Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2005-12-01
Declan Bree versus Pat Rabbitte
Bree supported Traveller accommodation
I refer to the article "Rabbitte in tangle over Sligo and Travellers", in your edition of Village 17-23 November. The article points out that the Leader of the Labour party, Pat Rabbitte, was wrong in claiming that Councillor Declan Bree had used his position as Mayor of Sligo to stop a Traveller accommodation site being located in his own ward. However, you then went on to say that Pat Rabbitte was correct in suggesting the issue of Labour councillors and Traveller accommodation in Sligo was more complex then Declan Bree had suggested previously.
I would point out that Mr Rabbitte in his letter to the Irish Times of 6 September made no such suggestion. He made no reference to complex issues, he was very specific and to the point in his scurrilous attack on Declan Bree and stated "in Sligo Cllr Bree used his position as Mayor to stop an accommodation site going into his own electoral ward and sought to put it into the ward of a colleague that already had three such sites".
That Mr Rabbitte would make such an unfounded allegation and attempt to smear a party colleague in such a manner speaks volumes about his attitude to those party members who do not slavishly support the party leader's views. Declan Bree's position on Travellers and Traveller accommodation is well-known to the people of Sligo. However I accept that readers from other parts of the country may not be aware of his record. In his 31 years as a councillor he has been consistent in his views and has always taken a principled position on the issue.
Supporters of Mr Rabbitte might trawl through the records of Sligo County Council and Sligo Borough Council to find occasions where Councillor Bree did not support a particular proposal for such accommodation (and over the years there were such occasions). However, an examination of any such decision will confirm that Bree did not compromise on his principles.
With regard to Sligo's most recent draft Traveller Accommodation Programme which was considered in February, the record will show that of the hundreds of submissions received by Sligo Borough Council from the general public, the only objections related to the proposed group housing scheme proposed for Maugheraboy (West Ward).
Residents opposed any development that would bring additional vehicular traffic into the area. (In 2004, councillors, including Cllr Bree supported the residents in unanimously recommending that a planning application for private housing in the area be rejected.) When the issue of the Traveller group housing scheme was considered Cllr Bree was consistent and in this context he proposed that an alternative access route be provided via Sligo's new inner relief road. However his proposal was defeated.
In your article you state that in the lifetime of the previous Council, Declan Bree had voted to exclude further halting sites in the North Ward. That is incorrect, there was no vote to exclude halting sites in the North Ward, there was an unanimous recommendation to the then Traveller Consultative Committee that no further Traveller accommodation sites be brought before the Council until sites were agreed in the East and West wards.
When the new draft Traveller Accommodation Programme was considered in February, a motion was proposed that the Borough Council would delete any future Traveller accommodation proposed for the North Ward, and the record will show that Cllr Bree voted against that motion, which was defeated 6 votes to 5.
In your article you also state that in the past Cllr Bree supported a proposal to reject a proposed site at Cleveragh in his own East Ward. In fact all councillors rejected the site. Portion of the proposed site in question was located on the site of an old factory while the balance was on part of Sligo's Cleveragh estate – an area zoned as green/public open space. Bree and the Labour Party made it clear time after time that they would oppose any attempt to rezone any of the lands zoned as public open space/green area. Bree was a founder member of the SOGA (Save Our Green Areas) campaign in Sligo which was established to ensure that Cleveragh/Doorly Park, the Greenfort and other green areas were not rezoned.
Hopefully the above might help to clarify some of the "complex" issues relating to Traveller accommodation in Sligo.
I have known Declan Bree since I first campaigned with him in the Connolly Youth Movement in the late 1960s. Down through the years he has been consistent and principled. I applaud Declan Bree on the stance he has taken over the years in supporting Travellers' rights.
Damien Flinter
Clifden, Co Galway
Drugs and Crime
War on drugs unwinnable
Further to your insightful article on the links between drugs, deprivation and crime, I would like to add some startling findings from a British government report, leaked to the media earlier this year (the report is well worth viewing, and can be found at: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2005/07/05/Repo...)
This report indicates that the proportion of crime committed by hard drug addicts may be even higher than the expert quoted in your report suggests. It accounts for some 80-85 per cent of all domestic burglaries and muggings in the UK each year. The cost of heroin and crack addiction, coupled with deprivation, is enormous: the most chronic 10 per cent of hard drug addicts cost the state £110,000 per addict, per year.
As you rightly point out, there is an absolute link between drug addiction, related crime, and economic deprivation. A Scottish study released last year (and much derided by self-appointed anti-drugs activists) demonstrated that those from a professional, middle-class background with a heroin addiction were able to retain employment and fund their addiction without recourse to theft.
