Competing Insults
Having already famously condemned dissident republicans as "traitors to the people of Ireland", Martin McGuinness finds himself in need of a thesaurus these days to go one better. This morning he described those responsible for last night's car bomb in Londonderry as "conflict junkies" and "neanderthals" (presumably using the term in its informal sense of ultraconservative or reactionary, rather than trying to blame the bombing on the inhabitants of Europe in late Palaeolithic times).
When the assembly got underway, MLAs immediately condemned the attack. But you could tell by their choice of insult which political axe they had to grind. So the SDLP's Pat Ramsey called the bombers "born again Provos" - a taunt designed to underline the fact that mainstream republicans used to justify the same kind of violence. The DUP's Gregory Campbell didn't join the insult game, but talked about the bombers and their "predecessors" - another reference to the Provisionals.
Sinn Fein's Martina Anderson did all the other Stormont politicians might have asked of her - not only condemning the bombing, but calling on people to give information about those responsible to the police. However the jab at "born again Provos" obviously irked her. She rounded on the other speakers, claiming they were providing "a degree of comfort" for the dissidents by associating them with the Provisional IRA's campaign. Ms Anderson then argued that the dissidents and the Provisionals are completely different because the Good Friday Agreement had changed everything and removed the previous justification for resorting to violence, namely that Northern Ireland had been an unreconstructed "Protestant parliament for a Protestant people".
This in turn annoyed the Ulster Unionist David McClarty, who accused Ms Anderson of providing a jaundiced and misplaced history lesson. Mr McClarty seemed most angered that the bombers had taken the shine off Graham McDowell's role in the Ryder Cup victory.
Finally, Alliance's Stephen Farry went a bit academic with his insults - calling the dissidents "nihilistic".
Of course, the insults don't go all one way - the dissidents have their own names for Mr McGuinness who on the Derry 32 County Sovereignty Movement website is referred to variously as a "tout" and "British Deputy First Minister".
Superficially this clash of insults sounds almost pathetic. However last night's attack, combined with recent statements from the dissidents admitting responsibility for a spate of murders, underlines the fact that this is just the visible aspect of a largely subterranean battle with all too serious and sinister consequences.
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