How much of the sectarian hostility suffered by Heather Humphreys was stoked by Fine Gael?
The answer may be very little, but the question remains so obvious from a northern unionist perspective that it is striking nobody in the Republic appears to be asking it.
For almost a decade, Fine Gael-led governments have pursued an approach to Brexit that has portrayed unionists as intent on breaching the Belfast Agreement, imposing a hard border and generally wrecking the peace process.
[ Sectarian abuse directed at Heather Humphreys will leave a bitter aftertasteOpens in new window ]
All of these claims could most kindly be described as mistaken. Many unionists have been appalled by the misrepresentation of the agreement and their position, but all their protests to Fine Gael have been waved away with a tut-tut of wounded innocence.
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The souring mood has not been about Brexit alone, although that has been the trigger. During the three-year collapse of Stormont from 2017, ostensibly over the Renewable Heat Incentive, Fine Gael supported Sinn Féin’s ever-changing list of excuses to boycott powersharing, most of which involved complaints about unionist behaviour – over an Irish language act, for example, or the confidence and supply deal at Westminster with the Conservatives.
The unlovable DUP may have made this the easy option for Fine Gael, but it should not pretend there was any nobler calculation involved.
Fine Gael called a general election in 2020 to capitalise on its Brexit strategy, only to find the electorate had moved on – and become far more receptive to Sinn Féin.
Is there a parallel with the presidential election?
Fine Gael would doubtless say its quarrels have been with the British government, not unionists, but care needs to be taken with that distinction.
“We are fighting the real Brits, not you pretend Brits”, is not the reassurance nationalists seem to believe – nor is it clear how fully nationalists believe it, as opposed to merely finding it a rhetorical convenience.
So much anti-British sentiment had been stirred up by 2020 that President Michael D Higgins felt moved to warn about it, albeit in the middle of another speech about colonialism.
“We must also be cognisant of stereotypical depictions of ‘the Other’ by some of those on the nationalist side as a process of generating a form of anglophobia which has been utilised and exists in some quarters to this day, and is perhaps being fuelled by the worst aspects and feared consequences of Brexit,” he said.
There is no evidence this provoked any reflection in Fine Gael. The party’s rapprochement with unionists began suddenly two months ago, when Humphreys became its substitute candidate and was promoted in part for her potential to reach out to unionists, being an Ulster Protestant and therefore somehow like them. It seems like more wounded innocence for Fine Gael to have imagined this would not expose her to abuse.
Fine Gael’s complacency in presenting itself as the Prod-whisperer of Irish politics suggests it has internalised the hackneyed observation that it would be the natural partner of unionists in a united Ireland. This observation is rarely a compliment – it is something the party’s left-wing or republican opponents say to insult it.
To the extent it was ever true, it is long out of date. Although the UUP at its height shared some centre-right, middle-class features with Fine Gael, it was eclipsed more than two decades ago as the lead party of unionism by the DUP, which appears more at home around Fianna Fáil, an observation I make with no particular aim of insulting either.
What would a united Ireland actually involve?
Fianna Fáil has worked hard on its relationship with unionism. Bertie Ahern won the respect of David Trimble and Ian Paisley. Brian Cowen took over where Ahern left off – history should be kinder to him. Mary McAleese made unionist engagement a theme of her presidency. Micheál Martin has calmed nerves after Brexit with his shared island initiative. Had Fianna Fáil been in office during the critical years of Brexit, more care might have been taken with how unionism was handled and portrayed. By contrast, Fine Gael still does not seem to realise the extent of the damage it has done.
If Fine Gael does not want to put serious effort into its relationship with unionism, that would be a legitimate political judgment. There is no urgent need for any party in the Republic to go out of its way to be friendly to unionists; voters are hardly calling for it, nor are most unionists demanding it. The abuse suffered by Humphreys did not stem from how unionists feel about anyone in the Republic, but from how some people in the Republic feel about unionists. Those people are ultimately responsible for their prejudices and actions.
However, if Fine Gael does not want a better relationship with unionism, it should stop claiming to have one – and never again should it send a Protestant candidate out, unprepared, into a sectarian storm.