The British government report also found that drug-related crime was pandemic in deprived urban areas – which might account for why the political classes find it so easy to ignore. The highest rates of crime and addiction occurred in sprawling council blocks in Manchester and London.
The report also starkly demonstrated the futility of the so-called "war on drugs" (there is something of a ceasefire concerning the two most harmful substances). The state would have to seize some 60-80 per cent of all illegal drugs arriving in the country in order to begin to put crime networks out of business. The current UK seizure rate is between 10 and 15 per cent, and there has never been a seizure rate of more than 20 per cent anywhere in the world.
Furthermore, a year's supply of crack and heroin for the UK market could fit comfortably into four medium-sized shipping containers, which illustrates the "needle in a haystack" probability of seizing such drugs.
The report was buried by the British government, until it was leaked. While they may prefer to ignore it, there can be no doubt that senior British politicians, and probably every Western leader, knows that the drugs war has been lost. However, like a demented Fuhrer during his last days in the bunker, they cannot accept defeat, and continue to pour money and lives into a hopelessly lost cause.
The sooner we seek to reduce the harm caused by drugs, rather than hypocritically waging war on them, the sooner we can remove society's boot from the necks of disadvantaged communities.
Brendan Hogan
Drogheda
Debate drug decriminalisation
It was edifying to read Vincent Browne's editorial in last week's issue ('Tough on crime, soft on the causes of crime' Village 24-30th November). Top marks for asking the hard question: "How is it we are unable to debate rationally the issue of the decriminalisation of all illicit drugs?" The subject I believe, remains taboo for many reasons. The biggest stumbling block to rational debate is perhaps the historic, "dead-hand" of US drugs policy, its universal influence and laterally its unquestioned acceptance by the United Nations. US drugs policy can be viewed as an extension of earlier, failed alcohol prohibition (facilitating the enrichment of organised crime beyond any gangster's wildest dream.)
Since the 1930s ill-considered US drug policies have cast a long-shadow worldwide effectively neutralising debate to the point where in the main, politicians and a majority of those in the media unthinking employ a "Drugs are the Devil's work!" brand of rhetoric when dealing with the issue. So, how do we begin a rational debate on the decriminalisation of illicit drugs when "privileged" voices have been rendered, if you will lexically impotent? Well, because the people now demand such a debate.
Attribute it to the recent Clontarf shooting if you wish, but we appear to have the awakenings of a debate around the issue of the decriminalisation of illicit drugs in this country. And all fair minded people watching Prime Time (24 November) must have been struck by the "Drugs are the Devil's work" type arguments put by those invited to defend the status quo. It appears to me that the status quo has developed several, large irreparable, credibility cracks. And thank goodness for that. Perhaps now we can move forward and address the many other illicit, drugs related issues flagged up by Village.
Seosamh O'Luain
Dublin 1
Irish Ferries
Call for one day work stoppage
The refusal by SIPTU workers in Rosslare to handle the Normandy on Sunday 28 November demonstrates clearly the action that needs to be taken to force Irish Ferries to abandon its slave labour strategy on the Irish Sea. The workers showed very clearly how the company's operations can be grounded. Equally the decision to allow passengers to disembark in Dublin was correct, both to prevent innocent people suffering and to deny Irish Ferries the ability to use passengers' hardship as a propaganda tool. Any difficulties for passengers were entirely the responsibility of the management of Irish Ferries.
The President of SIPTU, Jack O'Connor, called last week for a national day of protest. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions should make this into a national one-day work stoppage by the entire trade union movement – while maintaining essential services.
This would be a clear signal to the employers' body IBEC that the abuse of migrant labour to undercut trade union rates of pay and working conditions for any worker irrespective of national origins will not be tolerated. (IBEC has publicly supported Irish Ferries).
There is a widespread and deeply felt anger among working people in this State over what Irish Ferries is doing. A national stoppage would harness this feeling into a powerful movement to protect all workers from exploitation.
Joe Higgins TD
Dublin 2
Education
Enda Kenny and Irish language
I am surprised by Enda Kenny's proposal that Irish not be taken by all leaving certificate students in future. If such a proposal were implemented the result would be the marginalisation of Irish as a subject in our schools.
There have been problems in the teaching of mathematics in recent years. A new syllabus is being designed to combat this problem. Would this approach in the case of Irish not be a preferred solution?
Irish like any other language is a skill to acquire by practice. You cannot cram a language. Students would be under tremendous pressure in the context of the points system, to choose a subject that can be crammed. Irish is not a cramming subject.
If students are forced to choose between Irish and other subjects required for their chosen careers (for example biology or chemistry in the case of medicine) the student will be left with no choice but to choose the other subject, thereby denying such students the choice of studying Irish.
