Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2005-12-15
A hell of a week
Politicians race to the bottom
It has been a week when some politicians seem to be taking part in their own "race to the bottom". The rest of us can only despair.
On 6 December, Joe Higgins TD appealed in Dáil Éireann for "leave to remain" for 120 Afghans who, very understandably, are terrified of being sent back to their largely undemocratic country, where their lives will be in danger.
In reply, An Taoiseach lauded the Irish asylum system which, he claimed, compared with the best in the world in, inter alia, "support services for asylum seekers".
Neither Bertie Ahern nor Brian Cowen in his budget speech had anything to say about the paltry weekly allowance of €19.10 which our world class system gives to adult asylum seekers. This allowance has remained unchanged since 1999 – has any other group or individual, waged or unwaged, been treated in this way?
More and more asylum seekers will be forced into poverty – they are not allowed work and child benefit payments are denied to all asylum seekers arriving in Ireland since May 2004. We are just making problems for ourselves.
The present levels of €19.10 and €9.60 respectively are coldly calculated, unjust, miserly and a shame on us all.
I fully support the Irish Refugee Council in its call for the Goverment to increase the weekly allowance to a minimum of €49 for adults and to a minimum of €24 for asylum seekers under 18. Such an increase is long overdue.
Then, following the crushing of the Centre for Public Inquiry – has An Taoiseach no control over rampaging members of the PDs? Tánaiste Mary Harney said she thought it "quite sinister and inappropriate" for independent citizens to inquire into the actions of others. She couldn't be more wrong. The way politicians are behaving I believe that groups such as the Centre for Public Inquiry – Fiosrú an Phobail are essential for our welfare. An obvious question some people are asking is: "What have they got to hide?"
SEÁN Ó RIAIN
Gairdíní Bhaile na Lobhar,
Co Bhaile Átha Cliath
Difficult questions
Progressive democracy
Two incidents in the past week highlight the lip service our politicians give to democracy. Mary Harney appeared at the Tallaght Institute of Technology and gave a talk highlighting our great economic successes as a nation. It would appear this success is backed by a discrete form of censorship. Those attending were told not to ask difficult questions. One difficult question that was asked, relating to the possible use of Shannon by the CIA, was fielded in such a way as to avoid any real answering of the question or involvement in discussion.
This was promptly followed by Tom Parlon's appearance on a local station in Meath to promote decentralisation. The corruption of the ensuing poll, designed to take a feel of local opinion, so that it reflected PD policy and protected Parlon's interests, is quite scandalous.
This is not democracy, not in any sense that should be understood by those of us who believe in open debate, accountability, and the will of the people. If this is to be regarded as progressive democracy, we should be very worried about any further participation these politicians have in our government.
Joseph Peelo
Rathgar, Dublin 6
Dáil privilege
Blocking the truth?
The Minister for Justice continues to refuse access to Garda files to the families of the victims of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings and of Seamus Ludlow, who was murdered by loyalists with British Forces connections, on the basis that they are "confidential". Yet "confidential" Garda files can be quoted by the same Minister using Dáil privilege and can be quoted on the front page of a newspaper.
It seems that smearing the Centre for Public Inquiry, which is trying to find the truth behind government scandals, such as the Mayo gas giveaway, is more important to the FF/PD coalition than finding the truth behind the worst massacre in the history of the State and similar sinister killings.
Dessie Ellis
Finglas, Dublin 11
Drugs and violence
Decriminalise all illicit drugs
In a state awash with illicit drugs, it is unbelievable that neither the media nor the politicians seem equipped or willing to encourage an honest, informed debate on the issue of drugs and criminality. For more than 30 years, denial has been the order of the day in Ireland. What little debate currently exists is informed by a minister running a minority agenda who holds power purely by dint of parliamentary arithmetic. Meanwhile, as a testimony to his and his predecessors' ineffectuality, tiny cohorts of young men slaughter one and other at will while spreading addiction and criminality within their already beleaguered communities and the greater society.
But what else might we expect when we tolerate a free market in drugs, generating an estimated $392 billion annually worldwide? Undeniably, there is a massive demand for illicit drugs worldwide and it would appear that no amount of extra policing or resources has thus far stemmed demand or production. (Consider the US dollar spend in Colombia, for example). Yes, the drugs trade is a business like any other business and for that reason we need to have its extremes and excesses regulated and subjected to legal controls for the protection of society.
