A lot done but Shinners still need housetraining

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Just when you thought the whiff of sulphur had finally disappeared from the Irish political landscape, Sinn Féin has that knack of reminding us all of their chequered past.

SF leader, Gerry ‘With Respect’ Adams, issued a press statement bemoaning the fall-off in the numbers of Gardaí on the beat in his Louth constituency.

“What we need to see is a fully-resourced Garda plan for Louth which includes greater Garda visibility and an increase in community-based Gardaí,” said the bould Gerry with all the gusto of a man with Alzheimer’s, who has forgotten which side in the game of cops and robbers he’s supposed to be on.

It must have felt like a new low for Blueshirts. Oh the irony of a Shinner telling Fine Gael, the self-styled ‘law and order’ party, that they need to put more Gardaí on the beat: Priceless!

Then SF TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn was doing well on the controversies around the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), Garda Commissioner, whistleblowers and Justice Minister.

He impressed many observers as chair of the Public Service Oversight Committee and as his party’s spokesperson on justice during the whole murky controversy.

All of a sudden, despite its paramilitary past, Sinn Féin was beginning to look like a ‘normal’ party.

But it didn’t take long for the balaclava to slip.

Over on the Vincent Browne show on TV3, the host asked Connemara-based Senator, Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, if his SF party, “unequivocally condemns all the murder of members of An Garda Síochána that happened during the Troubles”.

Trevor couldn’t do it: He blustered and he mumbled and he obfuscated and he wriggled and he squirmed and he attempted to divert attention elsewhere and he brazened it out.

And Vincent asked him again. And Trevor blustered more.

Even if they were still in the studio now, all these weeks later, Vincent wouldn’t have elicited an acceptable response from Trevor.

“Blah Blah Blah . . . it was a dirty war . . . blah blah blah . . . collusion . . . terrible things happen in war . . . blah blah blah . . . There were tragedies that happened . . . blah blah blah . . . Never put in the broader context . . . blah blah blah . . . Have to contextualise why that happened . . . Collusion with armed forces and loyalists . . . blah blah blah.”

Even Vincent, who is used to politicians’ obfuscation, was incredulous with the brainwashed response.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.