Pity the old Freemasons: All they did was rent out their hall to a production company to stage an interview. That was on Thursday. By Sunday, they were under such pressure from Ireland’s watchdog media that they were pledging to donate their (presumably modest) fee from the event to charity.
Regular readers will recognise this for what it is: A good, old fashioned, Irish establishment punishment beating. Many of us are immune to those because we have long-eschewed the respect or the access or the invitations to things that come with being in the good graces of Official Ireland, but for the Freemasons, it must all be quite new and frightening.
Look at this for grovelling from the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Ireland, invited onto RTE yesterday to answer for his crimes:
“Mr Daley said they were also concerned there would be “a backlash of some description” if they stopped the interview from going ahead.
“In hindsight we’re not happy with that decision, I mean, look, we made a mistake, put my hands up, fully admit that.”
He said under no circumstances would his organisation have taken the booking if they had known who was involved from the outset
“I would not be a fan of Mr McGregor under any circumstances,” he said.”
Here’s a basic question: What is he apologising for, exactly?
The answer to that question appears to be that he feels the need to apologise for the fact that an interview which has annoyed Official Ireland to go ahead in the first place. The Freemasons had a chance to make life awkward for Tucker Carlson and Mr. McGregor; they did not take it; and thus they must apologise for letting the side down.
Which is funny, because the Freemasons themselves say that they are entirely apolitical. This is from the Grand Secretary’s own website:
“Despite common opinion, Freemasonry is not a political or religious organisation. In fact those two topics are not to be discussed at any Masonic meeting. Freemasonry enables men from different parts of society to meet together as equals, regardless of religious background, political leaning, class or any other social category. Members of the Freemasons therefore quickly make close friends and acquaintances from many different walks of life.”
Except, apparently, Freemasonry is a political organisation, which must apologise openly if it does not adhere to particular political viewpoints or enforce certain political standards. It is not, apparently, open to “men from different parts of society to meet together as equals… regardless of political leaning”.
But of course, this is only true in part. Freemasonry is not unique: There are lots of similar organisations in Ireland that also profess to be “apolitical” but are anything but. The GAA, for example. Or Macra na Feirme. These organisations are “not political” officially, and will maintain this at a level whereby you won’t be discriminated against if you are a Fianna Fáiler and the Chairman is a Fine Gael man, but that’s as far as it goes. The underlying reality, however, is that all of them are political organisations which exist to maintain the official political consensus. They are apolitical within the white lines, in other words.
Step outside the approved white lines – which are formed by an ethereal consensus that forms in the approximate geographical triangle encompassing Leinster House, Donnybrook Dublin 4, and Maynooth University – and that “apolitical” stance breaks down entirely. These organisations are “apolitical” only in so far as tolerance of other political views does not pose a threat to their reputations with Official Ireland.
So why does this pose a threat to their reputation? It poses such a threat because the Freemasons have gotten ahead of the rest of Official Ireland on the debate around McGregor.
You and I might think, dear reader, that the question when considering McGregor’s interview with Tucker Carlson is “was what he said right?”. Or we might think “was what he said good strategy?” or we might ask – as I did yesterday “is this interview an example of Irish nationalism repeating old habits and mistakes?”.
But none of those are the questions in Official Ireland: There, the question remains “how on earth is this upstart allowed to speak at all?”
Official Ireland is still coming to terms with the fact that it no longer controls everything the way that it used to. In the pre-Internet Ireland, McGregor’s views would never have been heard since the only way for them to be heard would be through a decision by the editor of some local newspaper to broadcast them – and no editor ever would have. Pre-internet, McGregor’s appearance in Washington would have been treated the same way Charles Haughey’s long-running extra-marital affair was treated by the Official Ireland: Everyone who was worthy of knowing would have known, and the plebs would have been kept in the dark.
Losing that degree of absolute control over the flow of information is a deeply traumatic experience for official Ireland, and its instinct is to blame others for it. Thus, we have endless counter-disinformation strategies, and thus, the Freemasons must answer for their crimes.
At this, the only rational or decent response is to laugh. Both at the Masons, for their cowardice, and at Official Ireland, for its impotent (in this respect) rage.
None of that, of course, means that the McGregor interview was a good idea or that it will advance the cause of any belief system even an inch. I remain of the view that it is likely to do the opposite.
Still, we can all, on this occasion, have a good laugh at the rending of garments in RTE. Long may that, at least, continue.