Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2006-08-03

Apologists for the Israeli government claim the ongoing slaughter of Lebanese civilians and attacks on ambulances, hospitals, sewage and water works are for their own good. And it's all for the cause of peace. Do they really mean a piece of Lebanon, a piece of Syria and a large piece of Palestine?

Surely it is time for the Irish government to call for the EU to put an end to Israel's status as a favoured trading partner by activating Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and stopping all trade privileges being given to Israel. Meanwhile we can do our bit by boycotting Israeli goods and Israeli owned businesses like we did with apartheid South Africa.

Sean Marlow, Dublin 11

Misleading Middle East coverage

Having been out of the country for a little while, I have received most of my news on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon from French papers; even regional papers here carry comprehensive reports and analysis. And balanced analysis, at that.

I was surprised to read the Irish Times frontpage headline online on 27 July carrying a photo of a wounded Israeli soldier – while the Independent (London) reminded us again with a stark frontpage photo of two baby girls, one eight months old, killed by an Israeli attack on the village of Jabalya in Gaza, that Israel is not the victim in the conflict in the Middle East.

Not the Irish Times, who made no attempt to explain how the most powerfully-armed country in the Middle East can get away with murdering babies, targeting UN outposts and slicing missiles into family homes, or how Israel can so glibly toss aside the Geneva Convention and drop leaflets ordering the Lebanese out of their homeland.

How many other Irish newspapers have dodged the issue of Condoleeza Rice giving the Israeli prime minister the green light to retake Lebanon? And, by association, kill babies in Gaza? I was proud Bertie Ahern called in to the Israeli ambassador to mention our displeasure.

I have no doubt Israel needs to consider itself a victim, and to be seen as one, to proceed with the aggression of its state. The Lebanon conflict, which creates war crimes by the day, none of which Israel will answer for, is a furtherance of US foreign policy and is aimed at Syria and Iran by proxy. I presume our cultural organisations will think again before accepting offers of Israeli funding to host rightwing poets in Dublin and show their 'sensitive' side.

Fred Johnston, Cotes d'Armor, Brittany

Ken Loach's film on Ireland: Loach understands our history

Pierce Martin (Village 27 July) writes that Ken Loach has no knowledge of our history "as his film demonstrates". Pierce, like many of Loach's critics, is wrong. The events portrayed in the film are mainly based on actual incidents that anyone who has studied the period will be familiar with.

Loach has obviously done his research well. He has changed a few details here and there. He is allowed to for two reasons: one, he is making a film, not a documentary and two, he is trying to give an overall flavour of the times. He does this well. He conveys the atmosphere, main events and arguments of a complex period in history in a film of little over two hours. He portrays the British Empire as a failed social and moral entity. The best it could offer its war-heroes (the Tans and Auxies) after their gallant sacrifice was a living, shooting and harassing the citizens of west Cork. He is also acquainted with the writings of James Connolly. If this concurs with Loach's socialist perspective, so what? It is because Loach is a socialist that he notices such things in the first place and it is equally natural that Irish history should be of interest to him. Pierce backs up his grandiloquent assertion that "Loach doesn't give a fig" about Irish history by implying he doesn't like Loach's "warped" politics – hardly an argument by any standards. Pierce further asserts that Ireland did not need to fight for its freedom and its Declaration of Independence was "illegitimate". Even by Pierce's standards, the 1918 election had been fought on an independence platform by Sinn Féin and, far from being illegitimate, Dáil Éireann was the embodiment of the will of the people. This partly explains why it was so successful and why Britain tried to suppress it.

The Irish delegation were blocked from getting a hearing at the 1919 Peace Conference by the British. The Irish were thus trying all the "approved" channels at the same time and Britain was giving a firm "no". Had the Irish Volunteers/IRA been standing idly around, the British would have also used the RIC to roll that organisation up in short shrift and stymied our bid for freedom even further. To suggest Ireland would have gained independence from Home Rule is pure speculation, but there is reason to suggest that such independence would have come very late in the day or not at all.

Nick Folley, Carrigaline, Co.Cork

Maggie Kennealy: Crowley undervalued by RTÉ

Yesterday I read Maggie Kennealy's review of Morning Ireland's coverage of the present crisis in Lebanon. While it is certainly true that RTÉ has some very good people on the ground and I would have to agree with the aunt in Skibereen in her assessment of Richard Crowley: I have for years thought that he was insufficiently valued by RTÉ - the general tone of RTÉ approach to Arab-Israeli matters tends towards the pusillanimous.

If one was to watch the 6.01 News on RTÉ 1 and immediately after take in Channel 4 News, a much more independent and incisive line becomes apparent.

There is a feeling that RTÉ news is somehow fearful of giving offence to someone. Who could this be? Perhaps are they afraid that some foreign embassy might be disappointed and wish to speak to the Irish Government as a consequence?

Or is this a little cynical?

Anyway, watch Jon Snow on Channel 4 and perhaps C4 might also be watching Richard Crowley.

Frank Rafter, Thurles, Co Tipperary

Social and affordable housing: Government and construction industry obstruct social housing

The Construction Federation's rejection of Focus Irelands claims that builders are ducking out of their Part V responsibilities is outrageous.

The Part V provision in the 2000 Planning Act made it obligatory for developers to reserve 20 per cent of any new development for social and affordable housing. However Fianna Fáil's cosy relationship with the building trade was once again exposed in 2002 when this provision was severely watered down by allowing developers nine different ways of escaping that Part obligation. A financial payment to the Local Authority is now the preferred option for developers the Construction Federation's denial of this trend is dumbfounding.

