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WORDS MATTER AND they matter even more in a national parliament. This week the words “Stalinist” and “Nazism” were bandied about in the Dáil, almost casually, in order to make criticism of the Government’s approach to planning, Covid restrictions and the cancellation of the taxi drivers’ strike.
All very important and serious issues, but an accurate comparison to Hitler and the Nazis? I think not.
In a time of such crisis in the world, when Covid has radicalised members of far-right movements, it is important for those in public positions to remember words matter, context matters, history matters. World War 2 ended a mere 76 years ago. We cannot allow this flippancy around language to creep into Irish politics.
The far-right in Ireland are organised, deploying sophisticated tactics and disinformation campaigns that fundamentally seek to destabilise our democracy. They’ve used Covid-19 as a lightning rod to stoke fear and recruit allies, referring to the pandemic itself as a con, trying to undermine the seriousness of what we’re living through globally.
Their words, their tone, the context that they seek to set is a threat to us all. This is why when we talk, debate and challenge each other in our national parliament, we need to be very careful with the words that we use and the concepts that our language is intrinsically tied to. Like Nazism.
Dangerous comparisons
Equating Nazism with how we talk about the pandemic response is fundamentally incorrect, dangerous and disrespectful. The Nazis carried out the Holocaust, they murdered people of colour, gay people, the Roma Community.
They burned books, censored academia and instituted mass propaganda and fake news machinery. It was a totalitarian regime, the likes of which is hard to fathom and one I hope we never see the likes of again.
This history remains close. Only last week, there was a radio interview with a Nazi hunter. There are members of parliament whose families have been scared by the horrific acts of violence committed by the Nazis.
My colleague Senator Ivana Bacik’s grandfather was imprisoned by the Nazis. So, the casual comparison is not only wrong but deeply hurtful and offensive to the lives destroyed by this force of evil. It diminishes and denigrates the memory of their victims.
Lots of issues, like the Government response to the pandemic, require and demand passionate, robust debate. It is the absolute duty of opposition politicians to interrogate the Government’s decisions and assess judgement calls made. Debate requires both emotion and passion. Government must understand the views and experiences of our constituents.
However, this passionate, emotional debate can happen without talking about extreme nationalism. Bringing up every issue through the prism of rage and hyperbole is dangerous. Being quick to anger only serves to disengage people when we actually need to get angry about issues.
In a world of fake news and a 24-hour news cycle, we all have an obligation to be vigilant of the words we use and why we use them. In a world where those who shout louder or make a bigger, more outrageous statement are heard, even when silencing others, the parliament must lead by example. We need to set a tone for when we need to bring fervour and passion to our scrutiny, and when we need to bring rage.
Language carries weight
But what we should never do is casually throw around unfounded comparisons to Stalinism and Nazism regimes that murdered, killed, maimed and raped, leaving millions of people devastated and a world shook to its very core.
Speaking on the topic of the cancellation of the taxi drivers strike which drove Mattie McGrath to draw upon the term “Nazism”, Richard Boyd Barrett managed to speak stridently in opposition to the cancellation of this demonstration, reflecting my own view, without once needing to draw upon divisive or disrespectful language.
Unfortunately, racism is on the rise in this country. Students of history are well aware of the fact that just because something happened 76 years ago does not mean it won’t or can’t happen again.
When we have a far-right that are looking to make gains and grounds, looking to spread their system of hatred, looking for their language to be reflected in our public discourse, we need to resist their calls. We need our parliamentarians to be strong in opposing this.
People are frustrated about the lockdown, there’s no doubt about that, but we must address those concerns rather than allow their fears and anxieties to be exploited by those implementing the tactics they’ve seen benefit other far-right parties and groups elsewhere.
As a parliament, we must professionally examine each and every measure imposed on the public to ensure that it is necessary and will be effective to save lives. As a nation, we must protest the manipulation and weaponisation of language.
Accepting his re-election in Dublin Castle in October 2018, our President Michael D. Higgins said: “Words matter. Words can hurt. Words can heal. Words can empower. Words can divide.”
