Villagers 2005-12-29
Drug trafficking in Ireland
Stamp out dealers for Christmas
While this may be the season to be jolly, does it really have to be a time to get as high as a kite on heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, or any of the other poisonous filth that drug dealers peddle all the year round and dole out by the bucket load at Christmas?
St Nicholas – the original Santa Claus – is renowned especially for his kindness to poor people and his gifts to children during his term as a bishop in fourth century Turkey.
The dealers that distribute their cleverly wrapped addictive poisons to young people are the opposite of everything that makes up the spirit of Christmas.
We read day in and day out about the effects of drug abuse and about the merchants of death, misery, and destruction who promote and profit from this vile trade. Mostly, it's other people we read and hear about, so it's difficult to relate to the suffering of the victims and the hell on earth that the dealers visit on so many families nationwide.
But how would you feel if it were your daughter, son, sister, brother, parents, or close friends whose lives were ruined by drug abuse?
And anyone stupid enough to believe that their own drugs habit is nobody else's affair should think again: the money they hand over to the dealer helps to finance further exploitation and abuse, not to mention possible drug-related crimes of violence, including murder.
Saying that it's a matter for the Garda Síochána is not good enough. The Garda relies on information from the public to ease the plight of drug addicts. They are heavily dependent on public co-operation. People who withhold information that could assist the battle against drugs are indirectly aiding the criminal gangs. Let's be clear about that: they are helping to prop up the lucrative business of poisoning minds and bodies with gift-wrapped filth.
May I suggest an ideal festive gift? If you know of any one pushing drugs, do yourself and your community a big favour:
Shop a dealer for Christmas.
John Fitzgerald
Co Kilkenny
Centre for Public Inquiry
'Stealth censorship' destroying journalism
As a writer, I call upon other writers and artists in the country, the National Union of Journalists, and the Irish Writers' Union, to protest against attempts by the Irish government, in the person of Michael McDowell, to close down the Centre for Public Inquiry. It should be a duty of every writer and artist to ensure that there is no interference by government, or other vested interests, in the pursuance of free speech and the exercise of investigative journalism; this latter we have little enough of as it is.
It will not be long before a literary magazine or arts' periodical is villified or even has its funding withdrawn because of a published article or point of view which knocks a given political consensus. Already it is clear that there are literary reviews and some newspapers featuring literary pages that are willing to bow to pressure from advertisers and cull reviewers, or curtail their reviews, in the interests of maintaining good relations with publishers.
No one takes any notice of this, though of itself it is of relevance to notions of free expression of points of view. But is it so far removed from the philosophy that guides criticism of the Centre for Public Inquiry?
I would ask writers, artists, journalists and their representative bodies to make their voices heard on this issue. Before it is too late. Censorship by stealth is the most insidious kind.
Fred Johnston
Galway
Response to Pierce Martin
Drawing a line on political violence
Ad hominem vituperation is no substitute for argument in Pierce Martin's ongoing campaign to criminalise the struggle for independence 1916-21. If he acknowledges that the 1937 Constitution anchors the democratic legitimacy of the State, he must also accept that an integral part of it is the preamble, which gratefully remembers "the heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our nation". That phrase clearly covers both the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence. The State could not act on the contrary view without being quite literally out of court.
If the question whether Ireland was a kingdom or colony is a matter on which there is no historical consensus, then it is a bit extreme to call the latter view a lie. The reality is there is no history of the decline of the British Empire can be written without reference to Ireland (viz Jan Morris's trilogy).
Britain had many opportunities to allow a benign and peaceful evolution in Ireland. It was not just a small band of reactionaries that blocked it, but mainstream political forces. If there is a moral issue in relation to the use of force in Irish history up to 1921, it mainly concerns the repeated use of force to stop those who wanted to establish a national democracy in Ireland, including a suppression of Dáil Éireann in 1919.
However, things have moved on, and I am glad to be part of a generation that has been able to draw a line under the use of political violence after the trauma of the recent troubles, and to achieve a peaceful constitutional consensus on the way forward.
Martin Mansergh
Seanad Éireann
US political hypocrisy
'Weaponisation' of anthrax
Statement from US Senator Tom Daschle, 23 December 2005: "In the face of mounting questions about news stories saying that President Bush approved a program to wiretap American citizens without getting warrants, the White House argues that Congress granted it authority for such surveillance in the 2001 legislation authorizing the use of force against al-Qaida. As Senate majority leader at the time, I can state categorically that the subject of warrantless wiretaps of American citizens never came up. I did not and never would have supported giving authority to the president for such wiretaps. Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote (on the use of military force), the administration sought to add the words 'in the United States' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text. This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas, where we all understood he wanted authority to act, but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused." And, as a consequence of his refusal, someone sent Daschle a letter containing weapons-grade anthrax spores in October 2001. The letter received by Senator Tom Daschle contained one trillion anthrax spores per gram, a concentration which only a very few US government scientists, using a secret and strictly controlled technique, know how to achieve. It must, moreover, have been developed in a professional laboratory, containing rare and sophisticated "weaponisation" equipment. There is only a tiny number of facilities, all of them in the US, in which it could have been produced.
Paul Kinsella
Dublin 9
40 days and 40 nights of local delight
Each year approaching both Christmas and summer, the inflated holidays of TDs are mentioned in the media and subsequently questioned and derided by the public.
Challenged as to the massive leave TDs enjoy, each and every one will answer that in fact they will be working at constituency level throughout their "holidays".
Working holiday then? Where is the fun in that? They wouldn't have had a problem if they were in fact having a holiday and enjoying themselves, but no, they are working.
Doing what?
The role of any TD (be they in government or in opposition) is to act in the interests of those who have elected him/her, and represent their views at a national level. So besides consultation with the public and councillors at local level, what part of a TD's mandate can be fulfilled in Mayo, Monaghan or Meath for 40 days? Elected members to Dáil Éireann are expected to be the legislators of the nation, not glorified councillors.
The recent removal of the dual mandate was the first step in repositioning the Dáil member's mandate, but there is still a long way to go. There are a variety of reasons why TD's will always have close links with local politics (mainly votes) but that is not the job they were elected to do.
So rather than complain at the length of their holidays, we should assess each TD's "success" in doing their job. So no fobbing us off in summer with "we are working". You are not supposed to be working, it's a holiday, so please enjoy yourselves.
Shaun Gavigan
Dublin 6