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MARY LOU McDONALD and Sinn Féin’s army of secret strategists have taken a pragmatic approach to dealing with the follies of Brain Stanley and other party comrades who tweet.
Depending on the consequences for the political goals of the organization, the offender either asks for forgiveness, is forgiven or is publicly punished, and then forgiven anyway.
High-ranking members of the party put up a strong defense this week of Stanley’s tweet comparing a 1920 ambush in the War of Independence to the 1979 massacre of 18 British soldiers at Narrow Water.
They used the mild language of reproach, described the tweet as inappropriate, and agreed with its removal, but this was purely intended to hold on to the chairman of the influential Public Accounts Committee.
Those who have followed Sinn Féin closely for many years will know that the recent spate of controversy surrounding the party’s tweeters has been embedded in the organization’s philosophy of war.
It involves strategically pushing the boundaries of acceptability at every opportunity in an attempt to wear down public opinion, a cynical Trumpita tactic that seems to be working in his favor.
Behind the closed doors of the secret party, it is unlikely that many were bothered by Stanley’s attempt to equate the War for Independence with the systemic carnage of the Provos during the three decades of the riots.
Why would they do it? It is what they believe.
But let’s get back to the crimes of tweeting, of which there have been so many on the fingers of top Sinn Féin members and IRA apologists, and which have been pardoned or thrown out of sight.
An example is that of former West Tyrone MP Barry McElduff who was forced to resign his seat after posting a video of himself swinging a load of Kingsmill bread on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre in La that the IRA lined up. 11 Protestant workers and 10 of them shot dead. The only survivor was shot 18 times.
It was easy for the party to throw McElduff to the wolves with his resignation from the party because he knew he would easily regain his parliamentary seat in a by-election. Since then, McElduff has been elected Sinn Féin Councilor to the Fermanagh and Omagh Council.
Following his election, TD of Kildare North Réada Cronin apologized for what he described as “simplistic and spontaneous tweets” he had sent.
The prolific tweeter posted messages that used offensive language, questioned the fluoridation of the public water supply and linked Israel to Nazism.
Sinn Féin distanced himself from the comments and then moved on.
But the greatest example of strategic forgiveness that prevailed in embracing a hated enemy was the decision to judge and then recruit former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, who is now a Sinn Féin Dáil MP at Dublin Bay South.
In 2012, a year after losing the Fianna Fáil seat in South East Dublin, Andrews created a ghost Twitter account with the identity @brianformerff, which he later used to criticize his fellow Fianna Fáilers, his then leader Micheál Martin … and Sinn Féin.
In one such tweet, Andrews described the party’s leader, Gerry Adams, as “tainted” by his terrorist past and possessing too much IRA baggage to run a government.
He also referred to the number of people killed by “Sinn Fein Reps” over the years and mocked Adams’ claims that he was never in the IRA.
The disgruntled soldier of fate, whose family is steeped in Fianna Fail’s DNA, waged his anonymous attacks in more than 300 tweets posted between March and June 2012.
On May 21, 2012 he questioned the suitability of Adams or Micheál Martin for the government. His tweets included:
• “Micheal Martin and Gerry Adams have the same problem. They are both stained by their past !!! “
• “SF in the next government would be as bad as FF in the next governor.”
• “Gerry Adams and Micheal Martin have a lot in common. They both have a baggage that the public will neither forget nor forgive. “
Stanley’s Twitter debacle has elevated another post from the anonymous future Shinner to the level of supreme irony when he emphasized the difference between Old IRA and Provos.
“Not maybe about that! Fuck the old anger, this is what this is about today. Killing / terrorizing innocent people is okay with you !! ” he wrote.
In other tweets, including one directed at its current leader, Mary Lou McDonald, he lashed out at the moral duplicity of Sinn Fein / IRA:
• “Jean Mc Conville? and workers in the way of your bank raids! “
• “It’s hard to accept SF / Adams lecturing Bertie about being corrupt after all they’ve done! Stay out of it. #mahon “
He told one person who agreed with many of his views “but given what SF has done to innocent people, it’s a bit to hear him pontificate.”
In August 2012, Andrews resigned from Fianna Fáil after an elaborate investigation unmasked him as the ghost tweeter and he became known to Sinn Féin.
But a year later, Andrews did the unthinkable on both sides: he applied to join the party and was welcomed with open arms.
For Sinn Féin, the golden opportunity to surpass Fianna Fáil replaced everything else, so the normal rules no longer applied.
His scorching and very embarrassing tweets have long been forgiven; pushed into the outer realm of Twitter, where they will be joined by many more deliberate / unintentional provocative fulminations as the long war for legitimacy continues.
At the time of his public unmasking, Andrews told the Independent Sunday“I take full responsibility for it. It was the wrong thing to do. I’m sorry I did it. For someone who is generally outspoken and not afraid to speak up, I’m sorry I didn’t say things publicly six months ago.”
It had the tone of a Sinn Fein apology: case closed, go ahead.
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