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| Pols for Europe |
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| When George Mitchell, the former United States senator and architect of the 'Mitchell Accord' returned recently to Northern Ireland in order to reinvigorate the peace process, it was widely noted in the press that he cut a distinctly urbane and worldly figure when set beside the local pols. Could it be that the capacity of politicians in Northern Ireland to call on entrenched attitudes of sectarianism and bigotry may be getting to their public images more than they can wilfully counteract? That the wind has changed and they've become what they eat? |
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| Labour - Malone & DeRossa |
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| Perhaps it's unfair to look to the publicity photographs of themselves which Irish politicians (both Northern and in the Republic) put out with their canvassing material in advance of June's European Elections, given that these photographs must, perforce, have been taken by local snappers with an eye to efficiency rather than posterity. And yet these bog standard portraits can be curiously revealing; almost as if the synergy between amateurish execution and political amateurishness has borne meaningful fruit. |
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| There are nice congruences here, like the photographs of Alderman Sean MacManus, the Sinn Fein candidate for the West and Border counties, and Sean Neeson the Alliance candidate. Both men favour the head-tilted-to-one-side, teeth slightly exposed pose - almost to the millimetre; with its suggestion of listening, probity and good humour. Of course, inside the brochures the two ways diverge. MacManus's marshals a selection of images focussed on presenting his party as - potentially - a global political force. There's Gerry Adams grinning with both Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton; Adams addressing the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce; and Sinn Fein demonstrations against nuclear power and drugs. There is also a shot of the Sinn Fein delegation to the peace talks coming out to address the media outside Stormont. All in all these photographs convey the impression of preaching to the converted; and that a vote for Sinn Fein in the European elections is still a vote for Irish nationalism. |
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| Sean Neeson on the other hand, adopts a predictably touchy-feely approach in his brochure, with photographs of the candidate canvassing on the doorstep, chatting with the mother of two young children, and talking with a farmer. There's an air of palpable sincerity about Neeson's brochure, which is only enhanced by its poor cropping and repro. |
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| Cropping is very much to the fore of the election material put out by the Irish Labour Party on behalf of their candidates Bernie Malone MEP and Proinsias De Rossa TD. Opting for the modern crop (modern c.The Face 1985), both politicians are featured without their foreheads. In the context of this election material the covert message appears be that there's no danger of these people's servants going off message, given that when you flip over from their lobotomized visages you encounter the marvellously smooth and bulging cranium of the party's leader, Ruairi Quinn TD. |
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| If there's any real distinction to be drawn between the material for the North and that of the Republic, it's that Northern pols tend to adopt expressions of sincerity, whereas the Southerners confine themselves to seriousness. Only a minority of either - Patricia McKenna, (Green Party MEP), Jim Nicholson (Ulster Unionist), Robert McCartney (UK Unionist) - dare to essay smiles; and of these only Nicholson appears ebullient. It could be statistically argued, given the section of material I have, that levity vs. sincerity does not constitute part of either the north-south nor the sectarian divide. |
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| Of all the candidates, the two with the most assured photographic presentation are the Northern heavy-hitters, Ian Paisley of the DUP and John Hume of the SDLP. There's not a lot that Ian Paisley can do to present his familiar features in a kindly light, but he does his best, grimacing at the camera like an undertaker on a seaside excursion, and appearing in one shot grinning uproariously whilst a bevy of kids wave Union flags in the background. |
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| Hume on the other hand has both the slickest and the most bizarre photography on offer. Like Paisley's, Hume's brochure includes a number of relevant vignette shots, but while the DUP's are of harvesting and machining, Hume's are distinctly abstract: trees, kids looking at trees, a building site, and a hand lying on some plans. The candidate himself appears in several guises: thumbs up and grinning; rumpled and sincere; and Andy Warhol. In all three Hume wears a distinctively patterned 'modernist' tie, which looks as if it were coloured in by hand, and is possibly a symbol of pan-Europeanism. But it's the 'Warhol' graphic which is the most surprising. Done exactly like one of Warhol's famous multiple screen prints of Marilyn Monroe, twelve images of the candidate are shown, each with a different coloured background. Underneath there's the slogan: 'Putting Young People First'. |
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| Well, while it maybe too much to expect the SDLP publicists to be completely familiar with the theory behind Warhol's original images (namely the assembly-line quality of mass imagery), there was ample opportunity for the candidate himself to call on the opinions of at least one sophisticated American. |
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Will Self |
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