Tom Elliott’s outburst does him no credit

Shortly after Tom Elliott became leader of the Ulster Unionist Party last September he declared that he would not attend GAA matches. I felt that this simplistic, ham-fisted declaration was short-sighted and naïve on his part and it certainly didn’t deliver extra votes last week. Attendance at the odd match and engagement with the GAA would have allowed him to demonstrate that there would be an expansive and innovative dimension to the character of his leadership; that the future he sought to foster would not be impaled by inertia, or diminished by the closed mind-set of a political hermit.

Despite the painstaking pace of vote counting last week, both the outcome of the Assembly election and the conduct of leading politicians, especially in the course of the past year, indicates that they are capable of making gestures and statements that move the political narrative forward in a manner that reflects the sentiment and disposition of the electorate.

Mr Elliott’s outburst in Omagh about the Irish flag being ‘foreign’ betrays a fundamental ignorance of the symbolism of the flag – which is to recognise the different traditions on the island of Ireland and, by implication, the Constitutional safeguards afforded to those traditions. The Irish flag is therefore not a foreign symbol in the Anglo-Irish context because it recognises the cardinal principle of personal choice with respect to the definition of the nation.

I share his agitation when any national flag is displayed disrespectfully or where protocol is disregarded. A national flag is not a piece of carnival bunting intended to propagate narrow vested interests.

However, the interests of society are also not well served when a political leader uses condescending shibboleths, such as the descriptor ‘scum’, because these simply pander to vacuous subversive vanity that is not connected to elected politics. The political mainstream should function at a higher level of sophistication and that means that Mr Elliott will need to have one footprint in the promising future, aligned with those who have something positive to contribute to society, if the Ulster Unionists are to be an integral and effective part of that process.

Tom Elliott and the GAA

It is noteworthy that the first days of the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party by Tom Elliott are characterised by what he will apparently not do rather than what he is determined to accomplish.

Mr Elliott is skittish about attending GAA matches. He was also churlish about supporting Down in the All Ireland final.  If Mr Elliott was really shrewd he would realise, as the incoming leader of a political party that has been consigned to the margins, no longer centrally relevant to society’s destiny and whose dwindling, ageing membership grows more sedentary and apathetic, that he has much to learn from the GAA. A new leader has political capital in the bank.  A new leader ought to be abundant with energy, vision and novelty, not sclerotic, like the centurion guard of a tribe threatened with extinction.

The Ulster Unionist Party is 21 years younger than the GAA – a callow youth in comparison, but, in common with many political parties, it achieves little traction with the age group that the GAA so expertly attracts and captivates.

The GAA has a legacy extending back 125 years and claims a million members, mostly young, able and ambitious individuals whose genius and ingenuity will define the potential of Irish and Northern Ireland society for coming generations. The GAA is an organisation that has thrived on change, embraced diversity and repositioned itself at the mainstream of Irish society, especially among young people and is strengthened as a consequence.

If Mr Elliott believes that he has the imagination and capacity to reinvigorate his moribund party he could also learn much from the organisational skills and grass-roots savvy of the GAA and, especially, how it has successfully navigated fundamental change to its policies and rules without jeopardising its own existence. He could learn how it attracts, inspires and fosters the loyalty of tens of thousands of young members. But to gain these insights personally he must earn the trust of those who can describe the insights and experience. That involves steering his sturdy Fermanagh feet onto the terraces of various GAA grounds from time to time. The fact that Sir Edward Carson enjoyed hurling and was a member of Cumann Iománaíochta at Trinity College prior to the founding of the GAA should not make such a proposition an unduly distressful ordeal for Mr Elliott.

The passage of the British-Irish Agreement in the 19^th Amendment of the Irish Constitution on 22 May 1998 by a majority of 93% of those voting means, unequivocally, that there is no threat to the political interests that Mr Elliott represents - other than through the free will of the people.

But if Mr Elliott’s political legacy is to be constrained by archaic shibboleths and yesterday’s thinking then he might as well hide and record his thoughts on his office voice mail to assure his followers that he has nothing new or inspiring to say to them and that their destiny under his leadership will not mean they become more self-sufficient, more prosperous, or more self-confident.