Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2006-07-27

The Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Irish Anti-War movement are calling for diplomatic relations with Israel to be cut, and boycotts and sanction to be enforced against Israel until it pulls out of Gaza and Lebanon and ends its four-decade-old occupation of Gaza, east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Boycott Israeli goods until Israel complies with international law and respects the human rights of Palestinians. Irish shops are full of Israeli fruit and vegetables.

Every time you go to the shops you can show solidarity and support the Lebanese and Palestinian people by boycotting Israeli goods and complaining to the management of the shops that stock Israeli produce.

Israeli produce is most commonly labelled as JAFFA or CARMEL but ,as it is not always branded, look out for country of origin which is on all produce. Potatoes, oranges, avocados, melons, dates, citrus fruits such as lemons, salads and fresh herbs are often from Israel. Use your power as a consumer to show solidarity.

A national demonstration against Israeli aggression will be held in Dublin on 29 July. Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm to show solidarity to the people of Lebanon and Palestine

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EU and Israel: European battlegroups for Palestine

A rapid-response group should be sent by the EU to the Gaza territory. As a recently signed-up member of these battlegroups there is nothing stopping Irish MEPs from initiating this action in Brussels. Israel has prevented and harassed the assets and supports of the EU, ie the food and medicines, from reaching hungry, needy and fearful men, women, and children. Ireland supports helping these people.

This battlegroup should be sent to monitor the situation of how the assets of the EU are being treated, and not to engage in military action.

I am sure the simple action of a European Battlegroup will send a message to Israel that they will not bully the EU like they are doing to the Lebanese and Palestinians, both of whom are democratically elected parliaments.

A force with the backing of 25 nations will remind Israel's government that to gain respect in the world you must respect others, and you must respect the EU. Surely the European Union is not an acquiescent mouse as shown by the bowing and scraping of the European foreign minister. Even the Bishop of Dublin is upset that there is no comment on the invasion of Lebanon from the Irish government. Prior to the EU one would hear comment on such situations by various countries. Now all we get for being in the EU is silence. Is Israel now leading the race to the bottom of moral standards!

Peter Kennedy, Sutton, Dublin 13

George W Bush: Bin Laden may be right about Bush

Long after President Bush retires to his ranch the world will still be paying the price for decisions made before and during the G8 summit in St Petersburg. If the United States has the power of veto in the Security Council and does not accept the jurisdiction of the World Council in The Hague, what leverage do the world powers have at this pow-wow?

An ex-assistant director of US Arms Control, John Newhouse, claimed that in the relentless push for power intelligence was corrupted, bringing further trouble to the Middle East and chaos in Iraq. But worse still,

he claimed Ariel Sharon had the ear of the president's men and had actually named countries that he deemed were irresponsible and should be disarmed of weapons of mass destruction. He suggested Iraq for starters.

It is noteworthy that at that same time President Bush, in his State of the Union address, listed all the gases that Saddam had.

President Bush was the first president ever to recognise the legitimacy of the state of Israel. He claimed that it was realistic for Israel to annexe the West Bank, to abandon the idea of right of return and that he was strongly committed to the security of Israel. The day after Bush recognised the state of Israel Bin Laden responded and claimed President Bush was a fatal threat to the world.

Marie Lyder, Dartry, Dublin 6

Barr Report - Heads must roll over the Barr report

The Barr report into the shooting of John Carthy during the siege in Abbeylara, Co Longford shows that senior gardaí have serious questions to answer about their roles in the Abbeylara siege. There was gross incompetence on the part of senior gardaí.

Firstly, they simply weren't prepared for this type of situation. They didn't have any non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray, CS gas or stun guns available to them. All they had was an Emergency Response Unit (ERU), armed to the teeth with lethal firepower such as pump-action shotguns, assault rifles and Uzi submachine guns. They were not told how to react if John Carthy suddenly came out of the house.

Secondly, senior Gardaí either ignored or blocked numerous requests from John Carthy to see members of his family, and even for a packet of cigarettes. Perhaps if these requests had been met, John Carthy might be alive today.

Might it be too much to ask that some heads roll over this?

Paul Kinsella, Santry, Dublin 9

Towards 2016 - Pay deal gets worse by the day

Bernard Harbor defends a pay deal that looks increasingly bad (Village, 20 July). Bord Gais and ESB have announced substantial price increases of 34 per cent and possibly 20 per cent respectively. Inflation remains at 3.9 per cent while the agreement gives about 4.4 per cent per year. But there are other increases in the pipeline, including interest rate hikes.

But the debate about inflation misses the point. The objective of ICTU going into the talks was to gain a substantial dividend for workers for their contribution to economic growth. During the years of social partnership the wage share of national income has fallen. Wages are restrained but there are no limits on profits. There is an inability-to-pay clause for employers but no right for workers to claim ability to pay more.

The employment protection measures are about implementing current legislation. While measures to enhance workers' rights are to be welcomed, the price should not be another bout of wage restraint. The measures agreed in relation to an "Irish Ferries on land" would not have applied to the Irish Ferries dispute. The key issues are that they only cover compulsory redundancies, they prevent the use of industrial action and they place an onus on workers to prove they are cooperating with change. If the redundancies proceed, all workers can do is take an unfair dismissal case which rarely leads to reinstatement.

Many public sector workers do not agree that the demands for change are "proportionate to the pay increases". For an agreement that barely covers inflation the demands are wide-ranging and they don't guarantee services to the public will be improved. It is a con to make the public believe services will improve without major investment. The agreement ties spending to growth. Yet the problem here is that social spending has fallen behind as a percentage of GNP.

