The first thing I ever heard about Iris Robinson was that she was quoted as saying that
"There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children"
You did read that right. She said that homosexuality was worse than child abuse. This would be disturbing coming from an ill-educated man-on-the-street, but is yet more worrying that it comes from one of Northern Ireland's most-important legislators, who is also the wife of the First Minister of Northern Ireland.
But for those who like their schadenfreude served chilled, it now seems that Iris Robinson, and her husband Peter, are now likely to be run out of every public office they hold after one of the strangest scandals in recent years.
More below the fold.
Although most UK Conservatives aren't filled with zealotry and religious fervour like some of the US Republican Party, the exception seems Northern Ireland, where the more extreme DUP (Protestant Unionist) and Sinn Fein (Catholic Nationalist) have largely overtaken the more moderate Ulster Unionist and SDLP parties respectively for control of the Legislative Assembly.
Religion rarely plays a significant role in British politics on the mainland, but Northern Ireland (and by association, Glasgow in Scotland) still divide heavily along religious lines, and faith is less something to be kept out of politics. The last First Minister of Northern Ireland was the Reverend Ian Paisley (DUP), who famously used to give Fire'n'Brimstone sermons. The apocryphal story is that he one threatened a congregation that if they did not repent, they would be thrown into the pit of hell, where there would be screaming and gnashing of teeth. One elderly gentleman in the front row raised his hand and said "but I don't have any teeth". Rev Paisley shot back at him in his broad Ulster accent "Teeth. Will. Be. Provided!!!"
The First Minister of Northern Ireland is now the DUP's Peter Robinson, and he has been married for 43 years to Iris Robinson. They are both members of Northern Ireland's Legislative Assembly, and both members of the British Parliament at Westminster. They also have held posts as Aldermen on local government bodies, and were nicknamed "Swish Family Robinson" when it was revealed that the couple were making almost $900,000 a year in salary and expenses from politics, plus another $250,000 employing family members.
Peter Robinson has a background in the sectarian politics of Northern Ireland, and was both described as an 'extremist' by a judge who oversaw his trial for the assault of Police officers in a Police station, and who was photographed wearing Loyalist Paramilitary uniform. Whilst this is also the case with former IRA officers now participating through Sinn Fein, it gives a flavour of the sorts of people who have risen to the top of politics in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement brought an end to the Troubles.
Iris Robinson is known predominantly for her staunch Christian religious views - most famously her views on homosexuality. Complaints have led to her comments being investigated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, but no charges were brought.
Then last week, having been contacted by the BBC's Spotlight investigative journalism programme in relation to allegations they were planning to make, Iris Robinson announced that she was retiring due to mental health. She claimed she was suffering with depression, and would not stand for re-election next year.
This was swiftly followed by the news that she had attempted suicide in March last year, after telling her husband of 43 years that she had had an affair. Peter Robinson appeared to give a TV statement and looked a shocked and broken man. There was sympathy, even from political enemies and those who had been so hurt by Iris Robinson's bigotry.
But then the narrative started to change. I watched the BBC programme, and was astounded at the details of the case. Peter Robinson had known about the suicide attempt and the affair on the 1st March, and had proceded to the chamber (leaving his wife with the family doctor) to answer First Minister's Questions that afternoon, appearing jovial and focussed (not the broken man who had given a January 2010 statement as though in a state of shock).
Then it transpired that 59-year-old Iris Robinson's affair had been with a then-19-year-old Kirk McCambley (jokes about "Mrs Robinson" and the film 'the Graduate' began at that point). I have no problem with relationships between people of different ages (and wonder if many people would have been so outraged if it had been a 59-year-old man and a 19-year old woman?) but this was slightly odd, given that she had known him since he was 9 years old, and had been of significant emotional support when his father had died.
What had begun as an innocent relationship quickly became something oedipal - within months, they were involved in an affair.
This is not something I would normally blog upon - I don't condone extra-marital affairs, but I don't tend to write about them either. I don't criticise those who do, but I prefer to focus on the public rather than the private. I don't even care about her moralistic stances on sexuality, or hypocrisy. What makes this case is the money.
She took £50,000 (about $80,000) in undeclared political donations from two wealthy property developers: one who gave it as a gift (and subsequently died), and one who gave his £25,000 as a loan.
She used this money, which she never declared, to give young Kirk McCambley £50,000 to start his own cafe in East Belfast (near the lockside). He returned £5,000 to her as a gift, but it was only when the relationship ended that she demanded the return of the rest of the money, saying it should be split between her and her Church - Dundonald's "Light 'n' Life" Church (you did read that correctly).
Whe she realised that the second undeclared donor needed his money back, she decided that McCambley's payments to her should be prioritised. The gift to the Church had apparenlty been to cover an agreement they had had that he would donate some of the cafe's profits to the Church. He was forced to sell a stake in his now profitable business, to pay back Iris Robinson.
All of this was orchestrated through her long-suffering chief-of-staff, Selwyn Black. He told the BBC (for no fee, obviously) that he had taken dozens of texts and calls to return money to donors (even the estate of the man who had gifted the cheque), and said that he could hear Peter Robinson in the background when the two were at a holiday home in Florida directing her instructions to Black.
It now seems that Peter Robinson was aware of the donations, that they hadn't been declared, and that in keeping silent to protect his wife, he was derelict in his duty to the people of Northern Ireland -as an MP, as an MLA, as a Minister, and as their First Minister. Iris Robinson is quite clearly in legal breach of her duties in reporting donations and loans, as an Alderman on the Borough Council, as an MLA, and as an MP.
I would be surprised if Peter Robinson hadn't announced his decision to retire from politics by the end of next week. He cannot now continue as First Minister, and neither he nor his wife should be able to run for any office in Northern Ireland ever again.
Whoever replaces them, we can only hope that their demise will mean just a little less bigotry on the front benches of Northern Irish politics.
For the satire-lovers amongst you:
UPDATE: One of my favourite Conservative voices, who blogs as Archibishop Cranmer, has written a missive on the affair: http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.c...
He concludes:
And, with apologies to Thomas More:
“Peter, it profits a man nothing to give his wife for the whole world... but for Northern Ireland?”
Priceless.