There was not much of the Christmas spirit among politicians last week and even less among the public and the media.
Mark Durkan rushed before the cameras ahead of the Stormont Executive meeting on Monday, to tell all who would listen, that the cost of electricity might be reduced by about ten percent and gas by twenty. Listeners wondered why he had bothered. Whoev
er leaked the story to Mark (Phoenix Gas has started an enquiry into the matter) were not doing him any favours. Consumers have not recovered from the electric shock of the fifty per cent increase and they said as much in subsequent phone in programmes.
In reality, Mark's red eye interview on Radio Ulster was a political point scoring exercise against Sinn Fein.
The Christmas spirit was really getting thin on the ground when the Minister for Social Development, Margaret Ritchie, announced that the SDLP may consider pulling out of the Executive.
Earlier in the' bah humbug 'week, the Foyle presenter, Paul Mc Fadden was accused of giving too many interviews on the Morning Show to Martina Anderson. She had been on the programme twice in six months. But the 'bah humbug 'award for political point scoring and petty politics, must go to the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, Gregory Campbell.
He has demanded that the singer/ songwriter Dido who in her new album 'Long Way Home; included a few words from the old Barleycorn much loved and revered single, 'The Men behind the Wire'.
The old single is among the treasured possessions of most collectors, and would fetch a good price on e bay, for songs commemorating the historical and tragic event of the period around internment, are much sought after throughout the world.
Gregory Campbell, no mean singer and conveyor of words uttered to offend, has asked Dido or her management to clarify her 'position so that the public and her fans knows where she stands on this issue'.
The issue, in Campbell's eyes, is that the words 'Armoured cars and tanks and guns came to take away our sons, But every man must stand behind the men behind the wire' has been recorded by militant republicans. You should hear the songs recorded by militant Unionists, Gregory.
It is a matter of historical record that the men interned in August 1971, on the orders of the late and unlamented Brian Faulkner and tortured by the RUC and the British Army, had no association whatsoever with any illegal political organisations.
Some were political activists but the majority were members or supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, Trade Unions, Irish Language Movements, and Members of the Peoples Democracy, Socialists and Communists. It was to pay tribute to those imprisoned without trial and those subsequently imprisoned by Diplock Courts under the draconian Emergency Provisions Act, that the song 'the Men behind the Wire' was written.
Its words reflect the reality of the times for in the months before and after internment, the RUC and British Army, in their armoured cars, tanks and guns, terrorised and persecuted the entire working class Catholic communities throughout the North.
They did take away 'our sons' but also our daughters, husbands , Mothers and sisters, and as a community in the words of the song, we did stand, women as well as men, behind those behind the wires of Long Kesh, Armagh, Crumlin and the prisons in England.
The fans of Lisa and her Management may not be aware of this when they included the two lines of the song in the album, Long Way Home'. They may also be unaware that the British Government was subsequently found guilty by the European Court of the 'inhuman and degrading treatment of the internees.
In whatever capacity this young singer choose to insert two lines of the song 'The men behind the Wire' into her album, it will not offend anyone except those with a myopic and distorted vision of the past.
That's more than can be said for the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, Gregory Campbell who during the course of a meeting of Derry City Council in 1985, sang what he ascribed as a Protestant song, the full text of which reads,
Oh, no Pope of Rome, no chapels to sadden my eyes, no nuns and no priests and no Rosary beads, every day is the Twelfth of July.
When the Derry Journal editorial protested the use of such anti Catholic rhetoric, Campbell wrote to the Editor stating 'I cannot understand how the singing of one Protestant song is anti Catholic especially when one considers all the 'No Popery' type phrases I have used in Council down the years'.
He repeated the words of the song he had rendered in the Council Chamber and ended the letter with, 'To which I say a hearty Amen'.
A few years later he verbally attacked Bishop Edward Daly at the dedication of St. Mary's Oratory at Newbuildings, describing the opening of the Church as 'offensive to Protestants in that its blasphemous activities are anathema to Protestant teaching'.
One would like to think that the Minister who uttered such offensive words has changed, since the responsibility of promoting culture, arts and leisure has the potential to engage the community in a real understanding and appreciation of its worth.
Not so. In the years since he made his singing debut in the Council, Campbell stock in trade has been to belittle and humiliate the Nationalists /Republican culture, art and language at every opportunity.
The man who paraded on the stage and strutted up and down hills in the paramilitary uniform of Ulster Resistance, the organisation associated with South African gun running if anything has become more virulent in his anti Catholic anti Republican utterances.
It is in his capacity as Minister that he has challenged a singer for including two lines of a song that described the reality of a particular situation in the North.
It is Gregory Campbell who needs to be challenged, since he is expected to be a Minister for all, to clarify his position in the light of the anti Catholic offensive sentiments expressed all those years ago in what he described as a Protestant song so that the public and those who subscribe to the Catholic religion, know where he stands.
Aside from his lunatic statement, one would imagine that at a time when public services are overstretched and we are being ripped off by banks, NIE, Gas and the Oil Companies, the Minister and his Civil Servants in the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure would have more to do with their time than to keep track of the latest albums in the pop world.
But this is all about a political point scoring exercise to keep alive the sense of victim hood that prevails within the Protestant community and which prevents them from joining with their Catholic neighbours to celebrate the true spirit of Christmas.
Meanwhile the publicity for Dido and her album Long way Home, is sure to top the charts in the Republican/Nationalists community and Barleycorn will enjoy a great revival