Therefore, I am with those who advocate the decriminalisation and control of all illicit drugs by the State – in exactly the same manner as tobacco and alcohol. And no, I don't believe this will result in some kind of Junkies' Charter, because I don't see too many people taking up heroin or cocaine as a life choice. As for the tiny minority of poor souls who most certainly would, no longer would they need to be dependent on criminal sources for supply and no longer would that have the need to engage in criminality to finance their habit.
Seo O Luain
Dublin 1
Response to Pierce Martin
World War One and 1916
Pierce Martin tells us that Tom Kettle fought for Britain in World War One because "He believed that a democratised Empire would aid humanity and benefit Ireland." (Village, 8 December)
If wishes were horses, we would all go for a ride. However, this particular horse was a bad bet, and a worse ride, for Tom Kettle when it came to spreading democracy in 1914. It had form. It had, by then, conceded to the extra-parliamentary Ulster revolt against Home Rule, thereby discrediting and making a joke of the much-lauded democracy represented by the House of Commons. Why could "the democratised Empire" not begin with implementing the democratic decisions of its own Parliament? Perhaps Pierce could tell us why not? At the risk of labouring the analogy, this democratising horse fell at the first fence – if not in its own paddock.
And the real Kettle was very different from the figment of Pierce's fantasy. The year before he romanced about Irish unity in a British Army at war for goodness, he ridiculed the Unionists as "a nigger minstrel band". He assured a Home Rule meeting that Ulster would not resist, but that if it did, "the other three and a half provinces will be very glad to ask the army, the navy and the police to stand aside. When a few drafts of Nationalists... have had a little talk with them, the gentlemen of Portadown will be sorry they were ever born". Then in 1914 he urged Nationalists to join the UVF in the British Army, pretending that the Unionists had come to terms with Home Rule, when it was obvious that the Government had assured them that the Home Rule Act would not be implemented. And he persisted in this delusion, even when the Unionists began the takeover of the Government in 1915. He was a political hysteric, given to wild swings of policy with little regard for fact.
Pierce says that Britain and Ireland, and everyone else apparently, were committed to the defence of Belgian neutrality since 1839. It was a great pity therefore that Britain did not make this clear to Germany before it declared war on it. If they had done so Germany, would not have been foolish enough to interfere with Belgian neutrality in its conflict with France. But then if Britain had made its commitment to Belgium's neutrality clear, they would have been denied the propaganda opportunity to put into action their detailed and long planned war on Germany. The secret planning had begun in earnest under the auspices of the Committee on Imperial Defence in 1906 when Prime Minister Asquith joined it.
But maybe Pierce is still one who believes that British governments and their prime ministers tell us the truth about why they go to war on such a regular basis. If so, he is the last man standing in that regard.
I find it very odd that, despite Pierce's lauding of all to do with Britain's role in WW I he introduces a denunciatory note towards the state of Israel, whose genesis in the Balfour Declaration was a crucial element in Britain's efforts to spread that war into the Middle East.
I will have to leave it to readers to unravel Pierce's convoluted explanation of why "the rights of small nations" meant something else and how the "real Irish revolution" of 1916-22 began after the Treaty, i.e. some time after it had actually occurred. And if he still really does need me to explain to him what my attitude might have been to a hypothetical Rising in Cork, then this debate has been totally wasted on him.
Jack Lane
Millstreet, Co Cork
Was 1916 a crime?
Proud of our Republic
Your readers probably realise at this stage that the interminable correspondence from Pierce Martin is chiefly designed to cause maximum offence and provocation, like some similar productions from the Reform Movement.
If he wishes to argue that Generals Maxwell and Sir Henry Wilson were right, that the 1916 leaders (and many more) all deserved to be shot, and that the rebellion was a crime, that is of course his privilege. But it is not individuals who determine what is a crime. It is the State. In honouring each year at Arbour Hill the leaders of the 1916 rebellion, by having a portrait of Pádraic Pearse as well as other leaders like Grattan and Parnell in the Cabinet room, the State endorses the legitimacy of the 1916 Rising, and affirms its attachment to the ideals of the Proclamation (minus taking sides with Imperial Germany). If the people of this State seriously thought otherwise, they would presumably elect parties other than those that now sit in Dáil Eireann.
Pierce Martin also holds the opinion that the British "betrayed" the Catholic Irish (or only those who joined the British forces in the First World War?) by granting Ireland, in negotiation with Michael Collins, a limited independence in 1921, enlarged somewhat thereafter. If so, it is a view little reflected in Irish democratic life since. It is far more the case that Irish ex-servicemen felt betrayed by the auxiliaries and the black and tans.
