Villagers 2007-03-01

Letters from the past month

Religion and identity: Celtic or Rangers people?

In a recent speech, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that we are “a Celtic and Christian people”. It is surprising that the leader of the ‘United Ireland' party failed to note that a substantial number on the island take exception, as they consider themselves a ‘Rangers and Christian people'.

What about the Viking contribution? Like the original Celts and many of today's immigrants, they weren't Christians. Maybe Enda Kenny's fiery Celtic temperament got the better of him and he put that bit of the speech together without too much thought.

Simplistic ethno-religious labels should have no place in this discussion of what it means to be new or old Irish. Enda Kenny can count me out of his description of the Irish people.

Niall Meehan, Dublin 7

Review of The God Delusion: A less biased view needed

When reading H Allen Orr's review of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion (Village, 18-24 Jan), I was more concerned with the reviewer's implication that science and religion can co-exist than with his condemnations of Dawkins.

Orr argues that Dawkins's failure to appreciate religion reflects on his imagination. He says, “There's an irony here. Dawkins's main criticism of those who doubt Darwin is that they suffer a similar failure of imagination.”

This glaring fallacy is remarkable coming from a scientist. (Orr is a professor of evolutionary genetics.) Imagination in science is of course necessary, but far from sufficient. In religion, imagination is all that there is. Scientific imagination is constrained by research, experimentation, peer review and the need for professional consensus. It gives insights that will, notwithstanding, be rejected if they don't stand up.

Orr says that St Augustine rejected literal interpretation of the bible. But the Catholic church still proclaims as central tenets the doctrines of transubstantiation and the bodily assumption of the Blessed Virgin into heaven, which are easily on a par with biblical literalism in terms of an affront to common sense.

Comment on Dawkins's book will, inevitably, be coloured by the reviewer's standpoint in relation to science and religion. There are also those who reject materialism and say religion and spirituality have all the answers. They're getting a free ride. As Johann Hari in the London Independent pointed out, “The birth of materialism cleared the way for science itself. It prevented people from attributing recovery from illness to divine intervention, and made them investigate its material causes. Without it, there would be no germ theory of disease, no medicines, no eradication of smallpox and plague.”

Village owes it to its readers to commission a review of Dawkins's book from those categories that Orr does not represent.

Seamus McKenna, Dundrum, Dublin 14

Collusion: Britain in the war on terror

According to the White House, America's ‘war on terror' makes “no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbour terrorists. We are working to disrupt the flow of resources from states to terrorists while simultaneously end state sponsorship of terrorism.”  

Given that in her recent report, Nuala O'Loan (pictured above) found that the British security forces have supported, harboured and resourced terrorists and as George Bush has said, “if you harbour a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorist”, should we now open the debate on whether we are going to allow Shannon to be used as a base for air strikes on London by the US Air Force?

Rob Walsh, Dublin 11  

The ‘nationalist nightmare'

Nuala O'Loan's much-publicised report on collusion between British forces, including the police, and unionist paramilitaries has awoken many in this state to the reality that was the “nationalist nightmare” for decades. The truth and evidence has eventually leaked out – like blood from underneath a locked door.

During the dark and turbulent years when “that troublesome northern tribe” looked south seeking help, they were largely met with either cold indifference or naked hostility. Collusion was after all an illusion – a figment of their imagination or simply “republican propaganda”. The heads remained firmly in the sand.

Sections of the southern political and media establishment stand accused. I wonder if they will now be courageous enough to take responsibility for the distorted picture that was sold to an entire generation in this state. Will they now be prepared to show some understanding as to why many in the nationalist community were reluctant to join the police or give their support to the forces of “law and order?”

Fionntan O Suilleabhain, Baile Atha Cliath 1

Election 2007: More women, please

The point of most of Maggie Kenneally's article (Village, 18-24 January) was lost for me, but when she began to criticise the two female politicians on Questions and Answers [Mary Harney and Mairead McGuinness], she was the soul of clarity. One was an “imposter” and the other was “preening, pretending and looking for attention”. Assuming that her criticisms were fair, I asked myself the following question – what is wrong with having two preening, pretending female imposters in political office, when we have been electing preening, pretending male imposters to public office for years and no one has batted an eyelid?

