Nasty Protestants? Nazi Protestants? Undo
The Republic of Ireland's president, Mary McAleese, said in a radio interview on Thursday that the Nazis had given "to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational hatred, for example, of Catholics..." For those of you unfamiliar with the code words of the ancient conflict, "people" here means Protestants.
Ooops! Although many Northern Irish Catholics have long disparagingly referred to the mainly Protestant-peopled police force as "Nazis", this colourful, colloquial term is regarded by students of the clan dialects as "sub-standard, regional". That one of the most celebrated members of the North's minority community, now comfortably ensconced in the republic's presidential residence in the salubrious settings of the Phoenix Park would, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, have reverted to the irrational lexis of her tribe is revealing, though. Faced with the gales of outrage that followed her slip of the tongue, Mrs McAleese took to the airwaves last night and issued this clarification: "What I said I undoubtedly said clumsily. I should have finished out the example and it would have been a much better interview had I done that. That was certainly my intention. It was never my intention going into it simply to blame one side of the community in Northern Ireland."
As embarrassed evasions go, this is quite good. Note the emphasis on style as opposed to substance. She said something "clumsily", and she would have given "a much better interview" if she had only completed her example. Over at the indispensable Slugger O'Toole, the commentators have been having a field day with the fallout from the presidential lapsus. Meanwhile, and further afield, the tremors resonating from the leaderene's misstep have been recorded on the outrage scale. Nasty. Very nasty.