As a parliamentarian, I am calling on all my colleagues in the Oireachtas to lead by example. I am calling on parliamentarians to not walk down the dangerous path that other public figures have chosen to take. I am calling on parliamentarians to choose healing over hurt and empowerment over division.
Duncan Smith is a Labour Party TD first elected to Dáil Éireann in 2020 for Dublin Fingal.
I think these three have the potential to make a bloody good go of it. Donnelly has consistently shown himself to be on top of his game when it comes to the economy. Murphy has shown leadership in exposing some of the shenanigans within the golden circle and Shorthall resigned from government on principle. so, a socially liberal and economically centrist party. I could and probably would vote for them and give them a chance.
Same here
Me too. A party made up of principled, electable people would be a refreshing change!
Have to agree that they would be a refreshing change, if they could find similar people to add to it great, but they’ll need to look outside the dail
Agreed Damian, these are by far the most credible group of people who have put their hands up.
Go for it I say, we as a people have nothing to lose at this stage, and with some of the politicians earmarked for this potential new party we could have a seismic shift in the political landscape, hard not to be positive about this?.
I would give them my vote. Watching Dail TV this year with interest. Roisin Shortall a fantastic performer in the Dail; regularly challenging the Ceann Comhairle on his bias. Donnelly and Murphy are stupendous. This grouping has integrity.. Something a lot of others lack.
Very well said Damian, I totally agree and would give them a chance, unlike renua or fg mk2 as I prefer to call them.
Yep a breath of fresh air. A real alternative that people want so badly. I will be excited to hear their policies.
This is a great development. Three very capable politicians who are national legislators rather than parish pump gombeens like Ming, Mick Wallace and co.
I Agee with everything you have said except when it comes to murphy, abuse of privilege is not something I warm to.
Stephen Donnelley is the man to save us.
@ Richard Cynical
A Dail committee said it was NOT an abuse of Dail privilege. Not sure why people who claim to be a stickler for the rules will not accept this ruling.
This is great news. Not just a party filling a gap and giving hope to rational political discourse but headed by a group who have shown time and again they are well above the average we have in the chamber.
They won’t be as greedy/stupid as Renua were in their launch. Broughan? McNamara? Gonna be a n interesting month of “signings”.
I’m in!!!!!!!!!
That’s the end of Renua.
It never started.
It’s not competition for Renua, different target audience.
Disagree – those disaffected with main ‘middle’ parties would gravitate to & look at Renua as an option. This grouping is much stronger & playing in similar space.
I certainly wouldn’t call Stephen Donnelly ‘left’. He studied at MIT & worked for McKinsey.
Agreed Ivor, these are far from loony left as some would like to portray them.
Renua are fiana gael mark 2 party do anything to suck up to enda
Had a good chuckle when I heard about Renua and saw who were involved. A new party with Roisin Shortall and Catherine Murphy would definitely pique my interest…
“Environment Minister Alan Kelly will answer questions at 9.30am.”
I bet he won’t answer questions.
Donnelly and Murphy are two of my favourites at the moment, agitators, and seem honest and genuine. This could be a great thing.
politics in this country needs a good swift kick to the @rse. In an ideal world it would be great to see a party not drip fed by cronyism and self interest. unfortunately that seems to be endemic once an individual puts a party hat on. Still though, one can hope. It would be great to see a party come through that actually gives a s#ite about its people and doesn’t pander and grovel to the fat cats.
How many people are a member of a party.
If even 1% of the people who here who complain that they are all the same, poor us etc actually got involved then they could transform any party.
That involves people doing instead of complaining and that is a big hurdle.
No. What politics in this country needs are parties who know what they stand for. Not just anything that shakes things up.
Even if they don’t always deliver it, you KNOW what FG and Labour, even Sinn Fein stand for. You cannot say that about the cancer that is FF. Nor can you say it about Renua since the whole idea is that members can disagree with the party line. What? So you vote for Joe Soap of Renua because he supports X, then he forms a government with Renua. Except the PARTY doesn’t support X, so you’re left high and dry.
