The American bishop Fulton Sheen once made the humorous comment that hearing nuns’ confessions was a bit like being stoned to death with popcorn.
There was plenty of popcorn thrown in Stormont this week, when Sinn Féin’s coalition partners made a remarkably restrained attempt to query the party’s role in the “I didn’t see Michael McMonagle” scandal. No-one wanted to create a crisis which might risk collapsing the Assembly.
Just as Sinn Féin doubled down to protect itself, its executive partners doubled down to protect Stormont.
Welcome to the cosy chat room on the hill, where 79 of the 90 MLAs are in a government devoted to self-preservation.
The original issue in Sinn Féin’s case was that a member of staff was involved in criminal activity.
That was not the party’s fault. When charged, normal human resource practice would be to suspend the member of staff on full or half pay (depending on the employer’s human resource policy) until the trial.
In a case of child protection, the organisation would also implement its child protection policy (if it had one). A guilty verdict would lead to dismissal. Not guilty would mean re-instatement. It’s that simple.
Sinn Féin did suspend McMonagle on learning of the police investigation and his contract was not renewed. However, the party effectively then passed him on to the next parish by providing two references, and allowed him to keep his Stormont pass.
He was particularly skilled, because while his presence could be detected by cameras in Stormont, he was entirely invisible to the human eye.
As questions were asked, the Sinn Féin leader was conspicuously absent. Mary Lou McDonald is usually keen to visit Belfast to illustrate the party’s all-Ireland credentials and to show that she, and not Michelle O’Neill, is in charge. On this occasion, she stayed silent in Dublin. Partition can be a blessing at times.
That left Michelle O’Neill to face the popcorn on her own. We will never know if she took no advice, or the wrong advice. Either way, her political credibility has been significantly damaged.
This is not just because she claimed she did not see Michael McMonagle at Stormont, but because she did not foresee that video images would emerge of her close to him. Photography can boost your public image. It can also seriously damage your political health.
Mary Lou finally broke her silence by claiming that she had ordered a “complete overhaul” of governance procedures in Sinn Féin. She might recognise that this was not a governance issue. It was a simple matter of standard management practice. A party leader might be expected to understand the difference between governance and management.
If she wants to overhaul anything, she might start with the party’s culture of self-righteousness, which is what this case is all about.
Of course, all this will make absolutely no difference to the party’s electoral support. Sectarianism will always overcome ethics.
There are two lessons from this story. The first is that without journalists, we would never know what goes on at Stormont. They perform an essential public service.
The second lesson is that we now know what it takes to collapse Stormont.
In recent years it collapsed over RHI, which became extended into a demand for an Irish language act. It then fell over post-Brexit trading arrangements. It did not collapse this week over child protection.
So, which is the more important: preserving Stormont, or protecting children? This is part of a wider question which asks how much malpractice and maladministration should we tolerate from our political parties? What price are we prepared to pay to keep Stormont open?
If it were a model of good government, in which the Executive parties were open and transparent, we could live with genuine mistakes. However, it is now clear that Stormont is incapable of providing the necessary level of public services for its citizens and it has no regard for accountability.
So, its demise would make little difference to our lives – apart, of course, from the economic benefits of the huge demand it generates for the sale of popcorn.