Developers are concerned primarily with profit and the provision of social housing interferes with the profitability of their land. Not only are financial compensations becoming more regular but it is not possible for a resident group or public representative to object to a planning application on that basis because the arrangement is finalised after planning permission is received.

The cycle of poverty which is caused in Dublin because of the lack of social housing is appalling. Increasingly young people are moving out of their overcrowded council family homes into private rented accommodation which they can only afford by means of rent allowance – rendering them unable to work.

The Construction Federation and the Irish Home Builders Association are overseeing this disgraceful crisis and they are pretending that it doesn't exist. The government's facilitation of the crisis with their amendment of the 2000 Planning Act remains today one of the most destructive pieces of legislation for the ordinary people of Dublin.

Developers make money and the poverty cycle continues. Recognition of this fact may get us somewhere. A denial of it is blinkered at best.

Cllr Aodhan O Riordain, Ballybough, Dublin 3

STATEMENT: Monitor Shannon flights for munitions

Amnesty International welcomes the recent statement by the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs that, in the context of the current crisis in Lebanon/Israel, the Irish government will not grant permission for any flights carrying munitions of war to the conflict zone to stop over in Shannon or other Irish airports.

Governments supplying Israel and Hizbullah with arms and military equipment are fuelling their capacity to commit war crimes.

Amnesty International has urged all governments to impose an arms embargo on both sides and refuse permission for their territories to be used for the transfer of arms and military equipment.

The February transfer of Apache attack helicopters to Israel without the necessary government permission, and without the knowledge of either the Department of Foreign Affairs or Department of Transport, illustrates the inadequacy of laws and regulations alone.

The civilian aircraft that landed at Shannon on 11 June en route from Kuwait to the US carrying a US Marine prisoner, without the requisite government consent, also revealed how Ireland's processes and bilateral agreements for granting landing or overflight permissions lack oversight mechanisms.

Therefore, while we welcome the government's position on arms transfers to the conflict zone, we caution the Irish authorities to ensure vigilance in their monitoring of the use of Shannon and other airports by foreign military and civilian aircraft.

Roxanne Macara & Jim Loughran, Amnesty International. More Amnesty International 01 677 6361or 01 677 636; www.amnesty.ie

Marching season: Dissolving into shades of grey

Frontpage headline: "Racist attacks increasing despite quiet march season". The first paragraph read, "Racist attacks have risen by 35 per cent in a year, averaging five attacks every day. Despite successful efforts to minimise tensions around flashpoint Klu Klux Klan parades, this summer has nevertheless seen a marked rise in racist attacks when compared with last year. Latest police figures show that since april there has been an average of 38 racist attacks across the North every week."

The above story was frontpage in the Irish News on 25 July with, however, the following substitutions: "racist" for "sectarian"; "Klu Klux Klan" for "Orange Order".

Is it because the above happens each year in the North, rather than in Dublin or London, that it is not frontpage news every day? Is it because the Orangemen of Drumcree have toned down their annual protest that the media fails to turn a spotlight on lower-level attacks that accompany "Orangefest"?

What if, in the US, the Klu Klux Klan demanded a right to march through majority African-American areas regularly? Would banners commemorating those committing brutal racist murders be tolerated? What about the burning of flags with offensive slogans insulting recent victims?

Would their assertion that this is part of "white culture" be taken seriously? Would a series of systematic racist attacks accompanying the marches be largely ignored outside the area where they happen, and would there be a failure to link the two?

Yet the Orange Order engage in these acts for months on end each year. The British government gives both groups money and appoints Orange Order members to a quango that determines where they can march, a quango that the Orange Order does not itself recognise as having the right to determine the conduct of its marches.

Those unionist paramilitaries who have been to the fore in attacking Roman Catholics in the North of Ireland also systematically attacked ethnic minorities in the North last year. They have no problem linking racism and sectarianism.

The victims this year include a Derryman in a wheelchair, who has a muscle-wasting illness.

The unionist attackers concentrated, however, on a 29-year-old attempting to defend the wheelchair victim. They left him for dead. Recently, Damien O'Loan, son of Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, suffered suspected brain damage after a vicious sectarian assault. He said, "They knew I was a Catholic: I was an appropriate target."

And of course unionists beat Ballymena teenager Michael McIlveen to death last May. As journalist Susan McKay wrote recently, "Most of the serious attacks have been on Catholics and several have involved the use of extreme violence". Where is the outrage and, more importantly, the blanket coverage? Why should the victims have to put up with this endless seasonal ritual?

The issue is clear, it is black and white. But with no coverage from more distant media, it has dissolved into shades of grey.

Niall Meehan

Cabra, Dublin 7

Shell pipeline mediation: Truth please on Corrib Gas

Blatant misinformation is currently rife in the media and the Irish Times carries a glaring example in its 28 July issue: Stephen Collins' report states: "Mr Cassells leaves open a number of options, including the prospect of Bord Gais owning the pipeline and renting it to Shell, or building it on an agency basis."

Nowhere in Cassells' report is any of this stated and Cassells refused to be more specific than this when interviewed on RTÉ on 28 July. Furthermore, it is not within the current remit of Bord Gais to do any of this, as confirmed by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources when queried on this.

Imelda Moran, Belmullet, Co Mayo