If Renua is what new parties are going to be like, then it’s the last thing we need with people ALREADY forgetting how FF destroyed the economy.
This party on the other hand could be just what the doctor ordered.
George lee??? he came he saw and he was ignored as soon as the flash bulb was spent
great party?, no neither did george
Only ten per cent of those billed have paid by the due date, according to a mole at Irish Water HQ. http://twitter.com/KarlMarcks/status/608911518713917440/photo/1
Irish Water is finished! I and thousands more will demonstrate that fact next week when we assemble in Dublin to burn our bills. The power of the people has already won!
#BurnTheBills
A screenshot of a tweet of a poorly written, unsubstantiated claim, posted/retweeted on a biased novelty twitter account.
I mean I’m not planning on paying either but come on like :P
Good news for once!
I hope they do,if only to show up ruinua for the bunch of church fearing,political lightweights they are.
This is good news for the average person on the street and i wish them well. It’s time for the people to get rid of the pocket stuffing, multiple pensions non principled gombeen sleveens that infest our parliament at our expense. Looking forward to change in our politicial landscape, its long overdue.
How dare Jillian van Turnhout ask the Independent to check facts.
It isn’t going to start doing it for you.or any one else.
Unelected senators lose the run of themselves sometimes , the best way to deal with them is to remind them that no one voted for them and to keep their personal opinions to themselves .
Catherine Murphy for Taoiseach!
If they could get Mattie McGrath and Noel Grealish on board then they would really throw down the gauntlet to the establishment parties. They could be sucking diesel yet!
Just need to be careful not to be boxed in as left or right.
Why do they need to be careful of that? Are you suggesting that being vague about where they stand on important issues is the way to get ahead? Surely that’s what is wrong with the likes of Labour, the party whose voters they will be targeting.
Labour are not vague on where they stand. They’re very clear on telling us where they stand. But all they do is tell us. They don’t actually stand.
Niall: because if they lean too far right and they become a joke like Renua, they lean too far left and they’re lumped in with the ‘loonies’ (I’d lean left but the other day I saw a straight faced post about why xbox live should be part of social welfare). There’s a daycent middle ground somewhere.
I hope they clearly state their intentions and principles as a centre-left party which is what they will do if they are honest. None of this safely playing it in the middle and trying to please everyone.
I think this is an exciting prospect.
Jesus not Mattie McGrath
Why not have Mattie and Noel and even Healy Rae?
The new party needs to have the capacity to appeal to all opinions if it is to be a success.
Like him or not Mattie is a vote getter. Combine that with a message of integrity and you are going somewhere.
We should mentally evaluate our politicians before they start running running our country.Look at hogan,hayes,kenny,burton,Kelly.All egotistical psychosants who couldn’t give a flying f**k about anything other than keeping their positions.
We need direct democracy and recall nothing else will cure our sick corrupt parliament.
The constitutional convention voted 83% for it .
We have a party called Direct Democracy Ireland who get little to no media attention. The media, thejouunal included, are afraid to publicise DDI. That fact alone should raise questions and generate interest in that party they are all afraid to talk about.
Direct Democracy Ireland are a joke to be fair. Absolutely no credible leadership.
this looks good, hope they grow now to have enough to form a government, or be senior in a coalition. bring in other independents that have shown honesty,integrity and will put citizens welfare first.
It will be the SECOND new one actually as http://www.unitedpeople.ie have submitted their papers to the Dail registrar.
It seem the DOB media once again is being very selective in what its telling the people.
A website is now a political party, good to know.
Christ, their website looks like it was made by Jim Corr.
Just a few things.
1. Rod_TenⒸ & Guy Incognito are now well known trolling accounts.
2. Obviously Rod_TenⒸ don’t know what it takes to form a political party – ie: gathering members, accessing and formulating an ideology, creating a legal constitution, organised finances, held meetings, formulated more policies, created an elected management structure, submitted complete membership names from around the country to the Dail for verification and a lot more (UP of course has done all this too). If Rod_TenⒸ does know this – why then come out with his stupid statement when its been already stated that such work and information has been submitted to the Dail! Is it because if you check his posts, all he and similar other do, is nothing positive in comment or for Ireland as a country – read his posts and judge for oneself…
3. UnitedPeople does NOT try to say its perfect. We like many others have a long way to go. we are at least making positive efforts. Unlike some that post on news sites all day and post in pure negative terms – speaking of which, lets see what negativity will come next from Rod_TenⒸ…
You said “http://www.unitedpeople.ie have submitted their papers to the Dail registrar.” like I said I didn’t know your website was autonomous.
