The Dublin media are calling it wrong again on Martin McGuinness

Martin McGuinness is welcomed worldwide as an inspiring ‘peacemaker’

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Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams & Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness

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• The RUC, designed from the outset as armed guardians of Unionist power, is replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, while Crown justice in Northern Ireland is now vested in the people. Dublin media gurus say nationalists should have backed the RUC;

• The IRA decommissions its entire arsenal under international supervision and commits Republicans exclusively to democratic politics. Dublin media commentators declare themselves sceptical of IRA disarmament, yet remain silent on guns still being used by loyalists;

• Citizenship arrangements under the Good Friday Agreement bring news that almost half a million new Irish passports have been issued to people in Northern Ireland. The Dublin media gurus continue to act as if they have nothing whatsoever to do with the south.

• The St Andrew’s Agreement clears up outstanding issues and leads to the creation of a Northern Ireland governing executive headed by erstwhile ‘extremists’ of the Democratic Unionist Party under Rev. Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin’s Stormont team led by former IRA leader Martin McGuinness. Dublin media commentators predict it won’t last long;

• Paisley’s leadership ends and Peter Robinson steps in alongside McGuinness. Dublin media gurus savour the prospect of hardline Robinson ending the relationship because this will bring back the ‘moderates’;

• Martin McGuinness is welcomed worldwide as an inspiring ‘peacemaker’; his views are sought on how the Irish peace model can be applied elsewhere. The Dublin media commentators wish it would just go away and stop bothering their Celtic Tiger success;

• Martin McGuinness condemns dissident Republican killers as ‘traitors’ and joins Robinson and other Unionists in the cortége when GAA members bear the coffin of a young Tyrone policeman from a republican family. Dublin media falls silent, temporarily.

• Martin McGuinness is presented as Sinn Féin’s candidacy for the presidency of Ireland. Dublin media commentators are furious, insisting he is ‘unfit’ for office because there is no proof that he, the IRA, or anybody outside their own closed circle has moved on from the violent past!  

*Daragh MacDonald is a writer and editor since 1970s in Ireland and in Ontario, Canada (1987-1997). He is the author of three books – The Sons of Levi (fiction, 1998); The Chosen Fews: Exploding Myths in South Armagh (non-fiction, 2000); and Blood & Thunder: Inside an Ulster Protestant Band (non-fiction) as well as a newspaper editor.

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