Many schools would discontinue teaching Irish for the leaving cert.
This policy, were it to be implemented, would be a retrograde step not only regarding the teaching of Irish but also to teaching of other languages, frustrating the policy of the European Union that all citizens have proficiency in three languages. Conradh na Gaeilge fully endorses this European ideal.
I understand that there is a need for change and the following are Conradh na Gaeilge's policies regarding this question based on European best practice:-
1. All language teachers at both primary and post-primary level to have attended a year long immersion course in that language's heartland as part of their training.
2. One subject along with Irish to be taught through Irish to all pupils/students.
3. One subject to be taught through a third language to every second level student.
4. The realisation of an Irish language syllabus (1) for native speakers and (2) for learners.
5. The realisation of intense 'catch up' courses in Irish for pupils who attended school overseas.
6. The realisation of State examinations in the major languages of the immigrant communities.
Is mise, le meas,
DAithÍ Mac CÁrthaigh
President Conradh na Gaeilge
6 Sr·id Fhearchair, Baile ¡tha Cliath 2
Northern Irish local government
Reforms merely a restructuring of British Rule
The reform of local government in the six counties announced on November 22 is merely a restructuring of British Rule in Ireland. Far from delivering democratic accountability the proposed reform merely represents tinkering with, what is fundamentally an undemocratic and sectarian statelet. The proposals contained within Eire Nua, Republican Sinn Féin's programme for a new Ireland, would deliver real democracy for a nine county Ulster. Eire Nua gives local government real teeth, handing regional and district councils control over areas such as education, health, economic development and job creation, social services etc, rather than merely street lighting or the maintenance of roads and footpaths.
It is also important to note, in the midst of the media hype surrounding these so-called reforms that the anti-democratic test oath for local election candidates remains in place. This oath requires republican candidates to renounce the Irish people's right to resist British occupation as well as publicly disowning the organisations of the republican movement, thereby precluding republicans from contesting local elections in the six counties. The continued imposition of this political test oath disenfranchises people across the six counties because of their opposition to British rule, denying them their right to vote for the candidate of their choice. It is clear little has changed in the Six County state; democracy still does not apply to everyone.
Des Dalton
Ruairí Óg Ó Brádaigh
Republican Sinn Féin
Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin1
Northern Ireland
Rev McCabe omits loyalist violence
How eloquent was the Rev William McCrea when he recited a long list of terrible atrocities he says were perpetrated by the IRA and other republicans over the past three decades.
Tears welled up in his eyes as he poured his heart out to his honourable fellow members of the House of Commons. How could the perpetrator of such crimes ever be allowed back into Ulster? he pleaded. The very thought of it!
But not a tear was shed by the outraged MP for the many forgotten victims of groups like the UDA, the UVF, Red Hand Commandos, LVF, RUC, B Specials, UDR. Have I left out or forgotten any of the ballant bands that occupy the loyalist roll of honour?
Nor did a single tear flow down that noble cheek for the men and women who were blown to perdition in Dublin compliments of brave loyalist defenders of the union and their paymasters in British Intelligence. Bloody Sunday didn't get a mention in the speech either. Or the "trick and treat" heroes who gunned down non-combatants in retaliation for an unsuccessful attack on the HQ of the UDA Murder Squads. Nor the nocturnal water-borne guerrillas who killed Eddie Fullerton, whose crime was to be a republican who sought to further by political means the cause of a united and democratic Ireland.
Nor indeed did the Rev William make even a casual reference to the tattooed defenders of the union who screamed vitriolic abuse at young mothers and their children as they nudged fearfully to Holy Cross School. I was one of a group from Kilkenny who travelled up to the Ardoyne in the autumn of 2001 to observe this situation first hand. I personally witnessed scenes that certainly call to mind the civil rights campaign of late 1950s America.
With one major difference: a nationalist equivalent of Rosa Parks would just not have been taken in for questioning by police and fingerprinted. She would have been questioned and harassed of course, for starters, but much more besides. Details on her movements would have been passed on to guys who make the Ku Klux Klan look like the Legion of Mary. A Northern Rosa would not have lived to receive high profile awards and decorations. Loyalism doesn't work that way.
The IRA's CV dominated the Rev Mc Crea's impassioned speech, selected extracts of which were included in news broadcasts in Britain, Ireland, and America. But not a word about the gallant sons of Ulster who marched, not to the Somme to do battle with well armed Germans, but with meat cleavers to cut innocent nationalists up in pieces "for God and Ulster".
The Shankill Butchers brought loyalism and sadistic cruelty to a fine art on this island. Did the emotionally charged and upright Rev William McCrea forget their contribution to the righteous cause of unionism when he rose in the mother of all parliaments to lecture HIS prime minister about atrocities?
