Irish Are Proud People

I would like to congratulate the Irish for producing such an interesting and informative Irish American newspaper. I am currently visiting the U.S., staying in Boston. I came upon the Irish Voice and I’ve enjoyed reading the articles on Ireland — very different to what we read in newspapers in Britain, where I live.

However, reading the letters “IRA Was Wrong” from Peadar O’Fiach in the September 21-27 issue, I was taken aback at his comments. I felt the same way about the letter from Marilyn McGrath titled “Irish Sickening” in the same issue.

Such sentiments, if coming from Loyalists in the north of Ireland, I might understand, but coming from these two readers whom I should think are Irish-born, or Irish Americans originating from the nationalist community in Ireland are hard to stomach!

O’Fiach is not the only one suffering “memory loss” (his words not mine). At no time was the IRA war directed at Protestants. Indeed, the IRA Belfast commander in the early 1970s was a Protestant, Ivor Bell, and he was only one of several I know of.

O’Fiach has also suffered memory loss regarding the introduction in 1971 of “internment without trial,” the no-jury Diplock Courts, and the unforgettable tragedy and atrocity of Bloody Sunday. There are also a litany of human rights abuses by the Stormont and British governments going back to 1921.

What, however, is surprising is that it took until 1969 for the people to fight back and say, Enough is enough and no more.

O’Fiach is right to say Protestants were killed. Most were members of the hated Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the B Specials, and other Loyalist terror groups involved in random assassination attacks on innocent members of the Catholic community.

The IRA war for national liberation and Irish unity was right and just — but unsuccessful because it was abandoned by the signing of the Bad Friday Agreement, which means yet another generation of young Irish men and women will one day have to continue the struggle where the Provisional IRA left off.

I am only visiting the U.S. so I am unaware of what John Spain wrote regarding Ireland’s contribution to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund. I was in Ireland at the time Katrina struck, and there was nothing but sympathy for those affected by it. Just about everyone wanted to do something to help.

The Irish people are not ungrateful. They are a proud people. Ireland is doing well now, the economy is strong, but Ireland is not “one of the wealthiest nations in the world,” as we have a bit to go yet to make that claim.

I can only suggest to Marilyn McGrath that she has been misinformed. It happens.

Michael Holden, London, England

One Sided Spain

John Spain’s column, “What Was it All For?” in the issue of September 28-October 4 is a miserable pile of excrement.

There was no mention of Unionist atrocities, or UDF/RUC thuggery, Catholics and Nationalists being harassed, burned-out of, or otherwise driven from, their homes.

I hope Spain can look himself in the mirror after writing that one-sided garbage without slashing his throat as he shaves.

Jim Halleran, Cincinnati, Ohio

Adams Is the Man

Love him or hate him, Gerry Adams is the leading politician in Ireland. And the Loyalist leadership is the polar opposite.

Adams has had to walk the tightrope of keeping the more violent members of IRA/Sinn Fein and the tenuous members of the Irish and British governments both walking with him toward a reunited Ireland, and at the same time not do anything that would feed the Loyalist lunatic fringe.

The article in the Irish Voice a few seeks ago concerning the Loyalist riots due to the change in parade route and the rhetoric of their leadership has shown the contrast.

The Democratic Unionists under Ian Paisley are stuck in a 60 year ago time warp with their “no surrender” position. The Loyalist leadership should read the tea leaves and get the best deal they can before it is too late.

If they would take a step back and look, it is obvious that the six counties have been nothing but a problem to the British, and they are looking for a way to get rid of them easily and quietly.

They have cost the lives of young British soldiers, the antics of the Loyalist politicians have been a worldwide embarrassment and the six counties have been a money pit.

The population will shift to a Catholic majority in the next few decades, and with the Celtic Tiger the Irish Republic is not the social and economic step backward that it had been 20 years ago.

The Loyalist leaders of the six counties should meet quietly and decide what they want after a devolved government is formed in the North and what they would like after a united Ireland is formed. Since they will be the minority at some time in the future they should get in place now as many safeguards to their “culture” as possible.

If they seriously want to remain part of the United Kingdom they should show the Catholic/ Republicans that everyone can live together in peace and harmony. It’s their only hope.

England wants to be rid of the headache.

Larry Doyle, Spanish Lake, Missouri

Katrina Doesn’t Equal Iraq

Dermot Murray’s response in the September 28-October 4 issue to my letter concerning John Spain’s article on President Bush and Katrina requires a reply.

He constructed his letter to portray himself as a detached, objective thinker who resides above partisanship. My letter left no doubt that I am a supporter of Bush.

Murray’s clever approach was betrayed, however, by the many Freudian slips dropped all over the place which proves him to be what he accuses me of, a partisan.

Slip one — the mention of Iraq is served up to subliminally connect Katrina and Iraq. This is the big nail that left wing liberals are hoping to drive into Bush’s coffin. Katrina and Iraq — what a stretch.

Slip two — Murray’s sarcastic praise of Bush about his powerful persuasive powers to lead British Prime Minister Tony Blair into an ill-conceived war. Why then, he asks, could he not pressure Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to act decisively.

Think this, Mr. Masked Liberal — what power does a Republican president have against a partisan Democratic governor when he does not have the force of law to back him? If Murray thinks there is an equivalency between persuading someone to do something who agrees with you in principle (as is the case with Blair) and someone who is your avowed political opponent, then he is showing another concealed side of himself beyond his left wing liberalism.

The cliché is an old reliable. Murray said the buck stops at Bush’s desk. He uses this phrase as an all-encompassing absolute of condemnation. In the real world the buck gets divided up all the time.

So finally, Murray says indirectly he is awaiting with baited breath for midterm election for Republican defeats. How about, Mr. Murray, some of that breath in a positive spirit for the re-emergence of New Orleans and Louisiana.

John Rogers, Voorhees, New Jersey

Playing the Flute

Last week’s “Page 2” report contained the information that when Michael Flatley was on stage performing his Celtic Tiger at Madison Square Garden, “you couldn’t take your eyes off him” as “he was playing his flute.”

I thought this was a family newspaper!

Malachy McCourt, New York, New York