Elsewhere in the issue, Teresa Graham, in her letter to the editor, bemoaned the fact that the be-all and end-all of an election is who is going to be in power after it. Isn't that the reason for having an election in the first place? She complained about the “clientilism” that sets TDs in the same area against each other. I thought that was part of the benefit of having a democracy? When she reached the conclusion that our electoral system “discriminates against those who are unable to mobilise their local representative”, she went too far. In the UK, where one MP represents a much larger constituency, the job of mobilising a local representative is much more difficult. Consequently, the proportion of ordinary people marginalised is much greater. Contrary to Teresa Graham's opinion, therefore, I think that our system gives the electorate more power in deciding who represents them and brings their representative closer to ordinary people. I am willing to put up with the clientilism for those benefits.

Anthony Leavy, Sutton, Dublin 13

Join the consensus

Feeling a little left out? Why not join the consensus and come over to our side? Here's some easy-to-follow advice.

• Tax and the rich: Simply put, tax is always a bad thing. Don't ever link tax to hospital waiting lists or school buildings falling down around the pupils' ears. The rich, on the other hand, are always good. Like Jesus, they are put on earth for us to adore them and follow their example. The rich hate tax so we must obey their wishes.

• Politicians getting money from businessmen: This is a bit like seeing a married person having an affair. If you know it's going on, it's best not to say anything about it. It's not your business and anyway, it's making all of the people involved very happy, so don't go spoiling it for everyone.

• Poverty: Like bad weather and global warming, it's a terrible thing but of course we can't do anything about it. Nor should we even try.
• Low Pay: A bit like the above. Best not mention it at all because if we do we might actually have to do something about it.

I hope that makes you feel a lot better and goes some way to explaining what the consensus is all about.

John Hanamy, Dublin 6

FF or FG: any difference?

The recent debate over whether Pat Rabbitte will go into coalition with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael highlights the lack of choice in the upcoming election. What difference will it make to the majority of Irish people if Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael leads the next government?

The truth is that there is very little difference in key policy areas like public services, taxation, or Irish neutrality between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Take public services, for example. Both parties repeat the same mantra that the problem isn't one of underfunding but of inefficiencies within the system. They both promote “fiscal austerity”, which means restricting public spending even when there is a surplus. They both promote privatisation and greater private-sector involvement in the provision of public services. Both parties promote the free-market view of Ireland as first and foremost a business enterprise – “Ireland Inc” – and put social concerns and people's needs a very poor second. When it comes to Irish neutrality, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are of like mind in approving the use of Shannon Airport by US military.

There was a time when the Labour Party used to oppose these kinds of policies. A time when they stood up for equality, for working people, for public services, for neutrality. But not any more.

Rory Hearne, People before Profit Alliance

Dublin airport expansion: €8bn of damage

Dublin Airport's planned expansion to 60 million passengers per annum will do at least €8.4bn worth of damage in global-warming terms. This can be deduced using Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and Ryanair data and new analysis contained in the Stern Report: ‘The Economics of Climate Change'.

Ryanair has a rather new and relatively environmentally-clean fleet that generates about 93kg of carbon dioxide per passenger carried. According to Professor Stern, this means each Ryanair passenger does about €17 damage in global-warming terms. If we assume this rate of damage for all Dublin Airport passengers, we are understating things because the Aer Lingus fleet is much older and their passengers travel, on average, 50 per cent more kilometres. This means that Dublin Airport's 21 million passengers in 2006 did at least €357m damage. When Dublin Airport expands to 60 million passengers a year around 2035 they will be doing over €1bn global-warming damage per year, every year. The expansion alone will add some 40 million passengers doing €680m damage every year. When we add up all the damage done between now and 2050 we get a total damage bill in today's terms of at least €8.4bn.

Matthew Harley, Portmarnock, Co Dublin 

Department of Justice: Old McDoodle strikes again

After the massive incompetence (excuse me – "simple human error") that got the pervert Judge Curtin off the hook and into a nice little pension, comes the latest blunder of McDoodle's department. A major alert comes in from a foreign country on child pornography and it gets overlooked.

