we were supposed
to remember. |
