Instead, like Virgin media last week,
RTE’s ‘head to head’ will only involve Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin – two
leaders who have been partners in government for the last four years. Both
parties published their election manifestos last Friday. TheJournal.ie reviewed
them and concluded that “there are many ways the parties are broadly
similar.” Professor Gail McElroy, from Trinity College Dublin,
told TheJournal.ie that “historically there isn’t a clear
difference between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and their voters… They’re both
centre-right parties and their fiscal policies are really not that far apart.”
The same recent opinion polls suggest
Sinn Féin is attracting significant support. Additionally, the evidence of the
last four years in the Dáil demonstrates that is has been Sinn Féin’s team of
TDs and Seanadóirí who have been the real and effective opposition to the Fine
Gael/Fianna Fáil alliance.
The decision therefore by RTE to
present the formation of the next government as a straight choice between
Varadkar and Martin is evidence of a blatant disregard of the Dáil realities
and of its statutory obligations as the state’s public service broadcaster. RTE
has a responsibility to behave in a fair, objective and impartial manner and to
inform and educate citizens about the choices facing them. It clearly is not
doing this in this leader’s debate.
So, why this intransigent refusal to
include Mary Lou McDonald in the debate? It is more than some hangover
from the days of Section 31 and state control of the media news reporting. It
is a mind-set – partitionism - within the political and media establishment
which is rooted in our colonial history, in partition, in the counter
revolution that took place after the Tan War, and in the establishment of two
conservative states on the island of Ireland.
It is the mind-set which was evident in
the recent decision by Charlie Flanagan, the Minister for Justice, to
commemorate the RIC and Dublin Metropolitan Police. Instead of being proud of
our history of resistance and rebellion the political establishment is ashamed
of it. This attitude is a symptom of the unfinished nature of the national
struggle. It lies in our colonisation.
That has shaped our character as a
people. On the one hand there is the wonderfully humorous, subversive,
never-give-up attitude of most Irish people who are fair and decent and are for
freedom. But some, particularly those in power since partition in the Irish
state, inherited the confused and conditioned traits of the colonised mind
shaped by centuries of being governed by an imperial power.
Liam Mellows, who participated in the
1916 Rising and was summarily executed by the Free State forces during the
Civil War, put it well during the Treaty debate in 1922, when he spelled out
the consequences of partition. He said: ‘Men will get into positions, men
will hold power and men who get into positions and hold power will desire to
remain undisturbed …’He was right.
Partition saw a political establishment
emerge in the South that settled for a 26 county state that stopped at Dundalk
and Aughnacloy, at Belleek and Strabane and Derry. In the early days of the
state Radio Athlone and then RaidióTeiifís Éireann refused to play popular
republican songs, songs of the revolutionary period. Internationally renowned
Irish authors were banned, including books by Liam O’Flaherty, Sean Ó Faolain,
Frank O’Connor and Edna O’Brien and Brendan Behan, and many others
Cllr Tom Cunningham, Mary Lou McDonald, Cllr Ruairí Ó Murchú, Imelda Munster, Mise agus Joanna Byrne
Section 31, an obnoxious piece of
legislative censorship, was introduced in 1971 by a Fianna Fáil Minister. It
was later amended and a new order introduced by former Labour Party Minister
Conor Cruise O’Brien in 1976. Under that order no interviews with anyone from
Sinn Féin could be carried under any circumstances. Larry O'Toole, now a
Dublin Councillor then a Trade Union official, was banned by RTÉ from speaking
about a strike in Gateaux, a cake factory in Finglas north
Dublin, where he worked. Others had similar experiences, including a Sinn
Féin Councillor who witnessed a fatal fire in Bundoran but could not be
interviewed as an eyewitness. In March 1988 Jenny McGeever broadcast a short
clip of Martin McGuinness in a report she did for ‘Morning Ireland’ on RTE’s
Radio 1 about the journey home from Dublin of the remains of the three IRA
Volunteers killed at Gibraltar. She was immediately sacked.
Sinn Féin voters from the north were
also disenfranchised by RTE. After election victories newly elected SInn Féin
MPs or councillors were ignored while our defeated opponents were interviewed.
The same thing happened after serious incidents, including fatalities. British
Army spokespersons were often interviewed! Sinn Féin never were.
On other occasions in the 1970s and 80s
songs were banned, including several by Christy Moore. These included ‘90 miles
from Dublin’ and ‘The Time Has Come’ which dealt with Armagh Women’s Prison and
the H-Blocks, ‘McIlhatton’ and ‘Back home in Derry’ (because they were
written by Bobby Sands) and ‘They Never Came Home’ about the Stardust
tragedy.
I had my own run in with the RTE
censors in1993 when RTE refused to carry an advert for one of my books – The
Street and Other Stories. Conor Cruise O’Brien claimed in evidence to a court
hearing the banning order that the book of short fictional stories were
propaganda for the IRA. He claimed that the opening words would offend and
corrupt the Irish public. “I have in mind,” he said, “the
opening words: ‘This is Gerry Adams speaking.’ The court found against RTE. RTE
appealed to the Supreme Court. It found in favour of RTE.
In more recent times in September 2017
partitionism saw RTE mutilate the map of Ireland on the Late Late Show.
Everyone in the North simply vanished into the sea with a new coastline running
from Louth to Donegal. The north disappeared. This same image was first used by
the Irish Embassy in Washington some years earlier as the Irish government has
increasingly defined ‘Ireland’ or ‘the Nation’ as 26 counties. The Late Late
Show often bans viewers from the north from its competition. Gaels in the north
have difficulties watching or often not being able to watch Gaelic games on the
self-proclaimed national broadcaster.
There is also a symbiotic relationship
between some senior elements of the media and the government of the day.
Journalists regularly shift from their role as journalists to work for
government Ministers, departments and political parties. This inevitably shapes
and fuses the politics of both.
Many in the political establishment in
Dublin have never fully embraced the complete meaning of the Good Friday
Agreement. While this accord has benefitted all of Ireland its positive
equality focussed imperatives rarely penetrate south of the border. The Dublin
establishment see it essentially as being about the north. The North remains
for most a place apart – it’s up there – and this is then reflected also in how
the political establishment deal with Sinn Féin.
This is part of the context for the
exclusion of Mary Lou from the leader’s debate. It is also the mind-set which
saw Fine Gael, supported by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, decide to
commemorate paramilitary forces – the RIC and Dublin Metropolitan Police – that
had violently sought to prevent the Irish people achieve freedom. The reality
is that neither the Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil leaderships are about promoting
Irish Unity. But they recognise in Sinn Fein a party that is committed to unity
and consequently a party to be marginalised, excluded and banned.
There are many decent, fair and
objective broadcasters in RTE. There are many good journalists. They also need
to speak out on these issues. Or does a culture and a history of censorship
make that too awkward or challenging a question.
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