Finally, he refers to "the lie of an anti-colonial struggle between 1916 and 1923". My father, Nicholas Mansergh, a leading Irish and commonwealth historian, not influenced by the Christian Brothers, stated in a TCD debate in 1965 with James Dillon: "The contribution of Ireland was successively to weaken the will and undermine belief in Empire. Beyond a certain point, it was not worth it. Stanley Baldwin summed it up when he said there must not be another Ireland in India". What historians can Pierce Martin produce to support his analysis?
Arguments against the legitimacy of this State, whether they come from dissident republicans or neo-unionists/Redmondites (the same thing today, though on opposite sides in 1914), are largely a futile debating exercise. People are with few exceptions proud of their Republic, including its origins, and no amount of captious argument is likely to persuade them otherwise.
Martin Mansergh
Seanad Éireann
Irish Ferries
Irish Ferries should be re-nationalised
The magnificent demonstration of worker power on Friday on the national day of protest shows clearly the view of working people generally. There must be no compromise with Irish Ferries' plans to replace workers on trade union pay and conditions with exploited migrant workers.
If Irish Ferries management persists with its plan for "bonded labour" on its ships, it should be answered with a 24-hour national stoppage and demonstration which would put even the brilliant turnout on Friday in the shade. This would be a firm warning to all employers that there will be no toleration of an offensive by them against decent wages and working conditions.
The attack on decent wages and conditions in Irish Ferries represents a threat to the position of all workers in the State, whether Irish or migrant.
There is also another vital consideration – the strategic need for an island state to have a skilled maritime industry to transport people and goods. This should no longer be left in the hands of employers whose only consideration is the pursuit of super profits at any cost.
Irish Ferries should be re-nationalised – taken back into public ownership with workers at the core of its operations and management. This would ensure the protection of wages and conditions and also guarantee the maintenance of a crucial maritime expertise.
Joe Higgins, TD
Dáil Éireann
Statement: Stealth tax introduced to buy carbon credits
The allocation of €20 million to a Carbon Fund by Minister Cowen in last week's budget is a stealth tax on consumers. The fund will be used to buy pollution credits to make up for the fact that Ireland's carbon emissions are running at twice the level of increase we are allowed under the Kyoto Protocol. Last week's announcement is the inevitable consequence of the Govern-ment's abandonment of the carbon tax a year ago.
This is the thin end of the wedge for income tax payers. Instead of a transparent carbon tax on the polluter, we have a stealth tax on the ordinary consumer. It may only be €20 million in 2006, but the government's own consultants reckon it's more likely to be €50 to €100 million per year from 2008. A carbon tax would have reduced our Kyoto overshoot in the first place. And secondly it would have raised the revenue to buy out the balance.
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth, 9 Upr Mount St, Dublin 2 www.foe.ie
Statement: 'Tis the season for brutal killing
In this Christian and supposedly civilised country there will be widespread cruelty inflicted on wild animals over the Christmas holiday season. This reaches a peak on St Stephen's day, which is a traditional time for hunts meets and hare coursing events.
On this day, there will be an increased countrywide organised assault on our already hard-pressed wildlife by a minority of the population.
No Christmas respite is given to wildlife by bloodsports followers who ruthlessly violate them by their obscene actions. In a sense, bloodsports are a pursuit that allows human beings a holiday from being human.
The actions of the Irish hare coursing community have been well documented. Many hares will end their lives for the Christmas entertainment of people who are strangers to compassion and respect for life.
The fox hunting community uses the St Stephen's day meets as a major public relations exercise. The public is shown the Christmas card image of fox-hunting, red-coated riders throwing back glasses of hot port surrounded by packs of big lovable hounds who demand affection.
What is kept hidden is the sole reason for this gathering that is to hunt down, terrorise and kill one of nature's most harmless animals: the fox.
Foxhunting with packs of hounds is organised, pre-meditated animal cruelty. There is no justification for it, whether on moral, economic or cultural grounds.
It is difficult to understand how these people can square the Christian message of kindness and compassion, which prevails at Christmas with the brutality and degeneracy that lie at the core of bloodsports.
It is now time for our legislators to act to outlaw bloodsports. The presence of bloodsports in society is a disgrace. It has no role in what purports to be an enlightened and environmentally friendly society.
Our wildlife is part of our precious heritage and we keep it in trust for future generations. No one group pleading "tradition" and "culture" for their barbaric practices should be allowed to inflict terror and death on wild animals for their own perverse pleasure.
John Tierney
Campaigns Director, Association of Hunt Saboteurs, PO Box 4734, Dublin 1