In the new Ireland that is only just around the corner, you and your kind will be free to live and work as equals, but never again as the fascist overlords who walked and marched and trampled all over those who pledge or harbour allegiance to a united 32 county Irish republic in which ALL men and women (and children...remember Holy Cross!) are equal. It's like this, Rev. William...the "Croppie" will never again lie down for you and your friends in Westminster.
John Fitzgerald
Co. Kilkenny
Supporting the developing world
Cork Fairtrade
Cork has become the first European Fairtrade Capital of Culture. To become a Fairtrade city, Cork has required the support of the Council in passing a resolution and agreeing to support Fairtrade. Numerous cafes, restaurants, businesses and schools have also come on board and are using Fairtrade products.
Fairtrade is making a massive difference to the lives of tea, coffee and cocoa producers, who depend on the Fairtrade price to earn a decent livelihood. In many countries in the developing world where farmers do not have access to income support, Fairtrade is essentially a lifeline out of poverty.
As the Fairtrade group in Cork we are proud to be able to make a difference locally.
Come along and help us celebrate our new Fairtrade status on Saturday, 3 December from 3.00 to 5.00 at the Cork Vision Centre, North Main Street, Cork.
There will be music, tea, coffee and Fairtrade wine and plenty of early Christmas cheer.
John O' Brien
Fairtrade Cork Project
Statement
Friends of the Earth condemn EPA decision on incinerators
The Progressive Democrats must now prevent Government waste policy heading down an historical cul-de-sac. In their 2002 election manifesto the PDs said "incineration is essentially a twentieth-century technology, a generation of technology which we in Ireland have never embraced ... we have the opportunity to solve our problems without using mass-burn incineration. We should take that opportunity."
This is a test of whether the PDs will stand by their own enlightened policy on incineration or simply follow Fianna Fail policy. Incinerators are a recipe for waste generation rather than waste reduction. Once built they are monsters that have to be fed. Local authorities get locked into long-term contracts to provide a minimum amount of waste or face penalties. Deciding to build incinerators before most people even have adequate and convenient recycling opportunities for many materials is simply absurd.
Incineration is the worst kind of "end of pipe" solution to the challenge of efficient use of resource in the 21st century. It is an admission of failure when we should be looking to the economic opportunities available in the better use and re-use of resources all along the line from extraction to post-consumption treatment.
Friends of the Earth
Dublin 2, www.foe.ie
Statement
16 Days of Action Opposing
Violence Against Women
The 16 Days of Action Campaign is an international campaign running since 1991, and now has over 2,000 organisations from over 130 countries participating. Women's Aid has been actively supporting the campaign to grow in Ireland for more than ten years and actions in 2005 take place nationwide in every corner of Ireland. This year's campaign takes place from 25 November – 10 December 2005.
The campaign aims to highlight the prevalence of violence against women in Ireland and globally. In Ireland, research shows that one in five women have experienced abuse at the hands of an intimate partner. One hundred and twelve women have been murdered in Ireland, 65 per cent of them in their own homes, and where cases have been resolved, just under half (47 per cent) were killed by a partner or an ex-partner.
Despite the huge numbers of Irish women affected, services are still inadequate and cannot cope with the demand. Two out of every five calls to the Women's Aid National Freephone Helpline could not be answered in 2004 due to lack of resources. In addition, despite the fact that refuge space in Dublin is at a premium, the proposed new refuge development in Blanchardstown is under threat because of funding issues.
There are currently three refuges in the Greater Dublin area with a total capacity of 24 family spaces, well below the 1.7 spaces per 10,000 of the population which is recommended internationally. Two of every five women were turned away from refuge in 2004 and earlier this year, one of the Dublin refuges reports turning away up to 45 families per month.
This year, the 2005 16 Days of Action Campaign will focus not only on highlighting the prevalence of domestic violence, but also on highlighting the resource issues which place further obstacles in the way of those attempting to survive domestic violence.
Every day of the 16 Days of Action, Women's Aid will be running its annual 16 Days Email Awareness Campaign, whereby statistics on domestic violence are mailed every day to politicians, media, unions, and community groups. This action has been funded by the Department of Justice, Quality and Law Reform.
The Women's Aid 'Making Every Voice Heard' Letter Writing Campaign also runs during the 16 Days Campaign. Groups and individuals are encouraged to contact their local politicians to highlight the local under-funding of domestic violence services.
? More: The Women's Aid Helpline is a free confidential service, open 10am to 10pm every day except Christmas Day: 1800 341 900
For further information on Women's Aid, please log on to www.womensaid.ie