Rod_TenⒸ
If you know the legal requirements for application to the Dail for registration, you seriously wouldn’t word clearly an unresearched “autonomous” statement either. All within UP have been elected by the members and have decided by legal democratic process, the direction, policies and more. ALL of which is detailed in the documents also submitted to the Dail.
More attempted, totally inaccurate, poorly researched response and further negativity.
Autonomous means self governing, is your website self governing and did it apply on it’s own behalf to the Dail? You seem to be as incoherent as your website, so that’s something at least.
Oh great another left wing party, exactly what this country doesn’t need.
What we don’t need is the crap that is already in place!
A bunch of liars and corrupt to the gills showers that also possible got special interest deals with IRBC – but insured that they could not be investigated by setting the financial limit for investigating so high, that they are deliberate getting away with being exposed.
Move over Kenny, Catherine is moving ..
Well J`s Back it is not for you to decide what this country needs the people of this country have put up with enough of the right wing mantra
How more fragmented can the Left become? This new party will certainly hoover up voter preferences from previous Labour, Socialist Party, PBP & AAA voters, but they’re not competing for the hearts and minds of Renua’s constituency.
All the same, there’s still a 15-20% Christian Conservative voting bloc that has no clear party option. Fianna Fáil without Micheál Martin might be a better fit than Renua for those voters, but will FF take the steps to win them over?
People like Catherine Murphy and Stephen Donnelly will take votes from all parties, including FG and FF.
Until Murphy is found to have used totally false information protected by Dail privilege.
and in your eyes DOB is a saint
This is very good news . All three seem to honest and hardworking. Good luck !
This party sounds good but if that yoke Avril Power is involved i am out.
Hopefully they come out at the start and say who they would and wouldn’t go into government with. A new centre leftish party should not even contemplate going into a coalition with the likes of FF or FG .
Can hardly wait. We need a break from corruption and cronyism of the past (and ever present). Hope that they get like minded people to run for election. They have my vote!
More snouts in the trough
Aaa.. this fool troll is back.
Troll yourself, we’ve got the same number of followers
Great news.. I’d like to see how they get on from hear until the GE… I’d consider giving them my second vote. Just please God fg, lab, or fianna fail will not be in government next year. Sick of it
Anyone but FF. Or Renua. But especially FF.
Mattie McGrath? Who invited him to the party?
It all makes sense now, and you have to hand it to Catherine Murphy. Spending a week flapping about with dramatics and showing off in the Dail is a great gimmick to launch a party from.
Does the left really need ANOTHER political party? They’d split their own bodies in two if they could.
Genuine question – not necessary directed at your good self David.
“Why do people allow themselves to think that all new groups are automatic left?”
Renua (FG Pt2) sure is not and others out there starting up are not.
New parties are generally populist in nature. It’s politicians who promise the world (no water charges, lower taxes, higher pay, more investment in infrastructure) without explaining any realistic means of how this will be achieved. For example, those talking about abolishing water charges tend to focus on the abolition of the charges rather than the increased taxes we’d have to pay or the increased debt burden we’d be forcing on our children. These populist policies tend to (not always) go hand in hand with socialism/left-wing ideologies. They don’t last long as their policies are proven to not work once they get into power, and then they have to face up to the realities of scarce resources and losing popularity. Remember when all the lefties on here campaigned for a Labour vote in 2011? What happened then? The same fate would await any other leftist splinter.
There is value in what you say, toward the subject direction of your post.
The question over why people still think a new party must be automatic “left”, still is open for others to answer?
What is “populist” really? No party is going to espouse policies that will turn others off.