This agreement is a watershed in that basic pay increases are linked to specific changes. Despite what Harbor says this is the first time this has happened. It is also a watershed in tipping the balance to management. Workers who object to change must "cooperate with the changes while the issue is being so processed". Outsourcing in the public sector is endorsed.

We are told there is no alternative to a falling wage share, increased inequality and poverty and declining union density. Voting against this deal will lead to further negotiations but also open a debate about the alternative, which must be based on recruiting the unorganised, empowering activists on the ground, bargaining, at whatever level, without constraints and refusing to enter a 10-year agreement with a government whose policies have failed to address the serious social issues facing ordinary people.

Eddie Conlon, Campaign Against the Pay Deal. www.tradeunionactivists.org

Scott Millar review - Millar should have read the book

Scott Millar's review of Ruairí Brádaigh, The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary (Village 11 May) would have been improved if he had read the entire book. Factual errors suggest he pre-judged the book. Millar states: "An interview with Roy Johnston, the Dublin academic and bête noire of the traditionalists within the IRA in the 1960s, who initially formulated the Éire Nua policy, would have been informative..." Roy Johnston was interviewed. He is quoted (page 118-119), the interview is cited (page 363), he is listed among those interviewed (page 348) and his influence on Éire Nua is noted (page 165).

Interested readers should see Anthony Coughlin's review of the book in Saoirse. Coughlin (also interviewed), Roy Johnston and Jack Bennett were three key political influences on Irish Republicanism in the 1960s.

Millar states the biography was "authorised". Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (and others) cooperated with the project, but I was not authorised or commissioned. The acknowledgments and notes on sources explain that the subject and I agreed "facts are sacred, interpretations are my own" (page 347). If anyone has evidence to the contrary, please send it to either Robert Sloan, Editorial Director, Indiana University Press, or me.

Robert White, Dean and Professor of Sociology, rwwhite@iupui.edu

Maggie Kennealy - Kennealy's infuriating references

Can something be done about your radio reviewer? I am an avid radio listener and reader of the reviews (especially the one in the Irish Times). Kennealy's reviews do not lack good comment but her frequent references to her partner and now her aunt's "old flame", Tom McGurk, are totally off-putting. I just stop reading the article at these references. I would hope these can stop and then it would feel relatively safe to read your radio revievs again!

John Mc Keown, Carlingford, Co Louth

Ken Loach - Loach has hijacked our history

Joanne Spain's chagrin at Miriam O'Callaghan's robust interview of Ken Loach (Villagers 20 July) is incomprehensible. Loach (who has no knowledge or interest in Irish history) has hijacked the so-called war of independence to advance his own warped political agenda. It would be naïve to imagine Loach gives a fig about Ireland as his toy-box period film clearly demostrates. Spain triumphantly asserts that Loach's film "dumps" the "lie that Ireland did not need to fight for its independence". This inverted comfort logic, so beloved of the nationalist faithful, is the real lie.

The problem with the "golden dream" of independence after 1918 is that it was located on the Irish, rather than the British, side. The question that bothered the nationalist revolutionary elite was not that independence could not be achieved by gradualist constitutionalist means. What concerned the republican elite was the vexed question of whether they had secured popular support for an Irish republic or had acquired an accidental republic that might vanish into thin air now the conscription crisis was passed.

Republican violence from 1916 to 1921 had always been about changing the course of Irish history. The republican elite in January 1919 came to the conclusion that the people were their most immediate enemies and decided a strong dose of terror and murder was required to show the designated Helots, of the new republic, and those who didn't even make the grade, who their new political masters really were. This is why the Sinn Féin murderers – of whom Joanne Spain is so enamoured – launched the republican terror, on the same day they illegitimately declared independence for the whole of Ireland.

Pierce Martin, Celbridge, Co. Kildare

Road Safety - We are all to blame for the road crisis

Over the last number of weeks and months I, like many other Irish people, have watched in horror as the number of road fatalities and accidents has risen on a daily basis. The situation has become so dire that finally various sections of the Irish media and public have begun to put their collective foot down and attempt to address the situation. However, in our desperation to rectify this appalling crisis, we seem to have layed the finger of blame firmly at the doorstep of the "young male" driver.

Everyone from the minister to Kevin Myers seems to be fixated with blaming this group of baseball cap wearing tearaways! Is this group blameless? Certainly not! But are they totally to blame? We have become so focused on pointing out the most obvious element of the problem that we have completely failed to recognise and understand the solution.

I am a 26-year-old male, a native of Leitrim residing in Dublin. I am constantly on the road as I travel up and down from Dublin to play Gaelic football with my club in Leitrim. In no way am I an expert on these matters but I believe I have seen enough on the roads to offer an opinion.

Our fixation with the "young male" drivers is nothing more than an excuse being used by the Irish public who fail to accept personal responsibility for their safety and the safety of others when they are behind the wheel. Certainly, the "young male" group have played a significant role in the crisis on the roads, dominating the ever-rising list of fatalities. This group will have to be addressed, the obvious method being through a review of provisional-licence standards, which could reduce the number of inexperienced drivers on the roads and impose engine specifications for vehicles such drivers are allowed to use during their provisional status.

However, these measures only address a certain section of the road-using public. A greater emphasis needs to be placed on personal responsibility when getting behind the wheel of any vehicle. In particular this should be addressed to: males aged 30 to 50, haulage drivers and 'Sunday drivers' (sometimes driving too slow can create as many problems as driving too fast). Identifying these groups highlights the variety of road-users in Ireland and how each us plays a role in the crisis. The National Roads Authority, local councils and gardaí can only do so much – at some point we must stop looking for someone or some group to blame and accept that every time we get behind the wheel, we are responsible not only for ourselves and our passengers but also for everyone else on the road.

John McGuinness, Leitrim/Dublin