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Martin
McGuinness did not want this book to come out. He
took the unusual step as an education minister in
publicly calling for the population not to be educated
when he asked people to refrain from assisting the
authors in their research. With Sinn Fein, in Francie
Molloy's words, already administering 'British rule
for the foreseeable future', and the education minister
effectively advocating censorship, all that was needed
for an epic of truly Kafkaesque proportions was for
the Health Minister to give the stamp of approval
to cigarette smuggling.
It
is probably true to say that fewer people would have
bought this book if Martin McGuinness had cooperated.
A Derry version of Before The Dawn. What would
be the point? George Best not having played for Manchester
United is bad enough but Bobby Charlton as well -
a step too far. If, at an opportune moment, the Bogside
republican feels able to give a no holds barred account
of his political journey his work will last for quite
some time into the distant future, sure of being read
globally.
This
takes us to the dilemma facing the construction of
work on Provisional republicanism. Martin McGuinness
alone could provide the full story on his life but
will not. There are others who would like to provide
that story without his cooperation but cannot. Faced
with that should we settle down for the long haul
and wait until the man himself feels unconstrained
to the point where he treats us to the full monty?
Or is there a case to be made for working on the project
now in the hope that no matter how difficult, some
record, no matter how incomplete, is an advantage
on what exists at present?
Liam
Clarke and Kathryn Johnston's Martin McGuinness
From Guns to Government has been criticised for
advancing no real thesis apart from perhaps seeking
to demonstrate that the Derry man has been a senior
IRA leader throughout the past thirty years. But the
authors know you would really need to be a particularly
naive Siberian supporter of Sinn Fein to believe anything
else, and instead have set out to provide an accessible
handbook to the career of one of the most influential
republicans that this conflict has thrown up.
How
successful were they? Chronologically - fairly. Analytically
- dubious. A question mark pertaining to the reliability
of the chronological narrative comes when the authors
explain that at the start of the 1970s the RUC were
holding McGuinness for seven days. The comments of
a RUC man are used to illustrate this. Yet seven-day
detention did not come into effect in the North until
December 1974 in the wake of the Birmingham bombings
and was not actually used until after the Miami killings
in the summer of the following year. Moreover, the
awkward joints are all too visible when Gerry Kelly's
English bombing campaign is examined. Comments by
Marian Price about the attitude of McGuinness towards
armed struggle in general are in some way presented
as evidence that the Minister of Education threw his
energy into this campaign. But without even a close
reading it is clear that no such link is established.
Analytically
the work is hamstrung by the failure of the authors
to get in close to their subject leaving them in a
position where they had to rely on accounts from the
adversarial camp, be they British, informers or republicans
either personally or politically at odds with McGuinness.
There
is an attempt to portray McGuinness as a cowardly
bully and opportunist, tracing his early life and
behaviour in the playground. Piaget may have had something
of merit to say here. But it is an area best sidestepped
by journalists. In this case it leads to over egging
the pudding in the authors' attempts to nail McGuinness.
For example, it is alleged that the Derry man selfishly
recognised the court in 1976 because he realised that
under new legislation he would lose political status
and be treated as a criminal. But the charges against
McGuinness pre-dated the legislation kicking in which
meant, if sentenced, he would never have lost political
status.
Much has been made here of the alleged role of McGuinness
on Bloody Sunday implying that as a result his evidence
at the Saville Inquiry would only undermine its integrity.
True or not, what in my view undermined the inquiry
was not McGuinness but Mitchel McLaughlin who told
it that he didn't know if Martin McGuinness was a
member of the IRA at the time. If he can treat the
inquiry with such contempt why should the Paras be
any different?
From
Guns to Government is a reasonable journalistic
endeavour. There is never only one history of anything.
That is only achieved when alternative histories are
suppressed. Ultimately, it is better that this book
came out than for no account to exist. But it does
underline the difficulty plaguing projects of this
nature. The last word on Martin McGuinness may be
a long time in coming.
Martin
McGuinness: From Guns to Government. By Liam Clarke
and Kathryn Johnston. Mainatream Publishing. Price
£15.99.
(This
review was originally published in Fortnight under
the title "Good Subject, Shame About the Book")
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