Kathy Sheridan: Naomi Long’s success outshines Michelle O’Neill’s

A fact that eludes the social media vigilantes from time to time: most people are capable of holding two or even three thoughts in their heads at the one time. One is that Michelle O’Neill’s name will be woven through any modern history of NI. A second is that as the leader of a centrist party in a structurally polarised state, Naomi Long’s achievement is the greater of the two.

Sinn Féin’s top dog status is down to many reasons, mainly of strategic omission: staying schtum on the Border poll during the campaign; leaving the unionist parties to cannibalise each other; the don’t-frighten-the-horses debate performances versus Jeffrey Donaldson’s annoying displays. It was the party holding the pennon when the jousting stopped and it won the symbol of a century. And Sinn Féin did it without gloating too publicly – so far.

Stormont election special: Seismic or not, a significant result for Northern Ireland

Listen | 48:40

Freya McClements, Mary Minihan and Pat Leahy join Hugh to analyse the results of last week's Northern Ireland Assembly elections.

For a seismic event in Northern Ireland history, look no further than the night in 2010 when Naomi Long knocked Peter Robinson, first minister and DUP leader, out of the Westminster seat he had held for 30 years.

No one is more derided in right-on political discussion than the centrist. But that's where Alliance has always planted its yellow flag: the boring, non-sectarian middle ground

Long’s rise within her own party, like that of Mary Lou McDonald, was rocket-like but she was fighting a different battle.

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No one is more derided in right-on political discussion than the centrist. But that’s where Alliance has always planted its yellow flag: the boring, non-sectarian middle ground. Instead of a divided, fragile Executive held to ransom by one party or another exploiting division, it wants a devolved government formed by willing partners rather than a mandatory coalition as laid down in the Belfast Agreement. The sheer normality of Long’s ambition in 2022 is almost touching. For those arguing that it would be incompatible with the agreement, Newton Emerson even suggests a “voluntary-mandatory” coalition, ie the two largest parties are entitled to places but not required to take them. What are the chances?

Brass-neckery

A third thought leading directly from the first and second is the resilience of Northern Ireland’s female politicians. Resilience is a quality universally admired in almost every human type, event and calling – except in politicians, where it is reviled as brass-neckery.

Some 36 per cent of this new Assembly is made up of women, an extraordinary progression from the first such gathering in 1998 when bravehearts such as Monica McWilliams, Bairbre de Brún, Jane Morrice and Bríd Rodgers made up just 13 per cent of the membership. Decades before the MeToo movement, McWilliams and the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) were using an “Insult of the Week” board to call out the ritual abuse and humiliation perpetrated by other MLAs, mainly of the Paisleyite persuasion.

At the peace talks in 1997, unionists routinely shouted “stupid women” and “traitors” when McWilliams or Pearl Sagar spoke. Ian Paisley jnr repeatedly howled “moo, moo, moo” during a speech by McWilliams. This is how the roars are actually recorded in the official minutes, so imagine the actual atmosphere, unsanitised. It’s worth remembering that no one from the other parties stepped up to support the women.

Morrice, an NIWC member of the newly established Assembly in 1998 and deputy speaker, has spoken of the incessant attempts to demean and humiliate women members. “This is politics, my dear,” she was told; it couldn’t be discrimination since “all politicians treated each other this way”.

Death threat

This year marks 20 years since Naomi Long’s first death threat.

Since 2002 she has had to deal with bullets in the post, verbal abuse, attacks on her vehicles, workplace and home, physical intimidation, and – in common with most women politicians – relentless social media trolling and abuse about her weight, intellect, appearance and choice of clothing.

Sorcha Eastwood, a newly elected Alliance MLA, has had rape threats, visits to her home and consistent sectarian, misogynist abuse.

Earlier this year, the DUP’s Diane Dodds was targeted by trolls over the death of her young son.

What the MLA result tells us is that when women are put on the ballot in winnable seats, people are prepared to vote for them. That this needs saying may seem extraordinary

The Belfast Telegraph’s main story on Monday related to a young SDLP candidate, Cara Hunter, whose election campaign was almost destroyed by a clip from a pornographic film edited to suggest it was her in the film. It drew 950 “friend requests” to her private Instagram account, 2,000 new followers on her political Instagram page and hundreds of sexually explicit messages – all from men. The DUP’s Diane Forsythe has reported similar false claims to the police. Resilience is an underrated quality. Both women won their seats.

A fourth related thought is for election strategists in the Republic. Here’s a coincidence: some 35 per cent of MLA candidates were women and 36 per cent of the new Assembly is made up of women. Our 2020 Dáil election – with gender quotas – yielded a record high at 22.5 per cent. What the MLA result tells us is that when women are put on the ballot in winnable seats, people are prepared to vote for them. That this needs saying may seem extraordinary, but there we are. Fourteen of Sinn Féin’s 27 MLAs and eight of Alliance’s 17 are women. The Ulster Unionist Party put nine women forward but mainly in unwinnable seats such as West Belfast or as running mates to more prominent male colleagues. It ended up with no women in the Assembly. The DUP landed six out of 25.

It was indeed a seismic election. Just not as advertised.