Come on now, McDoodle, how dare you treat us with such contempt.

Nothing except either a hopelessly endemic corruption or the most massive imaginable incompetence could get something like that ignored.

There is no alternative. If there is any human error around here it's in Teflon Bertie letting the PDs anywhere near positions of responsibility, clearly demonstrated by the fact that good health and decent justice are both in very short supply recently.

Given that, for some reason that totally eludes me, there is about as much hope of the electorate getting rid of Bertie as there is of FF coming out and saying that Squire Haughey was a disgrace to the decent honest voters of Ireland, all we can hope for is that he will at least get rid of all the people who aren't very bothered about child pornography.

Dick Barton, Tinahely, Co Wicklow

Global debt: Business and Africa's poor

I read recently of the Tax Justice Network for Africa (TJNA) and its assertion that over €120bn of tax due to governments in Africa has been moved to secretive tax havens, many under the jurisdiction of Western governments and facilitated by international banks. This far outstrips the empty pledges made at Gleneagles in 2005 and should make for some interesting debate at the World Economic Forum at Davos. But it will no doubt be swept under the carpet.

This means that 30 per cent of the Africa's GDP is siphoned off from the most vulnerable people on the planet by a system that puts profit before people. To put it in context, it was estimated in 2005 that the total stock of private wealth in these low-tax havens was €17 trillion. How can our so-called leaders allow this to happen? Governments are supposed to serve the people but this ideal seems to have been corrupted absolutely by big business.

People need to wake up to the fact that a corporation's only legal obligation is to its shareholders. The system now in place allows these corporations the scope to bend rules and influence government in order to pursue the profit agenda. While this is the case, situations like the one described above will continue.

Barry Walsh, Blackrock, Cork

Irish language: Irish Reform Movement

I want to correct some errors in Justine McCarthy's article on me and the Reform Movement (Village, 11-17 January). Had Justine phoned me, I would have told her I am neither the chairman nor a spokesman for Reform. I wrote a letter to the Guardian newspaper in a private capacity. But my views are more than grounded in reality. Sinn Féin took over the Gaelic League in 1915 to de-anglicise the Irish. As Jack White wrote in Minority Report, “WP Ryan expressed the confrontation in a single sentence: ‘We are working for a new Irish civilisation, quite distinct from the English.'”

White went on, “Gaelic society had been shattered before 1700. The new civilisation would have to be built, presumably from the fragments that survived in the peasant cottages of the south and west... It would have to express itself in a language unknown to a majority of the nation...” As we know, after 80 years of force feeding, this project ended in a conspicuous failure. The Irish chose not to speak Irish.

Compulsory Irish was a serious mistake in psychology. I believe the state should now support Irish as a subject of choice and that it should be an equal official language to English in our constitution. The continuing pretense that it is the first language of the state will only undermine whatever general good will still remains and, as recent research shows, will soon guarantee its demise as a living vernacular.

Robin Bury, Killiney, Co Dublin

General election: All's well in FF land

If you want an antidote to all the bad news in the media, pay a visit to the Fianna Fáil website. It will put your mind at ease to know that we have a caring, hard-working government that delivers high-quality services in a timely and efficient manner. Your heart will be glad when you learn that you live in a country where rail links grow up from the weeds in the path of oncoming trains; sheep farmers attend their flocks in the hills, happy knowing that the red tape between them and their subsidies has melted away; children look on in delight as new schools drop from the sky like snowflakes. The rivers run wild with salmon and trout as Ireland makes top grade in environmental care. Met Éireann is to close, having announced a future of perpetual sunshine. Doctors amble into wards to ask smiling patients if they're feeling better. Factories and office towers condense from the morning mists in the Donegal Gaeltacht, where native tongues wag and laughing workers tell wonderful tales of Fionn and the Fianna.

Oh, what a pity to have to log off and leave this serene and blessed valley. Oh how distressing to leave this exalted kingdom and face the real Ireland – clogged and unequal and frustrating and rich and, today at least, bloody cold.

Ciarán Mac Aonghusa, Churchtown, Dublin 14