MacCool

Treachery obscured by British spin-doctors

Gerry Adams became a grandad during the past few weeks. Up at Stormont, I am sure there were congratulations all round. Martin McGuinness and his fellow Stormont assembly member Sammy 'The Dog at heel' Wilson swapped jokes and laughter. It all makes for good television.

And that seems to be what things have deteriorated into. Diana is dead, long live Gerry's grandchild! Is this what nationalism has become? A Who's Who of irrelevant detail?

Does anyone really care that Gerry has become a grandad? Of course the immediate family do, but us, the general public: what possible use does such information serve?

Decommissioning, soldiers in Crossmaglen, Garvaghy Road, Private Clegg found not guilty, Bloody Sunday rifles doctored to obscure the facts, British intelligence intercepting your telephone calls and using them to undermine Irish business on the world market, corruption, Ansbacher accounts, and Gerry's grandchild. Does anyone have a clue what's going on?

Well of course the Brits do. Catastrophes abroad, doctors who murder their patients, vicars who run off with the housemaid. It's all lumped together for our benefit. Somewhere in the mire is obscured treachery. Weapons and explosives become 'product'.

The UVF publicly refuse to disarm and no one comments. The spotlight is firmly focused on Republicans and is going to stay there. 'Product' must be handed over, we are told. No one really expects a grandad to be tough. After all quaint old grandfathers conjure up a mental picture of kindness and generosity in all of us.

Somewhere among all the irrelevant detail we absorb daily through the media are the facts which some people would rather we did not concentrate on. If I have to conjure up a mental picture of Gerry's grandchild or RUC complicity in Rosemary Nelson's murder I know which I would prefer. Next time someone becomes a grandad think of this and the real news either side of the irrelevant fact.

The good times are near over for the working-class representatives up at Stormont. David Irvine and Hutchinson will soon find themselves rubbing shoulders with their nationalist counterparts on the dole queue . . . or will they?

The Brits have one trait which is consistent; when they find a useful tool they seldom discard it completely.

The 'Uncle Toms' inhabiting Stormont will have their uses in the future. It is possible that, decommissioning or no decommissioning, we will continue to hear from the stalwarts of sell-out for many years to come.

So here's looking forward to gobble-de-gook and rhyme, grandchildren and dare I speculate the odd extra-marital affair? It's all in front of us, waiting.
— Mac Cool