Letters to the Editor 2005-08-19

Open letter to Nuala O'Loan

In a recent article in Village (5-12 August) by Anton Mc Cabe, a spokesperson for the Ombudsman stated that David Woods' statement to the press after the fatal shooting of Neil Mc Conville, in which he stated a gun had been found in Neil's car, was a statement of "fact". It was not a statement of fact at the time, it was a statement from a PSNI officer to David Woods who then felt it would be prudent to relay this information to the press. Woods' eagerness to regurgitate PSNI statements without allowing the investigative officers establish the facts has compromised the investigation; it has as we (the family) have expressed before at previous meetings, cast doubt in our minds as to how impartial in truth the office of ombudsman office is.

Over the past two years the family has been provided with snipits of low level information in relation to the progress of the investigation, and we have been led, carrot and stick style, with the pending publication of the final report, when "hey presto" all will be revealed. However, apparently all we had to do to find out what is in the report is pick up a copy of Village, since your spokesperson was again keen to reiterate that the finding of a gun in the car has formed a part of the investigation into whether or not this "influenced in any way the course of action taken by police officers involved in the incident" ie: did they kill Neil because he was brandishing a weapon? Neil was unarmed, the gun found was wrapped in cloth and on the floor in the passenger side of the car and Neil was driving.

Please spare us these attention grabbing sound bites and press releases Mrs O'Loan and instruct your investigative team and press department to stick to the facts.

Barry McConville

Banbridge, Co Down

Was 1916 a crime?

If Pierce Martin insists on malevolence as the cause of the 1916 Rising (Village, 12-18 August) then there is really no further point in debating the actual issues that caused 1916 with him. The new element he introduces is the dismissal of the 1918 General Election result because of fraud and intimidation.

The old canard that Sinn Féin did not get a majority of votes is explained quite simply by the fact that they were unopposed in 25 constituencies so no votes were counted there. They got over 80 per cent of the vote in nine constituencies that were contested and would probably have got an even higher per cent in many of the uncontested constituencies. But for Pierce Martin these non votes, as if by magic, become added to the opposition figures. So therefore, areas where Sinn Féin had most support become areas where they had no support! Who is kidding whom?

To develop his argument Pierce should take a look at the next general election, which produced an even more extreme result than 1918. In the general election of 1920 (in the 26 Counties) Sinn Féin won 125 seats and there was not a single solitary vote cast for them as they were unopposed in the democratic constituencies and they did not contest the privileged university seats. Nobody voted for Sinn Féin in that election and yet they won a complete electoral victory! Much more complete than 1918 when they only won just an overwhelmingly majority of seats. And for good measure they won five more seats outside the jurisdiction (in the six counties) in 1920 as well.

Pierce would no doubt explain all this by even more fraud and intimidation. Why then were the results not challenged by the Government under the election law?

Any sensible person would interpret it as an even more overwhelming case of support for Sinn Féin and the aims of the Rising than had occurred in 1918. But what do mere facts matter when one is consumed with blinding ideological dislike of all things to do with Irish independence, as Pierce clearly is. Facts can make no impression on such a state of mind.

He says that government policy towards Ireland was "characterised by moderation and forbearance" before the Rising. The Government's moderation involved backing away from the parliamentary procedure to establish Home Rule when the Unionists threatened it with civil war.

He asserts that Henry Wilson and Lord French were better judges on winning the war than the British Government of the day ("the government of all the talents") who practically ran the world at the time. Is it not more likely that they were more realistic than a couple of obsessed military men?

Jack Lane

Millstreet, Co Cork

Willie Wonka

Young boys and girls in Limerick have gone "wonkers" over new chocolate bars that hold out the promise of a trip to America.

Young children are plaguing their parents for money to buy the bars. It seems that the bars promise a trip to the USA and are named after Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

I have had a number of mothers approach me and they are concerned about this latest craze aimed at their young children.

One woman told me she sent her son to the shop for a loaf of bread and he came back with two Wonka bars and no bread. It is obvious that this type of marketing is aimed at the young and while there may be trips to America to be won I am sure they are few and far between.

The only way to describe it is that the children are gone wonkers over these bars.

Multi-national companies that target young children should be more responsible because they have the purchasing power to buy space and time in many media outlets and can place undue pressure on young people.

Sean O'Neill

Prospect, Limerick

Knock airport and older people

Free passports for the over 65s is a great step in the right direction, but there is a greater urgency for the over 65s living in Mayo. Before you go through security at Knock airport you are obliged to pay a €10 departure tax which is now renamed a development fee. Why should the elderly who choose to use Knock airport have to pay €10 extra? Knock is the only airport in Europe to charge this extra fee.

I call on Minister Dermot Ahern to put pressure on Knock airport to at least abolish this fee for the elderly. It is totally out of order to demand extra money after you have purchased your ticket. Who will benefit most from this fee eventually? Will all who use the airport become shareholders or will the wealth accumulated be shared out between the choosen few. In the meantime the departure fee provides jobs for those who are not the least bit worried about the older people who put Knock airport on the map.

