Jude Collins

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Tree-hugging and other embarrassments

SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 13: Gerry Adams, Irish President of Sinn Fein, plays hurling November 13, 2008 on Treasure Island in San Francisco, California. Adams is in San Francisco to speak about the current Irish peace process.  (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images)
It’s understandable, I suppose. If  you’ve been depicted by the media for thirty years as Satan’s spawn,  while maybe dozens of people who would gladly kill you live within a mile or two,  you’d be happy to reach a stage where some redress of the balance is possible. But the documentary on Gerry Adams that I watched last night went a bit too far.

I don’t mind his contribution to the Middle East peace process: he speaks up for the million and a half people of Gaza, imprisoned in a piece of land “the size of County Louth”.  It’s right that he should be respected by Protestant clergymen for the work he has done in bringing about peace, even if they insisted on referring to it as “a journey”. But the bit where Tony Blair described a peace process conference at one of these country houses, and how he came out  one morning and found Gerry hugging a tree – I mean, COME ON, Tony. Martin McGuinness didn’t help by talking about a photograph he has where Gerry is hugging one side of a tree and Tony the other. Then there was the bit where Gerry was in his back yard doing a bit of planting or seeding or something, in little pots and trays... It was more like an At Home With Anne Widdicombe.

Politicians deserve to be judged by their ability to do the job,  and for a very long time the Sinn Féin president was judged with wild inaccuracy because of media and political bias.  When the history is written, Adams will emerge as a giant figure in late twentieth-century Ireland. The documentary gave us some sense of that, but bulb-planting and tree-hugging and doing a daft poc fada with a hurley stick on a mountain-side is like watching James Connolly demonstrate how to make the perfect omelette.     

2 comments:

  1. Féilim Ó hAdhmaill29 June 2010 at 10:08

    I actually thought it was very good. It showed everyone that regardless of their view on his politics he is a human being like the rest of them. Sure I'd like to see a programme about where republicanism goes from here but all in all I thought it was a refreshing change from the usual vilification Gerry Adams has to endure at the hands of the anti-republican establishment media. We can rest assured we will never see anything similar on RTE! As for the daft stuff ( like entering the annual puc fada competition) or hugging trees, I think it simply reflects his humanity. So he has daft moments - like all of us! And that's the point. The fact that this programme portrayed him as a human being is something about which most of the media will be deeply unhappy.

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  2. Anybody remember the BBC Real Lives programme? The one with Martin McGuiness at home with his wife and kids. And Gregory Campbell allowing himself to be filmed loading his gun.

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