Handbags & False Idols

Before last week, I was blissful in my ignorance to the fact that a handbag can cost upwards of €20,000. Since last Wednesday, we’ve all found out about Maria Steen’s presidential election nomination campaign coming to an end, capped off with a photograph of her on Kildare St holding a very expensive handbag. Apparently the handbag that’s worth more than my car was intended to act as some kind of gotcha for the left. I only know all of this because of the extensive coverage in the press of this non-politician’s failure to meet the nomination bar and how that is somehow a threat to democracy.

I shed no tears for the fact that an anti-abortion, anti-feminist, Trump supporter wasn’t popular enough to convince 20 Oireachtas members or 4 councils to nominate her onto the presidential election ballot. The nomination bar is set where it is for a reason. If not for it, we’d be listening to all manner of tripe from a large field of candidates that are currently filtered out before the campaign starts. That’s not a threat to democracy, that’s the constitution in action. Rare is the day that my views align with Leo Varadkar’s, but even he said “The rules are the rules” when asked in a recent interview on the Path To Power podcast.

The media hype machine around the presidential election has been so hungry for content and controversy that it feels like some publications want to put a falling out between Maria Steen and Michael McDowell on equal footing to Saipan, positioning them as idols of an ephemeral but definitely not made up* undercurrent of choice being sought by the public. (*It might be made up). The people had the choice in 2 referenda and consigned Steen’s viewpoints to a past Ireland that the majority want nothing more to do with.

If the press really are in need of some idols to worship, then they should look to the Sumud Freedom Flotilla. I know I’m chiming in like a reply guy shouting What About Gaza, but in all seriousness, What About Gaza? This is a question that we should all be asking of our leaders, representatives, and media, constantly. In Ireland’s case, 22 Irish citizens, including 2 Oireachtas members are currently sailing on the flotilla and due to reach Gaza next week. Actually, that might be 24 and 3 members now, with the addition of author Naoise Dolan and half-in half-out of government TD Barra Ó hÉanacháin, which may not have been included in the original count.

These idols are far more worthy of Sunday paper interviews and flattering opinion pieces in my view. They set sail with food and baby formula in a practical attempt to open a humanitarian corridor, but in a much bigger symbolic attempt at showing the utter failure of the international community by allowing Israel to go unchecked in perpetrating a genocide and weaponising starvation, among other war crimes.

By ignoring international law and showing blatant disregard for any shred of humanity, Western leaders have sent a message to us all that they can do what they want. It doesn’t matter enough to them that unthinkable events like doctors describing having to perform a c-section on a beheaded pregnant woman to save the unborn baby are happening, in hospitals with no supplies which are themselves being bombed. As long as money is to be made by selling weapons, and the international order is maintained, they’ll happily let arms fly through airspaces and refuse to enact meaningful sanctions, all the while making grand half-empty gestures of state recognition, excuses about EU wide consensus, and speeches about how sad it all is. No matter how many of us protest and shout, and we are shouting, the reluctance and down right refusal by our elected representatives to enact the will of the people, or have any sliver of moral courage whatsoever, is the real threat to democracy as far as I can see.

Sinn Féin Senator Chris Andrews is on the flotilla and was interviewed on The Last Word last week by Ian Guider, sitting in for Matt Cooper. During the interview, Ian Guider interrupted Chris Andrews and dismissively barked “Israel aren’t going to let ye in, so what are you going to do?”. Chris explained that they were in International waters, currently off the coast of Crete, and that Israel has no jurisdiction to stop the flotilla, let alone attack it.

I was taken aback by the line of questioning. Some in Irish media are so blinkered by party politics, or machinations of foreign policy, that they fail to take a step back and see that a country has decided to exterminate another, and that such a situation is exactly what international laws were written to protect against. Even more so, the failure by our leaders to abide by international law lifts the veil on how much neoliberalism and hyper-capitalism has hollowed out the morals of the international order, so much so that a live-streamed genocide is not only allowed to take place, but it is supported in practical terms by the US, UK, EU and others.

Where are the opinion pieces discussing the disintegration of our humanity, or projecting the outcomes of what happens if the Italian, Spanish, and now Turkish Naval vessels escorting the flotilla encounter resistance or a naval blockade from Israel? What position does this put the members of the flotilla in, and what plans are in place to observe the situation and preserve the safety of the flotilla? Is there agreement among the Navies in escort to protect all citizens on the flotilla, or just those from their respective countries? Closer to home, why is the government lying about the triple lock preventing the Irish Navy from escorting the flotilla in a humanitarian capacity?

I only hope that the story of the Sumud Freedom Flotilla is a successful one, and that upon their safe return, those heroes of humanity get the same attention as a Hermes handbag.