Iris livens up northern politics for us all

Date Published: 12-Jan-2010

THE BBC understandably dressed it up as a financial scandal, grounded by allegations of donations from developers being channelled into fulfilling a young boy’s dream – but in reality the Spotlight investigation into the strange life and times of Iris Robinson was a sex scandal without the titillation.

And if Iris did manage to make a 19 year old boy’s dreams come true, they were probably more in tandem with the ambitions of the original Mrs Robinson in The Graduate than with facilitating him to open his own restaurant on the side of canal.

It goes without saying that whatever happens between Peter and Iris Robinson behind the closed doors is their own business – even if it involves teenage boys who want to be restaurateurs – but if they insist on leaving the curtains open, it’s damned hard not to look.

And of course we should be looking at the bigger picture, weighing up the enormous political implications of a power vacuum at the top of the DUP, but dammit there’s been Oscar-winning movies made with thinner plots than this.

Northern Ireland’s gay community must be feeling particularly smug given the fire and brimstone stance that Iris adopted on their way of life – she should have remembered the analogy of glasshouses and stone throwing before she started down this road.

This was a game of poker played out across the media because once the Robinsons knew that Spotlight were on to them – thanks to not one but two whistleblowers with a lot to whistle about – they attempted to get their retaliation in first.

The sight of Peter Robinson in his brown jumper and brown armchair raking over the coals of his 40 year marriage was not something that anyone could take pleasure from – those tears were real and his anguish was there for all to see.

But only he knows if he’d have taken this route had Spotlight not put some very specific questions to him regarding his wife’s financial affairs – and any knowledge he might have had of them – just 24 hours earlier.

As it turned out, Spotlight clearly decided to bring the broadcast of their findings forward by a week or two – and that blew the whole thing clean out of the water.

Their justification was always the money; the two cheques for £25,000 each from two developers, the £5,000 kick-back to Iris for financial services rendered, and the demands for the money back when the fun was over – with the Robinson’s own branch of the Presbyterian Church drawn into the mix as well.

So you have sex, politics and financial scandal all wrapped up with a neat bow on it – and best of all, it was real life.