Kevin Maloney

Westport, Co Mayo

Signs in Irish

'Dublin's DART. Can anyone care to translate that into Irish?', is the caption on the photo accompanying the 'Dart denigrates Irish language' letter, (5-11 August).

Tá sé sin éasca. My focloir poca gives it as 'dairt'. Either they were afraid inclusion of the 'i' might be taken by sensitive anglophiles to imply a native bias, or the stringent budgetary criteria of Minister Cullen's make-up department insisted they had more urgent need of the paint.

Greamaigh do theanga.

Damien Flinter

Clifden, Co Galway

Mining natural resources

The discovery of huge zinc and lead deposits in County Limerick must be properly developed and refined for the benefit of all the community.

The ore found in Pallasgreen has been described as considerable and significant by the owners. It is now important that refining and environmental considerations are to the fore in any exploitation of the find.

Already the Mid-West is littered with the wasted and worn out mines where the environment was severely damaged.

In fact the ore was exported and there was no smeltering capacity available locally that would have added value to the product.

We cannot allow a repeat of this type of conduct and this ore must be refined here if the full value is to be obtained for the local economy.

There is also a responsibility on the owners to ensure that the environment is not damaged by extracting the ore and steps must be taken now to protect the land and those living close by from all adverse effects.

Joe Lynch

Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick

Advice to Village columnists

very much enjoyed Eoin Ó Murchu's 'Sinn Féin – a coalition of the willing' (5 – 11 August). It was interesting, informative and corresponded to views I would also share, but that is beside the point. The real enjoyment though was the mischievous pleasure I would get from the following week's letters page, and Village did not disappoint. Conor J McKinney (12-18 August) took the bait hook line and sinker, and enthralled me with his righteous indignation. I am quite sure that Village received many more correspondences of a similar vain, but opted for this one as a representative sample, depriving me and many more of our just delights. However, to give the devil his due, I will attempt to respond to McKinney's letter and in particular his criticisms of Village, which I found to be most unwarranted.

Village magazine is "comparatively balanced", and its success can be attributed very much to this editorial policy. The likes of Eoin Ó Murchu, Conor Brady and Marie Mulholland have played no small part in creating this balance of opinions. It would do us all a grave disservice to give McKinney his own column, as amusing as that would be, and the letters page should suffice.

At the end of the day McKinney's views are adequately served by the likes of the Independent (now there is a contradiction), Evening Herald, Sunday World, and also Magill, to name but a few as the market is a bit crowded. An Phoblacht is a republican publication, that serves a certain constituency. If I want to know what their view is, that is what I read. I know McKinney will consider that a "seditious view" but there you go. McKinney called Liam Lawlor and Ray Burke "sleazy and repugnant" he could also have included Haughey (I own an island), (blank check) Bertie, P Flynn and Beverly (the trouble I have with three houses, with an off shore account), Lowry (independent extensions) etc, and goes on to defend the likes of O'Connell and Redmond. Now the way I see it, were they not all motivated by self centred aggrandisement, money and power, looking to only their section of society, all at the expense of the Irish people whom they claimed to represent? "It is worth remembering that no serious step forward on the march of the Irish people to freedom was ever achieved by what the politicians self-righteously call constitutional nationalism" not with representatives like these anyway.

I can understand McKinney's reservations about walking down dark alleyways in this day and age, but I think that has more to do with his tunnel vision than anything else.

Pádraig Mac Fionnlaig,

Finglas South, Dublin 11

Challenging Sinn Féin

I write to commend the media coverage of Enda Kenny's challenge to Sinn Féin on crime. It beholds democratic Ireland to ensure that all parties adhere to true democratic principles and his determination to pose questions to the party in relation to the Columbia Three can only be good for democracy on this Island.

Perhaps Enda Kenny and Fine Gael could now turn their attention to other matters that are also happening on the island. I speak of course of the pure evil of sectarianism which is engulfing North Ireland at present.

Thomas Devlin was stabbed to death on Wednesday 10 August in a most brutal and cowardly act, while the Catholic Church in Harryville has been continually targeted by loyalist paint bombers over the past number of weeks. Even more worrying is the appearance of "Taigs out" sectarian graffiti which has been appearing in mixed estates throughout Northern Ireland.

There have also been attacks on Catholic families in North Antrim who have been told that their houses were under threat of attack and all they where offered were fire blankets and advice to "jump" from certain windows of the house in the event of fire. Perhaps the PSNI could do more to defend the Nationalist community from such outrage and hate crime.

All of these attacks have taken place behind a wall of silence from democratic Ireland. Perhaps Fine Gael along, with the DUP, could start to condemn intimidation, murder and criminality from all sides. But of course what happens in Northern Ireland doesn't really pose an electoral threat to Fine Gael, does it?