This applies equally to right-wing parties out there – and forthcoming I suspect.
All are guilty of trying to go down the Populist route for obvious reason – right or left.
@David. Yes, you are right but I think that we all have had enough of political codwallap by now. after all the Wabbit said that its just something you say to get elected (paraphrasing here) However, these 3 are terrific participants in The Dail. I’d love Claire Daly to join them. Women with Balls!!! I’m so sick of corruption and cronyism in this country. We need a break from the tribal and career politicians.
@J Rudd – What I mean by populism is espousing policies which seem great but are unrealistic or provide something at the expense of something else (with the something else rarely highlighted when campaigning). Of course people are going to only vote for policies that they like, but they deserve the truth as to their costs. As we all know, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. There’s no such thing as free water either, and if not paid for by the users, then it will mean either higher taxes on workers, cuts to spending in other areas likes health or education, or borrowing even more money to add to our already barely sustainable burden, once again imperilling the public finances. Funny you don’t hear Paul Murphy or Sinn Fein speaking about those costs.
@Maire – I totally agree with you on the corruption thing. Everyone both on the left and the right is fed up with the culture of it, and I agree it’s people like Catherine Murphy who are exposing it, so fareplay to them. If they could put some flesh on their other policies then I’d happily vote for them, but people like Ruth Coppinger only care about one thing – getting re-elected.
Hi again David.
Again, there is merit in what you say.
Good political parties SHOULD do their research. not just come up with good ideas but have the foundation of numbers, plans and figures to carry them forward, to back them up.
“Populist” can be a good thing if done right.
“Populist” can be also in either direction.
However I don’t wish to annoy you by going on and on, about that word in particular.
Complete agree about the speaking of truths.
The facts are though that we ARE already paying for our water system in a number of ways.
Without trashing out those procedures/accountancy practises right here – and none of us would ever get to detail in full here, the matter – its fact that we are paying already.
You refer to costs – quite right and any body that wishes to put plans forth, should come to the debate table prepared with substantial research, alternatives, etc to back up their side of new direction.
Going back to my original question, I still think (open to be wrong) that we shouldn’t just automatic think that all new parties are going to be just “left-wing” – not only that – but that even if they are, it means that they are also automatically bad.
Any decent left-wing party beyond its PR and sound-bite message, could if they really tried (and should) do their homework and produce a credible alternative. We could debate if this has happened or not some time. Meanwhile, beyond the fairy-tale economics and jumping on an issue just because its a vote winner, both right wing AND left wing need clearly to get their act better together.
…If not for their sake, then for the country their are espousing to be representing for or trying to help.
I agree with what you are saying David, a lot.
There is good and bad in many parties. Both left and right.
Its possible to take the good from either and make them work.
If those that say they are out to represent the country are willing to really do the work, a populist agenda can be a good one if as my fellow UP supporter has stated, willing to back such things up with detail.
Our own org has new members to it. They are new to Facebook and Twitter.
They are young, full of energy and generally wish to see something positive.
So far they have little found that. All they find is negativity.
If people really want to evoke change and get supported, they must bring something more substantial to the political table.
I should add that being “left” is necessary a bad thing. It means caring for the people more sometimes – if its equally done right as if under a right-wing party also.
It comes down to actions following up after any previous words spoken.
We cannot have pure negativity all the time. we can’t avoid it or avoid mentioning it sometimes but we must bring some light too.
Both right-wing and left wing should do this is they really want to get anywhere.
It will be interesting to see what will happen now at the next elections.
Will Renua really get anywhere?
Will the people vote even alternative?
Will they see some Independents as genuine and some as prior ex-FG people who stood by that parties policies and said nothing to oppose them then? Will the public notice that?
Will the youth come out again more? I hope so.
Right now FG and Labour is walking a dangerous tight-rope.
Call an election too early and the support might not be there as due to the tarnishing of DOB and more, or leave it till later and get bashed as more comes out about IRBC and more…
Interesting times ahead.
I like Shorthall and Murphy and if they became party leaders then it is a party I would seriously consider giving my vote to.
DeNua
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