Fr Andrew McMahon
Considerable consternation was caused in recent days when graffiti appeared on the outside of two northern Catholic churches around 30 miles apart. St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh was defaced overnight on Sunday, April 22, while in the Co. Tyrone village of Carrickmore, St Colmcille’s Church was daubed with paint sometime the following evening.
The slogans left on both churches primarily attacked Sinn Féin’s stance on abortion, referring to the party as ‘Irish Baby Killers’. The graffiti [pictured] in Carrickmore singled out, in this vein, the Sinn Féin candidate in this week’s by-election for the Westminster seat of West Tyrone, Orfhlaith Begley. It called on locals to “Vote DUP” claiming that “Only the DUP speaks for the Irish Unborn”. As well as berating Sinn Féin, the Armagh graffiti included an appeal to “Save the 8th” alongside the statement “The New Reformation is here”.
The DUP candidate for the West Tyrone seat, Tom Buchanan, was quick to condemn the graffiti. “There is a strength of feeling amongst members of the community about Sinn Féin’s policy on abortion,” commented Mr Buchanan, “however that is no cause to destroy property in order to put across a particular message.”
The Ulster Unionist candidate in the by-election, Chris Smith, was similarly condemnatory, remarking how “it is shocking that a Roman Catholic church is targeted in this way, especially considering its very, very, clear pro-life stance”.
Visiting the church in the aftermath, Sinn Féin’s Ms Begley described what she saw there as “an attack on our local community”, labelling it “a sectarian hate crime”. This response, however, drew further reaction itself, with Twitter users, among others, questioning the plausibility of the Sinn Féin candidate’s portrayal of what had occurred. That attacks upon Sinn Féin’s pro-abortion position were emerging from within Ms Begley’s own community – and were far from ‘sectarian’ – is probably discernible from a full page advertisement which appeared in the local Ulster Herald newspaper last week. Sponsored by the ‘Tyrone Pro-Life Network’, and with the by-election clearly in view, it proposed that “a vote for Sinn Féin is now a vote for Abortion” and appealed to constituents: “don’t stain your hands with the blood of innocent unborn babies”.
Unauthorised
The unauthorised marking or painting of another’s property is, quite rightly, an offence within law and, given Catholicism’s consistent advocacy for the unborn, its church buildings are hardly deserving targets for this kind of graffiti.
Amidst condemnations, however, something of wider significance needs to be recognised here: namely, the increasing sense of frustration among many northern Catholics that political parties which continue to voice their nationalist aspirations have become insensitive to their values and concerns on critical social and moral issues. None more so, perhaps, than the right to life of the unborn child.
Elsewhere in last week’s Ulster Herald, Mary Lou McDonald TD penned a defence of her party’s policy on abortion, voicing a concern that “some have sought to mispresent Sinn Féin’s position” on the matter.
In the course of some 500 words, however, Deputy McDonald never once mentioned the unborn, let alone acknowledge that they were in any way relevant to the debate. Abortion was portrayed by her, throughout her article, as nothing other than “healthcare”. Who, one might ask, is doing the misrepresenting here? The DUP candidate, by contrast, readily identified the “strength of feeling” surrounding the issue; unsurprising perhaps, given his party’s irrefutable record in promoting respect for life in the womb.
Vandalism
Graffiti on a public building may be, in certain circumstances, more a sign of desperation than an act of vandalism. Like many unwelcome forms of protest, it can epitomise the alienation of those who, while not strictly disenfranchised, feel rather sorely betrayed.
In an electoral culture, however, where tribalism might be guaranteed to trump all other considerations, a dominant political party can be cavalier in ignoring minority voices and the concerns they convey. This merely leads, in turn, to ever deeper disillusionment.
Fr Andrew McMahon is a writer and priest of the Dromore Diocese.