Denis Benson

Laytown, Co. Meath

Advice to columnists

Defending Parnell

At the risk of becoming embroiled in the verbal dispute between your columnist Eoin Ó Murchu and a correspondent to your letters page, a Conor J McKinney ('I want an opinion column so I can defend the State', (Village 12-18 August), I offer the following advice.

If/when you do get your own column, I would advise you to research your comments for same better than you did for your Village letter, in which you claimed that Charles Stewart Parnell, amongst others, "devoted his life for an independent Ireland achieved through peaceful means".

If, by same, you meant that Parnell shunned the use of violence to achieve a political end, you are mistaken. In 1885, Parnell was told by a colleague that young men were joining "...extreme movements..." ie: the "dissidents"of their day. McKinney replied "Why should they not? All our plans and protests may fail, and God only knows that the quarrel may have to be settled that way yet."

Incidentally, when did Westminster ever refuse to use violence to achieve a political end?

Finally, may I suggest that you ask the editor of Village for a full page. I believe you would need more than a single column to defend this corrupt State.

John Horan (PRO)

Comhairle Ceantair Atha Cliath,

Republican Sinn Féin,

Teach Daithi O Conaill,

223 Parnell Street,

Dublin 1

An unjust justice system

The philosophy underlying the acceptance of the plea of provocation in Irish jurisprudence is that "being innate", in other words, a "part of one's nature'" an exaggerated tendency towards unreasonableness and provocability, or an oversensitivity to certain actions or the use of certain words. Whether these words might relate to the status of one's family members, particular political ideas or religious dogma, or whether these particular actions or specific words were simply being used or performed by certain categories of people, constitutes in this country a defense for murder.

This philosophy is Nietzschean in nature. Nietzsche denied that any moral system can be valid for all persons in all circumstances.

Reviewing a biography of Nietzsche in the New York Times recently, William T Vollmann criticised Nietzsche's contempt for moral systems:

"'a moral system valid for all is basically immoral', a philosophy that smashes all existing idols and erects its own idol, namely, a 'realism' which asserts that cruelty, being innate, can be construed as moral', becomes convenient to cruel elitists."

It is presently successfully argued in Irish courts that the innate – whether inborn or acquired by cultural indoctrination – nature of a person, that renders that individual exceptionally susceptible to losing 'self-control' when hearing certain words or seeing certain actions or categories of persons – somehow mitigates murder.

The victim, however, unless they know the killer intimately, cannot possibly be aware that the person who will shortly kill them is, by nature, particularly susceptible, by virtue of his particular personality and upbringing – his 'innate nature' – to flying into fits of murderous rage when in the presence of certain utterances, certain categories of persons, or certain actions (which words or actions might, in the normal course of events, lead to no more than a mutual acknowledgment by both parties of a failure to agree and a determination to stay elsewhere than each other's presence in future).

The rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights have been accepted by Europeans as "a moral system valid for all".

According to it, self-defence is an acceptable mitigation for intentionally depriving someone of his life. No mention is made of the mere fact of having a character or personality that loses "self-control" at the mention of certain words or in the presence of certain categories of people as being a defence for anything.

It is the cruel elitists nurturing future generations to carry on their hatred who must be challenged.

Debra James

Gorey, Co Wexford

Cork European Capital of Culture

Congratulations to all concerned with the Bocelli concert in Cork. A most enjoyable evening for all 10,000 who attended. Might I congratulate all those involved – the staff of Aiken promotions, the army personnel of all ranks, the Garda and Bus Eireann. Everything went without the slightest hitch and I feel proud to be a Corkonian.

This concert was one of the highlights of Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture being part of a wonderful programme throughout the year including the performance by Opera 2005, a new Cork professional company, the four open air performances by Corcadorca, the two and a half week concerts and other performances at the Marquee, the visit of the Abbey theatre, the exhibitions at the Cork vision centre from Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia etc, the numerous art exhibitions throughout the city particularly the exhibition by Matt Lamb by the life of Christ in the North Cathedral (Catholic) which moves to St Finbarrs Cathedral (Church of Ireland) in August, the magnificent dance performance Sol Pico st the opera House, the Chinese Cultural Concert at the City Hall, the musical performances at University College Cork, the Zaire Salgado photographic exhibition, the Architectural exhibition at the Crawford and the many other events too numerous to mention. Since the wonderful opening display of fireworks, the free spectacular afternoon performances of Hanzel and Gretel both in Emmet Place and in the Cork Opera House and to the massive free pizza feast at Emmet Place all goes well for Cork 2005. There is a new event in Cork every day this year.

It is difficult to understand how the Dublin papers and magazines seem to ignore the fact that the granting of a Cultural European City is a tribute to Ireland which just happens to be taking place in Cork.

Charles Hennessy

Monkstown, Co Cork

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